It took Pottstown’s wrestling team a little time to get rolling this winter.
But once they did, the Trojans are now riding the momentum as long as they can.
Pottstown started out Dec. 16 with a 45-24 loss to Spring-Ford. The PAC-10 opener for both teams proved to also be the Trojans’ first foray on the mats this winter, coming off a 10-10 campaign in 2014-15 during which they won only one of their first six appearances.
Their next outing was a 31-30 loss to Downingtown West, one where the locals came up short despite taking the last three bouts. Trailing 31-18 prior to its stretch run, Pottstown collected only 12 of the 18 points available from those bouts when it was held to a pair of decisions and a pin.
“Those were both winnable matches,” head coach Brad Bechtel said. “For Spring-Ford, we didn’t have all our guys. We have 17 football guys who didn’t get into the (wrestling) room until Dec. 1.”
Over the winter break, Pottstown made its annual visit to Shillington for the Governor Mifflin Holiday Tournament. It came away with second place in the team standings, headed by Bryant Wise’s silver-medal finish at 145 and Logan Pennypacker’s third-place showing at 138.
Five other Trojans also came away with medals from the two-day tourney. Saddiq Ibn-Mustafah (160), Isaiah Mayes (170) and Ernest McCalvin (182) all finished fourth, Mason Pennypacker (152) fifth and William “Bubba” Gephart (120) sixth.
“We’re pretty solid this year,” Logan said. “We’ve shown a lot of promise. The guys on the team are pushing each other, working to win every second on the mats.”
This past week, Pottstown and Pottsgrove enhanced their annual rivalry match with an event christened the “Border Battle.” The Trojans scored a 46-24 victory in the “Battle,” which featured the presentation of a traveling trophy between the schools, Outstanding Wrestler awards to grapplers from both teams, and the districts’ middle-school teams wrestling alongside their high-school counterparts in Strom Gymnasium.
Pottstown then took its 2-1 record to the Octorara Duals this past weekend. It rolled to victories over Indian River, Del. (54-26), Schuylkill Valley (52-21), the host Braves (67-6) and Marple Newtown (50-27) in pool competition to qualify for the duals’ championship match with New Oxford.
Pottstown came out on the short side of a 42-33 score, but not before reducing an initial 36-6 deficit by winning five of the last six weights. Gephart (120), Logan and Mason Pennypacker and Wise all scored pins while Nathaniel Parson added a 3-1 decision at 126.
“We racked up points at Octorara,” Bechtel noted. “After the first four matches, we had 27 pins … 17 of them in the first period.”
Not all the Trojans’ focus has been on team achievement, either.
Logan Pennypacker and Wise came into the season within close reach of the 100-win mark for their scholastic careers, and both reached the mark during the Octorara weekend. Logan went into the Duals with 99 wins, Wise with 98.
Logan got his 100th in Pottstown’s first match with Indian River, scoring a first-period pin at 138 that got the Trojans started toward the victory. Wise hit the 100 mark in the next match with Schuylkill Valley, putting up a major decision.
“A lot of coaches were asking about that,” Bechtel said of the near-simultaneous milestone achievements. The Trojan seniors became the eighth and ninth wrestlers in the Pottstown program to reach the 100-win plateau … and there is still another teammate in position to match that feat this season,
Logan’s twin brother, Mason, is also in reach of the 100-win mark this winter. Mason went into the Octorara Duals with 83 wins and swept his five bouts to finish the weekend at 88.
“We’re really excited and working hard,” Mason said after his medal finish in the Governor Mifflin Tournament. “Coming in mornings, doing two-a-days … it’s really paying off.”
Pottstown’s current surge figures to be bolstered by the addition of another wrestler to its varsity lineup. Tyler Clifford, a freshman, filled out the previously-vacant 113 pound weight class at Octorara, winning twice.
Clifford’s presence leaves the Trojans with just a vacancy at 106.
“Our 113-pounder finally made it into the lineup,” Bechtel said. “That’s energized us, knowing we’re not forfeiting the two lower weights.”
Pottstown’s lineup strength has been centered in the middle weights (138-145-152) where Logan Pennypacker (12-1), Wise (11-1) and Mason Pennypacker (11-2) reside. Yet there are other Trojans showing their stuff elsewhere.
Mayes is 12-2 wrestling around the 170 and 182 divisions. McCalvin is a solid 9-4 at 182 and 195, Gephart 8-4 at 120, Jimmie Zazzie 7-5 at 285 and Saddiq Ibn-Mustafah 7-7 at 160 and 170.
“Mayes is having a great year. He’s working hard,” Bechtel noted. “Bubba is wrestling in probably one of the toughest weight classes around, and Zazzie is more focused on wrestling after taking off his junior year to concentrate on football.
“Ibn-Mustafah has been wrestling tough kids, but he’s strong as an ox.”
This week, Pottstown puts its 5-3 record up against Pope John Paul II Wednesday and defending PAC regular-season champ Boyertown Thursday. It will then go the “duals” route again, visiting Kennett Saturday.
It’s all with hopes of being selected for the District 1 Duals Tournament’s Class AAA field later this month. Bechtel is hoping his Trojan grapplers can “open some eyes” of the coaches on the selection committee when they convene around the weekend of Jan. 22-24 to establish the field.
“I’m hoping the guys who select the tournament teams look at us as wrestling tough top to bottom,” he said.
FANTASTIC FRESHMEN
Proving to be precocious on the mats, three ninth-graders are making indelible marks on their Pioneer Athletic Conference programs this season.
Spring-Ford has Dirk Nugent sporting a 12-3 record thus far, with classmate Shane Reynolds going 5-0 to date. In Bucktown, Owen J. Roberts’ Dan Mancini is 12-4, his latest win a gritty 2-1 verdict over Boyertown’s Lucas Miller — a state-level medalist last winter, placing fifth in the PIAA Class AAA’s 126-pound division — that got his team on the scoreboard in an eventual 51-6 loss to the Bears.
““That’s a big-time win for him,” OJR coach Steve DeRafelo said of Mancini, who’s won seven of his bouts by pin. “He’s making changes already … adjustments to his stance. We’re happy for him.”
Reynolds has also been a pinning force for Spring-Ford, with four falls among his five wins.
FALL GUYS
Through the first month of the 2015-16 season, Jordan Wood is maintaining a high pin production.
Wood (18-1) racked up 14 pins through Boyertown’s match with Owen J. Roberts Saturday. That keeps the Bear senior the area’s lone double-figure fall producer, followed by four other wrestlers tied for second place at nine.
The logjam in the second spot includes Wood’s Boyertown teammates, J.T. Cooley (13-9) and Tommy Killoran (15-4), alongside Owen J. Roberts’ Bill Scherfel (9-6) and Phoenixville’s Mark Cermanski (11-2).
