Quinn elevates place on podium to lead PAC’s five PIAA medalists

HERSHEY >> Its name was as fitting as it was appropriate.

The “elevator,” Connor Quinn’s signature move, gave him a timely lift Saturday. It brought the Owen J. Roberts senior back from a three-point deficit to an overtime victory in the 160-pound weight class’ fifth-place bout at the PIAA Class AAA tournament.

Quinn rode the “elevator” to force a 7-7 regulation-time draw with Waynesburg Central’s Luca Augustine, scoring three back points to erase Augustine’s 7-4 lead. In OT, he got a takedown and two more back points to seal his first state medal in his third and final trip to the state tournament.

“I was waiting for the opportunity to hit the move,” Quinn recalled. “He (Augustine) was in deep, and his hips were up. It was the perfect scenario.”

It was the perfect cap to what started out as an up-and-down day at the Giant Center. Quinn (34-5) started out with a 4-3 decision of Council Rock North’s Dillon Sheehy. He then went up against Kiski Area’s Jack Blumer in a bid to qualify for the third-place bout, only to lose 9-1.

Quinn went 4-2 at Hershey, starting Thursday with a 6-5 decision of Carlisle’s Colton Zimmerman. He was dropped into wrestlebacks in Friday’s quarterfinal round by Augustine, 7-5, but rebounded with a 5-3 decision of Bellefonte’s Ethan Richner.

“This one was a grind,” Quinn said. “It’s the first time I’ve been close to 100 percent healthy. This year, I took a different approach, having fun and not being too serious to the point where you don’t wrestle your best.”

Physical ailments dogged Quinn through his senior season, a factor in him sitting out matches around midseason. They didn’t get in the way of him finishing as a champions in both the District 1-AAA North and South East AAA Regional tournaments.

“Compared to my other two (seasons), it wasn’t as bad this year,” he said. “My main goal was to get myself here, and be in the best shape. The time off helped.”

Joey Milano’s Hershey experience was more akin to a roller coaster. The Spring-Ford junior was up, then down, then up again, then down again as he placed fourth at 182 for the highest finish by the combined five-man medalist contingent from the Pioneer Athletic Conference.

Milano closed out a 47-3 season with a 5-2 loss to Nazareth’s Drew Clearie. He rode a 1-0 lead into the third period, only to see Clearie score a late reversal and three-back points to spoil his plans for upgrading from last year’s fourth-place state finish.

Milano displayed a ton of heart in rebounding from Friday’s quarterfinal loss to Gerrit Nijenhuis, a senior from Canon-McMillan and Class AAA’s 2019 170-pound state champion Friday. He opened Saturday with a 5:00 technical fall of Easton’s Isaiah Reimert, putting him up against Downingtown West’s Maximus Hale to get into third-place bout.

It was Hale who handed Milano (47-2) his first loss of the season in last weekend’s South East AAA Regional 182-pound title bout. This time, Milano took charge early.

Milano got 3-1 lead before Hale tied the match at 3-3 in the closing minute of regulation. Joey worked for a takedown of Hale as time expired in overtime, but couldn’t get it done ahead of the clock. He worked an escape for the bottom in the second OT, then kept pressure on Hale rest of way to consign the Whippet upper weight to the fifth-place match.

“Joey came back and got a nice win on Hale,” Spring-Ford head coach Tim Seislove noted.

Antonio Petrucelli ended his scholastic career on a winning note, scoring a 6-3 win on Seneca Valley’s Antonio Amelio. Owen J. Roberts’ 145-pounder experienced his own roller-coaster weekend, starting with a 5-0 loss to Connellsville’s Jared Keslar before racing up decisions on Mifflin County’s Ethan Kauffman (5-0) and Bensalem’s Connor Eck (9-2).

“Even after Thursday,” he said. “I wanted to wrestle back to third. I definitely wanted to end on a win.”

A 3-0 loss to Franklin Regional’s Mason Spears consigned him to the seventh-place match. But it couldn’t stop “Tote” — the name by which he’s known to teammates and other acquaintances — from a 3-2 tournament, 40-6 season record and finishing as the Wildcat mat program’s career win leader with 149.

“It hasn’t sunken in that it’s over,” Petrucelli said. “I’m still thinking Monday I’ll have practice after school. It’s surreal.”

Petrucelli figures to take some time off prior to reporting to the University of Pittsburgh for training. Participation in Northeast Regional and freestyle tournaments is under consideration.

“Antonio is a real blue-collar kid,” OJR head coach Steve DeRafelo said. “He loves to work. He’s willing to do the hard stuff.”

Spring-Ford’s Jack McGill also finished his junior season on a winning note, with a 3-2 decision of Central Dauphin’s Tye Weathersby in the 152-pound seventh-place bout. It was his first medal performance at Hershey after two previous DNPs (did not place).

“That was the plan, to climb up a bit,” McGill said. “Last year I made it to the ‘blood round’. My goal was definitely to make the podium.”

McGill (45-9) was topped by Hatboro-Horsham’s A.J. Tamburrino, 6-3, in Saturday’s action. It proved a minor bump on his way to a medal finish.

“I felt more confident,” he said. “Last year I was nervous. I knew I had the talent to get there.”

A third Spring-Ford qualifier, Louie Carbajal, ended up eighth at 195 after being pinned in the second period of his medal bout with Central Dauphin’s Jackson Talbott. The Ram senior still enjoyed his first trip to Hershey for the PIAA’s individual competition, having been here with his team for several PIAA Class AAA Duals competitions.

“I felt confident,” he said. “The last match just didn’t go my way.”

Spring-Ford finished 18th in the team standings with 33 points. Roberts tied with Carlisle and Cedar Cliff for 37th place, all three with 20 points.

“Coming out here with three medals, that’s fantastic,” Seislove said. “All the kids wrestled hard. They showed a lot of heart.”

NOTES >> DeRafelo on his Petrucelli/Quinn tandem’s performance: “These are two awesome kids to coach. They’ve experienced some losses up here, but they don’t realize how many kids haven’t experienced this. They can’t appreciate yet what they’ve accomplished in their high school careers, but it will happen.” … Stroudsburg’s Lenny Pinto, the 170-pound champion, was selected as Class AAA’s Wrestler of the Year. … Bethlehem Catholic, the lone AAA program to have two weight-class champions, was the team champion.