By T.J. Turrisi
March 12, 2010 — HERSHEY — Union City continued its trend of leading the local parade at the PIAA Class AA Tournament on Thursday. The Bears have two in the quarters with one wrestler going home early.
Junior Shane Rankin (112) and senior Jared Burger (215) each took a victory in the preliminary round. Junior heavyweight Greg Reinke lost a tough, 1-0 decision before getting caught in a quick head-and-arm in the consolation bracket for an 0-2 day.
Rankin, who improved to 44-2 on the season, was a 6-5 winner over Kie Brown from Huntingdon in the opener.
He will face Josh Polacek from Westmont-Hilltop in the quarterfinals today at 8 a.m.
Rankin scored first with an early takedown but, in he and head coach Ed Margie’s opinion, wrestled a sloppy match.
Rankin allowed a late escape in the first period and got out of the position in the second to give up a reversal.
With the score tied 4-4 in the third, Rankin got behind Brown, underhooked his shoulders and shrugged him to the mat.
“I got too confident and let him get two instead of one and he rode me out the rest of the second period,” Rankin said. “I made a lot of errors in that match that, hopefully, I won’t make the rest of the tournament.”
“Shane wrestled well,” Margie said. “He made a couple mistakes, but he still wrestled well enough to win the match. Down here a one-point win is just as good as any other win.”
Rankin has been to states three times in his career. Thursday was the first time he walked off the mat with a win in prelims.
“All the pressure’s off now,” he said. “You’ve got to win two to place, so if I don’t win that first one then the pressure’s really on. I feel a lot better now.
“I got it in my head that I can hang with the kids in my bracket. (Brown) is no slouch, so I actually feel pretty confident.”
Burger wrestled Nick Dawson from Montoursville, the returning fifth-place winner to whom he lost last year.
The Bears’ senior applied what he learned in 2009 and earned an 11-6 decision to advance. Burger recorded five takedowns, overpowering Dawson on his feet.
“Jared wrestled a smart match,” Margie said. “We remembered the kid from last year and what he did. We knew we could take him down, so that’s why Jared wrestled him on his feet.
“We’re happy to have the two, but we wanted to get the third. Rankin and Burger just wrestled good matches to advance.”
Burger (45-1) will take on Brian Beattie (43-4) from Burrell today.
Reinke only allowed a third-period escape in his preliminary loss to Westmont-Hilltop’s Josh Duplin. Southeast region champ Ben Ancheff from Williams Valley locked Reinke and put him to his back for a fall with 28 ticks off the clock in the first-round of consolations.
He closed the season 27-3, losing his final three matches.
UC has never had two place at states and recorded its first season with three kids advancing to Hershey.
Also moving on in the championship bracket was Jamestown sophomore Aaron Roberts (35-9). Roberts outdueled Adam Phillippi from Saucon Valley, 12-11.
He draws Michael Rhone (39-3) from Benton, a winner by 47-second fall, in the quarters.
Older brother Tyler Roberts (35-6) lost an 8-2 decision to Towanda’s Cody Wheeler, but dropped to the consolations and got a 6-4 decision win over Aaron Toth from Charleroi. He will be wrestling back against the Rankin-Polacek loser.
Also going 1-1 on the local front was Cochranton sophomore Matthew Bryer (39-8), who was an 11-9 OT victim against Laike Gardner from Biglerville in prelims.
Bryer bounced back with a 7-4 decision against Ty Shoffstall of Tri-Valley. His second-round consy opponent will be the loser of a quarterfinal match between Mifflinburg’s Ethan Midkiff and Tyler Small of Delone Catholic.
Locals Sean Byham (119) and Tim Clark (135) of Saegertown, and Mikel Boughner (145) from Cochranton all took an 0-2 quick-exit.
Byham (31-5) fell 3-1 to Pete Renda of Brandywine Heights in the opener before digging a 6-0 hole en route to a 6-3 loss to Brandon Arnsberger from Octorara.
Clark (35-9) got too high while riding legs and was reversed in a 3-1 overtime tiebreaker prelim loss to Shamokin’s Josh Lahr. The Cats senior was a 4-1 loser to Trey Easter from Bedford thanks to a second-period takedown, and a caution point and a stalling point while on top in the third.
Boughner (39-12) was defeated by 8-1 decision against Nick Carr of South Fayette in the preliminary round.
The Cardinals’ sophomore allowed an early takedown with three near-fall points in the consolation opener. Tri-Valley’s Sam Scheib went on to reverse Boughner twice in a 9-3, season-ending decision.
