Several locals enjoy a sweet finish at Southeast Regional
FRANCONIA — Souderton Area’s Ben Beckett endured some unexpected detours on his path to Hershey, but that still didn’t keep the Big Red senior from reaching his ultimate destination.
Becket dug deep and punched his ticket to states, pulling out a thrilling 9-8 decision over Pennsbury’s Mason Keller in the fifth-place match at 172 pounds as Saturday night’s Southeast Regional at Souderton Area drew to a climactic finish.
“It feels great,” Beckett said with a big smile. “It was back and forth, a fight to the end. It was tiring but you gotta pull it out in the end.”
Beckett and several local standouts fulfilled their dreams of reaching the big match at the Giant Center, and Beckett’s battle against Keller served as a microcosm of his season thus far.
“I started off the season not in a great place, and then I got injured and I was out for a couple months there,” he shared. “I just came back a couple weeks ago and made the hard push to make it to states and do my best at the end of the year.”
Of what made the difference for him, Beckett pointed to: “just getting that stall call and pushing the pace against him. I kept pushing the pace and getting those points. Right at the end I got the escape, and I was fighting off his attacks.”
Cracking the top five is no easy feat, and Pennridge’s Cole Coffin surged to the third-place spot at 114 pounds, pinning Council Rock South’s Luke Reitter in 3 minutes, 57 seconds.
“It felt good. I showed some character coming back from the quarterfinal loss and it took some grit, so I’m happy about it,” said Coffin.
The junior’s performance helped the Rams finish second in the team standings. After that quarterfinal loss to the eventual champion, Chris Dennis of Central Bucks West, Coffin responded with four straight victories, including the second-period fall against Reitter.
Said Coffin of what was key for him: “I locked up my cradle – that’s my bread and butter.”
“I wanna get as high as I can on the podium,” he said of states. “I don’t wanna hold anything back – just go out there and wrestle my best.”
Also from the area, Isaac Williams of Quakertown advanced out of 114, placing fifth with a pin of Downingtown West’s Chase Sigle in 5:51.
Collin Goetter of Central Bucks South is also Hershey-bound, thanks to his fourth-place finish at 285. Goetter dug deep for a 3-1 win over Temitayo Seyi-David of Lower Merion to advance to the third-place match.
Gavin Carroll of Quakertown and Jake Neill of Central Bucks South are both going at 139 pounds – the two had a tremendous duel in the third-place match, with Carroll securing a 2-1 victory.
“It’s my first time going out to Hershey so I’m excited,” said a happy Carroll. “It was good to get that one back (against Neill, who won the previous match-up between the two at districts). I was able to ride him out on top and I also didn’t give up a take-down.”
