By T.J. Turrisi
March 12, 2010 — HERSHEY — Shelton Mack has been here before, just never like this.
The Meadville senior was cool, calm and collected in taking a 10-4 win, his first ever at the PIAA Class AAA Tournament, on Thursday.
“It feels really good,” said Mack after topping Shane Longstreth from Council Rock North. “I hear the first win is the hardest match to get out of the way.
“The past few years I’ve been out here I have been shying away from my takedowns, which I’ve been good at all year. This year I told myself that if I get back here I can’t change anything up. I just have to keep doing what I have been doing.”
Mack improved to 38-1 in 2009-10 and will continue his final run at a state title with a quarterfinal bout against Derrick Nelson (31-4) from Waynesburg Central at 1 p.m. today at 119 pounds.
“I got the first one out of the way,” Mack said. “Now I have to just go after that medal.”
Also advancing for the Bulldogs was sophomore Zach Towers at 152 pounds. He rolled up an impressive 16-7 major decision against Zach Thomson from Mechanicsburg.
Towers (36-3) hit a takedown with three back points to open the match and took a 6-5 lead into the second period.
Thomson chose bottom in the second, and Towers hit a chin drop for three more near-fall tallies. He added three more takedowns before the final buzzer.
Towers’ quarterfinal opponent will be Kiski Area’s Zack Shannon (38-2).
Meadville’s third entry, Kasey Davis (130), was a 6-2 loser to Pittsburgh Central Catholic’s Tyler Zymroz in the opener.
Davis (39-7) then gave up a third-period takedown to Haverford’s Luke Bilyeu which made the difference in a season-ending 3-2 loss.
For General McLane, heavyweight Caleb Baker fought his way to a 7-5 tiebreaker victory over Conestoga Valley’s Cole Dillman.
Baker (38-6) was behind 4-1 with just over 10 seconds left. The McLane junior was awarded a stall point and grabbed a takedown with nine ticks remaining to send it to OT.
Nothing was going through his mind at that point other than keep the green light on.
“Don’t let up, just keep going,” he said. “I didn’t know I got that stalling point when I had the takedown. That’s what shocked me.”
The one-minute neutral overtime period went scoreless, and Dillman escaped with just one second remaining in the opening 30-second rideout. Baker got out and took Dillman to the mat for two points with four second to go.
“It just shows that I am not going to quit, no matter what I have left,” Baker said.
Baker’s next opponent in the quarters will be Springfield’s David Dewan (32-5).
The Lancers’ sophomore 112-pounder Tim Wheeling, a second-year qualifier, went 0-2 on the day.
He dropped a 20-4 technical fall to southeast champ Josh DiSanto of Pennsbury and lost a 5-1 decision to Jon Brigham from Cumberland Valley to close the year with a 37-8 mark.
Titusville senior Jake Burnside (171) finished his career with a senior season mark of 24-12 and his first-ever state qualifying effort.
Burnside was on the downside of a 20-4 technical fall in the preliminary round against northeast champion Jared Kay from Hazleton Area.
The Rockets’ lone state wrestler then fell by 9-3 decision to southeast No. 2 James Nicholson of Upper Moreland in the first-round consolations.
