Austin DeSanto knew he had a tough challenge.
To win a gold medal in the 120-pound weight class of the PIAA Championships, DeSanto had to first overcome the formidable obstacle of two-time state champ Spencer Lee. The Franklin Regional junior, though just 11-0 this season due to a shoulder injury, has gone 108-0 through his three-year scholastic career.
Nothing changed in that regard. Lee remained both perfect and a state champ by racking up a 15-0 technical fall in 3:43, consigning DeSanto to a silver-medal showing at the Giant Center.
“There was stuff I could have done on my feet,” DeSanto (50-1) said after sustaining the lone blemish to his showing for the 2015-16 season. “I think I was too excited. ”
DeSanto’s runner-up finish was the best for an Exeter contingent that brought four wrestlers to Hershey, but had only two reach the medal podium. Brent Kulp closed out his career with the Eagles by placing fourth at 132, blanked in the third-place bout by Hempfield Area’s Luke Kemerer, 2-0.
Another Berks Conference wrestler, Governor Mifflin’s Dylan Harr, finished sixth at 195 after a 3-0 loss to Mifflin County’s Trey Hartsock. And in the 220-pound weight class, Daniel Boone’s Jesse Enck came away with a seventh-place medal off a 3-2 overtime decision of Quakertown’s Gavin Caroff.
