Gettysburg turned in a school-record performance at last season’s district wrestling championships. It turns out that showing may have been less about making history and more about glimpsing the future.
The Warriors recorded another record-setting effort in their latest outing at the District 3 Class 3A Wrestling Championships, as Gettysburg placed six wrestlers on the podium Saturday at Spring Grove High School. It propelled the Warriors to a second-place finish in the team standings behind Central Dauphin.
Five Gettysburg wrestlers—four of them underclassmen—placed fourth or higher, earning spots in the PIAA Championships beginning March 9. That number bests the four that the Warriors sent to Hershey a year ago.
“It’s the process,” Gettysburg coach Chris Haines said. “We’re real big on the endgame of having success at the high school level, and we don’t measure success at our younger age groups as these kids come up through. We just want to keep building and every year just keep adding to it.”
The Warriors’ success was nowhere more evident than in the consolation semifinals, otherwise known as the blood round. Five Gettysburg wrestlers competed in the high-pressure, go-to-states-or-go-home round, with four of them winning.
“You gotta want to move on, flat-out,” Haines said. “Blood rounds are designed for the people who are willing to do whatever it takes to move on, to achieve their goals, and to survive another week. We had an amazing blood round where our guys left it on the mat to make sure they move on.”
Senior Tyler Withers, who placed third at 189 pounds, was among the blood-round victors. His bracket, which featured a pair of hammers in champion Tucker Hogan of Daniel Boone and runner-up Cole Bartram of Northern, left little room for error. After Withers dropped a 10-4 semifinal decision to Bartram to fall into the consy bracket, he registered a 53-second pin of Cumberland Valley’s Anthony Bruscino to claim his spot at states.
Withers then ended on a high note with a wire-to-wire 6-1 win over Chambersburg’s Aiden Hight in the third-place match.
“I was excited that (Hogan and Bartram) were in my weight class,” Withers said. “I thought it was going to be a fun tournament, but I knew it was going to be tough in this weight class. It wasn’t easy but it was exciting.”
Also winning in the consolation semifinals were freshmen William Yordy (107) and Isaiah Jackson (114) and junior Jaxson Townsend (160). Yordy scored his second win in two weeks against York Suburban’s Justin Adams in the consy semis, then turned around and registered his second pin of the weekend against Elco’s Ashton Kriss in the third-place match. Both Jackson and Townsend finished fourth.
The Warriors’ highest placer, junior Gabe Pecaitis, avoided the consolation bracket altogether. He put together a nice win over Ephrata senior Tanner McCracken, the Section 1 champ, in the morning’s semifinal round. Pecaitis registered takedowns within the first 15 seconds of both the first and second periods, claiming a 4-2 win that secured him a spot in both the district final and the state tournament.
The run was stopped in the final, though, where Pecaitis met Central York junior Elias Long for the second straight week. Long had edged Pecaitis, 4-2, in the Section 4 title bout, but this meeting took a different look. Long went hunting takedowns—and found them—almost from the opening whistle, and he recorded four for the bout. The result was an 11-1 major decision for the Panther grappler.
“I got thrown off a bit because I warmed up way too early,” Pecaitis said. “I can’t really make any excuses, though, because I just didn’t wrestle my best. I didn’t take as many shots as I wanted to.”
Despite the defeat in the title match, Pecaitis will be headed to Giant Center for the second straight year, the only of the Warrior contingent to be making a return trip. He’s happy to see a new batch of Warriors making the journey, and looking forward to adding to the number.
“It’s really important because we have a bunch of younger kids who are making the move next year,” Pecaitis said. “This is going to keep that chain going and keep everyone working. We want to get every single person on our team to this point.”
Gettysburg’s final place-winner was senior Dalton Redden, who placed fifth at 145 pounds. He secured a 7-2 win over Hempfield’s Braden Edwards in the fifth-place match.
The lone New Oxford wrestler remaining Saturday, senior Jerry Dattoli, was stopped in the consolation round of four at 127, one round shy of the blood round.
District 3 Class 3A Championships
Friday & Saturday – Spring Grove H.S.
