Home Cooking: With 6 golds, Boyertown reclaims PAC-10 team championship

BOYERTOWN >> It was a memorable way to close out a home-match schedule for the year.

And a perfect start to a post-season tournament run that could shape up as one of the best in program history.

Boyertown again hosted the Pioneer Athletic Conference’s annual individual tournament Saturday. The Bears as a whole, and their senior wrestlers in particular, marked the occasion with a final dominating performance before a hometown crowd.

With 11 finalists among its 13 medal-round qualifiers, Boyertown finished with six champions in a field where nobody finished lower than third in his bracket. Bear seniors Gregg Harvey and Jordan Wood marked their curtain call by repeating as PAC champions — Wood for a fourth year, Harvey for a third time — as did junior Jakob Campbell, who headed the 113-pound class after two years atop 106.

In the process, the Bears reclaimed the PAC’s team championship from Spring-Ford. It did so with a point total 100 more than the second-place Rams and the rest of the field.

“This was our last one, so it was time to let it fly,” Wood said before joining his teammates for a final teardown of the mats. “The seniors knew what to do. They went out and  had fun.”

“It was a nice way to go out,” Harvey added. “This being my senior year, I was happy to share the experience of the last match at home.”

David Campbell (120), J.T. Cooley (138) and Tommy Killoran (285) also struck gold for the Bears while Lucas Miller (126), Garrett Mauger (132), Hunter Vogels (152), Elijah Jones (170) and Brody O’Connell (195) came away with silver. Matt Wilde (106) and Chris Berry (145) scored bronze in their divisions.

Their combined efforts added up to 278 team points, well ahead of Spring-Ford (178.5) and Owen J. Roberts (175.5). In fact, the Bears had enough points going into the medal matches to effectively sew up the team title.

“With 11 guys in the finals, it was going to be hard. We had a huge lead,” head coach Pete Ventresca said. “The kids wrestled good in the semis.”

Wood (39-1) was his usual overpowering self at 220, pinning his way through the field in a combined time of three minutes, 24 seconds. The three falls put his scholastic total at 100, the occasion marked by presentation of a plaque after his final-round bout with Owen J. Roberts’ Connor Mitchell.

“It was a good feeling to reach the milestone in my last high-school match at home,” the defending AAA state champion said. “It’s a good way to go out.”

Harvey (43-5) dominated the 182-pound field in near-equal fashion, scoring two technical falls and coming one point short of doing so in his opening match. He scored a combined 76 points while yielding 32 in his catch-and-release strategy toward the top step on the medal stand.

“I basically feel the other guy out to see what I have going on,” he said. “If I can turn him, I will. If I can’t, I’ll let him up and take him down.”

The only designation Boyertown didn’t claim was the tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler award. That went to Owen J. Roberts freshman Dan Mancini, who handled some top-flight talent en route to winning the 126-pound gold medal.

Mancini (25-8) advanced to the finals with a 10-3 decision of Spring-Ford’s Jimmy Frank, qualifying him for a rematch with Boyertown’s Lucas Miller. A 2-1 winner over Miller during their dual-match encounter, Mancini handled Boyertown’s state-medalist senior, 7-2.

“Obviously, I think he wrestled well enough in the finals to give himself a chance,” Mancini’s head coach, Steve DeRafelo, said. “He performed at a very high level against experienced wrestlers.

“Sometimes that’s tough. The first time, he caught him by surprise. The second time, he did what he had to do.”

While enjoying the championship medal, Mancini kept the moment in the perspective of a higher goal.

“This doesn’t mean as much as getting a Hershey (state) medal,” he said. “It puts me one step closer. I’ve got to keep improving.”

Mancini was one of three OJR champions, joined by Ryan Resnick (132) and Xavier Ferrizzi (195). Resnick (31-6) topped Boyertown’s Garrett Mauger 4-2 while Ferrizzi (7-1) blanked the Bears’ Brody O’Connell 4-0.

“There were a couple we got, and a couple we’d wished we’d got,” DeRafelo said in regard to his 10-man medal crew. “Overall, the kids wrestled well. There were a couple question marks because of injuries.”

Jakob Campbell (28-3) got Boyertown’s gold-medal parade started with a 14-1 major decision of Upper Perkiomen’s Jarek Svanson. His twin brother, David, followed at 120 with a tighter 3-1 verdict over Spring-Ford’s Hunter Mitch.

“I’m always looking to score as many points as possible,” Jakob said. “I’m trying to get better at the little things.”

David, in turn, had to work to maintain his head-to-head dominance over Mitch.

“It’s always back and forth,” he noted. “I’m 3-0 against him, but it was a dogfight this match.”

Cooley (28-14) was in more of a dogfight with Pottstown’s Logan Pennypacker after riding a first-period pin and a major decision into the finals. They went to overtime before Cooley got a 2-1 decision.

“I knew I had to keep moving forward, and take the pace,” he said. “He (Pennypacker) definitely moved more this time. We wrestled three times before, and I came out on top all three times, but he knows how to keep it close.”

After Harvey and Wood showed their stuff, Killoran (33-7) gave the Boyertown crowd one final moment to cheer. He scored a first-period pin on Spring-Ford’s Matt Lepore for a measure of revenge, having lost the PAC title to graduated Ram Zach Dorsey last year.

Pottstown and Spring-Ford each came away with two individual champions. Brandon Meredith (106) and Steve Rice (170) headed a list of 11 Rams who qualified for districts, and Bryant Wise (145) and Mason Pennypacker (152) topped the seven Trojans in the medal hunt.

Wise (23-3) edged Methacton’s Bryce Reddington 3-2, and Pennypacker (27-4) followed with a 7-5 verdict over Boyertown’s Hunter Vogels. Meredith (28-6) went overtime to prevail over OJR’s Luke Resnick 5-3 while Rice (30-3) repeated as his weight-class champion with a 9-1 decision of Boyertown’s Elijah Jones.

Rounding out the PAC champions was Upper Perk’s Michael Felix (25-7), who decisioned Methacton’s Bryce Reddington by a 6-4 count at 160.

NOTES >> Pottsgrove had a pair of bronze medalists in Chase Banyai (113) and Kylif Underwood (126). Perkiomen Valley’s top finisher was Matthew Kenney, third at 285, while Phoenixville’s lone medalist was Tanner Romance at 182. … The top five from each weight class qualify for the District 1-AAA West tourney next weekend, hosted again by Spring-Ford. … Pope John Paul II, with one PAC medalist — Nick Yerger, fourth at 132 — will be part of the District 1-AA tournament next weekend at Oxford.