February 19, 2012 7:00 a.m. ERIE — Zach Towers’ high school wrestling career has come full circle.

The undefeated senior used an old standby to achieve what no Meadville Area Senior High School wrestler has ever accomplished at the District 10 Class AAA Tournament on Saturday.

Towers went back to the chin drop, a move that lead him to the first district title in 2009. Towers’ execution of the maneuver led to a pin of Franklin’s Cody Dunmire in 69 seconds on Saturday that placed the senior in the record books as the first MASH grappler to ever win four district titles in his career.

“My freshman and sophomore year, I hit every kid with it,” he said. “It feels really good. Being able to win it four times is really amazing.”

Towers, who improved to 32-0 on the season, bullied all three of his 170-pound opponents at districts. What transpired was three falls — two pins and one technical — in just 4:08 of mat time.

Meadville head coach Barry Anderson felt Towers’ four-year run at districts was a tremendous accomplishment.

“It hadn’t been done in Meadville’s history yet and I don’t look for it to happen anytime soon again,” Anderson said. “That’s how he’s approached his whole wrestling career. Everything’s an opportunity for him. Every move the opponent makes, every step the opponent makes is an opportunity to score.”

While the senior would love to soak up the glory of claiming his fourth district title, his mind is already set on the Northwest Regional Tournament, which begins March 2 in Altoona.

“Now, it’s regionals. Now, it’s the next step,” he said. “I have to wrestle one match at a time. That’s what I did this weekend. That’s what I have to do in Altoona and down in states.”

Meadville senior Jimmy Shields will be making the trip to regionals with Towers after Shields finished third at 195 pounds.

Shields was clearly upset after he dropped a 6-5 decision in the semifinals early Saturday.

But he wrestled back in the consolation rounds, pinning General McLane’s Nick Soboleski in 2:55 and McDowell’s Andrew Bradley in 3:43.

Shields led 7-0 at the time of his fall over Bradley.

“After his loss, he could have felt bad for himself and not wrestled,” Anderson said. “He wrestled his most complete match for that third and fourth place. He didn’t make one mistake in that match.”

Meadville freshman and 103-pounder Aaron Ehrgott fell one win short of a regional berth. He twice lost to McDowell freshman Benji Yates, who is headed to regionals.

Bulldogs junior Zach Luben won’t be making a return trip to regionals. He lost twice by a one-point decision — 2-1 and 1-0.

 

McDowell easily takes team crown

 

McDowell took the team title by 76 points, easily surpassing second-place General McLane (163 points) and Cathedral Prep (148.5). Among McDowell’s 239 points were five district champions — Coleman Cousins (113 pounds), Nick Gibson (126), Steve Spearman (138) Khlique Harris (182) and Scott Augustine (285).

The Trojans, who finished second in the state at the Class AAA Team Duals earlier this month, will send a district-best 11 wrestlers to regionals.

Entering the final consolation round, every McDowell wrestler had a shot at a regional berth. Three fell in the consolation finals.

 

GM’s Myers pulls off last-second shocker

 

General McLane senior DJ Myers had a hard time explaining how he pulled off a last-second win to rip the 152-pound title from McDowell sophomore Tyree Spearman’s grasp.

Spearman, who never trailed until the final buzzer sounded, was ahead 5-2 after two periods and 7-4 entering the final few ticks of the clock. But those final seconds were so crucial.

Myers took Spearman down and onto his back, with the referee counting off two near-fall points just as the match came to a close. Myers pulled off the 8-7 victory, improving his record against Spearman to 3-0 on the season — all one-point wins.

“I just kept it in my mind that I could win and just kept going,” Myers said. “He just kind of stood there and I just went for it. I took him down to his back and saw the ref count two and it was over then.”

It was a moment Myers won’t soon forget.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited in my life,” he said. “That was an awesome feeling. I can’t really describe that.”

Myers’ four-point move was not only a title-clincher for himself, but it also stopped the Lancers’ seven-match losing streak in the district finals. GM went 0-4 at least year’s districts and 0-3 on Saturday before Myers finished strongly.

“We had to get at least one champ,” Myers said.

Senior Tim Wheeling was one of GM’s runners-up. He dropped to 30-6 on the season, as Saturday’s final served as Wheeling’s fifth loss to Steve Spearman this season.

Spearman scored four points in the first period and eventually won by a 6-3 decision.

Wheeling was frustrated that he hasn’t yet beaten Spearman, a 2010 state champion, but hopes his experiences with the talented McDowell wrestler will serve him well this postseason.

“Knowing that I’ve never beaten him, I need to win those matches coming into the postseason,” Wheeling said. “At the same time, it’s a good experience to wrestle a kid with his talent. It’ll prepare me better for the postseason. I just want to keep improving, building and hopefully it’ll be me and Steve in the finals in two weeks, too.”

GM has eight wrestlers headed to regionals. Joe Wheeling (103) and Keller Watkins (112) lost in the finals, while Deane Twitchell (120), Ken Stoll (126), Tyler Hendricks (160) and Chris Laird (170) finished third.

 

Brunst, Lee help Rockets finish fourth



Titusville was one of three schools to finish with two or more wrestlers atop the championship podium. Senior Cody Brunst improved to 27-1 on the season to win the title at 160 pounds and sophomore Ehrin Lee upset McDowell’s Cody Nolan at 145.

Lee took great satisfaction in ending Nolan’s run as a two-time champ.

“They were saying that he was going to be one of those kids who probably could win it four times,” Lee said. “It felt really good to beat that kid. And it feels good to get one of my own to start my own collection. Hopefully I can continue to win two more.”

Lee scored a takedown at the last second to be Prep’s Daniel Krysiak in overtime during the semifinals and recorded the match-clinching takedown over Nolan during the third period of his 5-3 finals victory.

Brunst used triple-overtime to down McDowell’s Jimmy Paulson by a 3-2 decision. His reversal with 15 seconds left improved his record over Paulson this season to 3-0.

And it also gave Brunst his first gold medal at districts in his last try.

“It feels great. Finally,” Brunst said. “It’s awesome. This is what I’ve been training for forever.”

Titusville, which scored 83.5 points as a team, will also send 220-pounder Nate Warner to regionals. He won three straight bouts in the consolation bracket after dropping an opening-round 5-4 decision on Friday.