Pennridge takes 1st at SOL Continental Championships, qualifies 13 for districts

EAST ROCKHILL >> Colin Shannon left the Suburban One League Continental Conference Championships the past two seasons having to settle for silver.

But Saturday afternoon at Pennridge High school, a third-period rally put gold in the North Penn junior grasp, with Shannon needing to ride out Quakertown’s Tanner Seislove in the last 30 seconds of the 152-pound final to secure the decision.

“Lot of nerves there, too, cause it came down to the wire there,” Shannon said. “But I held it in and clinched the victory.”

Shannon kept his grip of Seislove and earned his first conference crown, claiming an 11-10 victory for the Knights’ third championship final win on the day.

“Obviously, there’s just a lot of nerves just circling around me right now, especially after being in the hole, feeling like I need to catch up,” Shannon said. “Once I finally got my win, didn’t stop, I still had to hold him down to clinch it. But I got to give all my props to Tanner. He’s a hard-nosed wrestler, he gave it his all.”

Mikey O’Brien — who was named Most Outstanding Wrestler for his three pinfall wins — and Ryan Vulakh won gold at 145 and 132, respectively, for the conference regular season champ Knights, but host Pennridge’s depth proved to much to overcome Saturday. The Rams had five wrestlers win championship finals and had 13 qualify for districts as they won the meet for the fourth straight season with 174 points.

“I think the team took it as a challenge. We wanted to come here and win, especially after we really didn’t do what we wanted to during the dual season,” Pennridge senior Kordell Rush said. “And we really came out, wrestled strong. We only got one guy not moving on next week, so looking good.”

North Penn was second at 142 points while Quakertown was third at 112.5.

Rush picked his third straight Continental title with a 6-1 decision over North Penn’s Sofiane Bensmail at 126. The Rams’ Joshua Stillings (160), Kyle Gentile (182) and Andrew Reinhold (195) all claimed gold with decision in their respective finals while Matt Parker took first at 113 with a 18-6 major decision over Central Bucks South’s Raymond Calderaio.

Top four finishers from SOL Continental advance to the District 1-AAA East Tournament Saturday at Quakertown to compete against wrestlers from both the SOL National and Del-Val League.

After the Pennridge baker’s dozen, North Penn had eight qualifiers, Hatboro-Horsham had seven, Souderton six and Central Bucks West three.

With just three wrestlers at 285 pounds, there was a lot of downtime for Hatboro-Horsham’s Matt Chapman, which was not exactly a great thing for the senior.

“It’s real hard wrestling with three people in a bracket,” he said. “You don’t have a lot of matches that day, but it really hard to sit around and then trying to get up and wrestle. It’s really hard.”

Chapman, the top-seeded heavyweight, competed just once Saturday but came through in his lone match, topping Justin Correa in the final by a 7-5 decision for his first SOL Continental title.

“I wrestled him during the season a few times,” Chapman said. “So pretty well known the both of us just going at it, knowing what each other (can) do.”

For the Knights, O’Brien cemented his Most Outstanding wrestling honor by pinning Central Bucks East’s Ryan Chalifoux at 3:15. Freshman Vulakh, meanwhile, collected his first postseason title with a 7-1 decision over Evan Widing at 132. Vulakh had reached the final with a pair of tech falls.

“It was go out, wrestle my style, adapt if I have to,” said Vulakh of his match with Widing.

Souderton had a pair of lightweights reach the top of the podium. Freshman Tyler Williams took gold at 106 with a 4-2 decision over Quakertown’s Josh Stahl. And after picking up bronze the last two years at the meet, Big Red junior Brandon Bach won at 120, besting CB South’s Nicholas Polinchock by 12-1 major decision.

Stillings claimed the 160 title for Pennridge with a 9-3 decision over Souderton’s Thomas Michaels. Senior Gentile won his third conference gold with a 6-1 decision over Nick Bonomo of Quakertown. Reinhold earned Pennridge’s fifth championship final win at 195 with his 10-4 decision over North Penn’s Owen Verespy.

Ryan Tiernan had Central Bucks West’s best finish taking silver at 138 after falling to Central Bucks East’s Michael Driver 8-3.