Top 4 finishers at each weight class advance to PIAA Championships
Team standings: 1. Central Dauphin 136, 2. Gettysburg 103, 3. Boiling Springs 94.5, 4. Chambersburg 91, 5. Central York 83, 6. Wilson 68, 7. Daniel Boone 60.5, 8. JP McCaskey 59, T9. Cumberland Valley & Northern 56
Championship Semifinals
107-Beard (CD) p. Will Yordy (Get), 2:46; Speece (Wil) d. Montes (CuV), 5-1; 114-Kae. Williams (MT) p. Budman (Mech), 1:03; Keiffer (MC) d. Zeigler (CCl), 11-5; 121-Garcia (Wil) d. Tocci (War), 5-4; Houser (DB) d. Clawson (PM), 16-12; 127-Mack (Hem) p. Key (Dal), :55; T. Adams (YS) d. Mentzer (Cham), 9-4; 133-Fratelli (Nor) md. Mitchell (CuV), 10-1; Fulton (Sol) d. Bounds (BoS), 8-2; 139-Long (CY) d. Reynolds (CD), 9-3; Gabriel Pecaitis (Get) d. McCracken (Eph), 4-2; 145-Repos (CD) md. Dalton Redden (Get), 8-0; Swann (Coc) p. Edwards (Hem), 4:16; 152-Garvick (CD) d. Belga (CuV), 5-1; Duggan (BoS) d. Gonzalez (Leb), 9-2; 160-Frontino (Ship) d. Beers (CD), 6-2; Barbush (MC) d. Jaxon Townsend (Get), 11-7; 172-Myers (CY) md. DeAngelo (Car), 12-4; Olavarria (JPM) d. Eidle (Wil), 8-1; 189-Hogan (DB) d. Hight (Cham), 10-3; Bartram (Nor) d. Tyler Withers (Get), 10-4; 215-Garcia (JPM) p. Conover (SG), 3:07; Evans (Cham) d. McMillan (Wil), 3-2; 285-Schmick (Car) p. Spahr (LS), 1:34; Brotzman (Don) d. Winchester (TV), 3-1
Fifth Place
107-Montes (CuV) d. J. Adams (YS), 5-3; 114-Budman (Mech) p. Zeigler (CCl), 4:02; 121-Kam. Williams (MT) fft. over Clawson (PM); 127-Key (Dal) d. Longenberger (BoS), 2-1; 133-Koser (LD) d. Grzybek (TV), 3-2; 139-McClintock (Nor) d. Barilla (LD), 5-0; 145-Redden (Get) d. Edwards (Hem), 7-2; 152-Davis (CY) d. Gulli (RLi), 3-0; 160-Burd (Her) d. Needham (ConV), 6-0; 172-Rathman (Coc) tf. Neal (BoS), 4:47 (21-4); 189-Bruscino (CuV) md. Sterner (SW), 9-0; 215-McMillan (Wil) p. Miller (ELCO), 1:38; 285-Spahr (LS) fft over Winchester (TV)
Third Place
107-Yordy (Get) p. Kriss (ELCO), 2:13; 114-Scherer (BoS) d. Isaiah Jackson (Get), 7-6; 121-Tocci (War) md. Hewitt (NE), 10-0; 127-Mentzer (Cham) d. Flanagan (CD), 4-3; 133-Bounds (BoS) p. Mitchell (CuV), 2:28; 139-Reynolds (CD) p. McCracken (Eph), 3:22; 145-Wilson (BoS) p. Dillon (CY), 3:32; 152-Belga (CuV) d. Gonzalez (Leb), 4-3; 160-Beers (CD) d. Townsend (Get), 7-0; 172-Eidle (Wil) d. DeAngelo (Car), 4-2; 189-Withers (Get) d. Hight (Cham), 6-1; 215-Koser (Ship) md. Conover (SG), 9-0; 285-Hershey (SG) p. Kuhns (Cham), 1:58
Championships Finals
107-Beard (CD) d. Speece (Wil), 3-2; 114-Kae. Williams (MT) tf. Keiffer (MC), 4:28 (15-0); 121-Houser (DB) d. Garcia (Wil), 3:44; 127-T. Adams (YS) d. Mack (Hem), 5-2; 133-Fulton (Sol) d. Fratelli (Nor), 3-2; 139-Long (CY) md. Pecaitis (Get), 11-1; 145-Repos (CD) md. Swann (Coc), 8-0; 152-Garvick (CD) d. Duggan (BoS), 4-1; 160-Frontino (Ship) tf. Barbush (MC), 3:32 (16-0); 172-Olavarria (JPM) d. Myers (CY), 8-4; 189-Hogan (DB) d. Bartram (Nor), 5-3; 215-Garcia (JPM) p. Evans (Cham), 3:22; 285-Schmick (Car) p. Brotzman (Don), 3:37
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