Susquehannock hosted the newly created Susquehannock High School Warrior Invitational Wrestling Tournament on Saturday, January 11.
According to PA Wrestling, eight teams were part of the tournament including Eastern York, Indian River, York Suburban, Donegal, Archbishop Wood, Tamaqua, and Northern Lebanon. Susquehannock took third place which is a huge accomplishment for the team.
Coach and special education teacher Brad Keeney was excited for the team’s huge improvements.
“We did awesome and placed third out of some really hard teams,” said Keeney. “I knew they could do it, but it was really nice to see them wrestle with confidence for once and really believe in themselves like I believe in them.”
Many warriors were able to place in the top four in their weight class, earning a metal. Senior Zach Holloway came in second in the 138 weight category after pinning Dustin Silkowski from Tamaqua in the quarterfinals, winning by decision to Eastern York in the semi finals. Junior Tucker Devilbiss took third in the 152 weight category after winning by decision in the consolation round against Adam Toth from Tamaqua, the semifinals against Indian River, and the consolation finals against Archbishop Wood.
Devilbiss was very happy with his placing in the tournament.
“I was happy with where I placed,” said Devilbiss. “The competition there was better than we thought it was going to be, but the team stepped up to the challenge and we were able to get third.”
Coming in fourth place was senior Tyler White in the 182 weight class and freshman Dakota Hess in the 120 weight class. White won by a pin to Tyler Gates from Northern Lebanon in the quarter finals and a pin to Julio Garzo from Indian River in the consolation finals. Hess won by a pin in the quarterfinals against Avery Ennis from Eastern York and by decision in the consolation semi finals against York Suburban.
Keeney was a huge part in planning this tournament for the boys.
“We made the tournament to build the program up and put the team on the map,” said Keeney. “It was our first year and we plan to continue to do it. It was a success, and it was a great fundraiser.”
With a slow start to the season the team is working to turn the year around and qualify their top scoring individuals for districts. According to GameTime PA, as a team the warriors have a divisional record of 0-6 and an overall record of 3-8. The team is ranked as last in YAIAA Division 1.
Tucker is very optimistic as to how the team has and will continue to improve.
“The tournament was a good way to gauge how far we have come as a team,” said Tucker. “We have improved a lot since last year and still have some ways we hope to improve by the end of the season.”
Although the team is struggling as a whole this year, many individuals are having a good season. The highest three individual records are senior Zach Holloway (4-1), junior Ray Wenger (3-0), and senior Adam Dell (3-1).
Susquehannock will take on Northeastern at home on Thursday, January 16 at 7:00 p.m.
