March 13, 2010 — HERSHEY — It’s been a banner year for Union City. A new career wins record, three Section I champs, two D-10 golds and three state qualifiers.
Add another stripe to that banner.
Friday morning in Hershey, Union City’s Shane Rankin and Jared Burger clinched PIAA medals at 112 and 215 with quarterfinal wins.
Rankin and Burger both recorded 3-1 decisions to move to a combined 91 victories this season.
Rankin won in overtime by tying up Westmont-Hilltop’s Josh Polacek and tripping him to the mat with around 10 seconds remaining.
Polacek was the PIAA Class AA third-place winner at 103 pounds last season.
Burger put Burrell’s Brian Beattie in a 2-on-1 tilt for two points in the second period and escaped in the third for the win. Beattie was the 2009 fourth-place winner at 215 pounds in 2009.
“We’re happy to be wrestling for third and fourth with one of them and fifth and sixth with the other,” Union City head coach Ed Margie said. “We’re OK, but disappointed because we were so close to having both in the finals.
“When you battle at this level, you always want to do better.”
Rankin was nipped by Athens’ David White, 1-0, in the semifinals, then fell 3-0 to Cody Wheeler from Towanda in the consolation semifinals.
“We could have won, we just didn’t,” said Margie of Rankin’s loss in the semis. “At this point, one-point matches win the matches.”
Rankin (45-4) will wrestle Colt Cotten (34-8) from Benton for fifth place today.
Burger lost a 3-1 decision to Seneca’s Matt Mongera, his first loss to Mongera out of seven meetings this season.
“I think we just don’t wrestle him the same as we wrestle everybody else,” Margie said. “Not to take anything away from Mongera because he wrestled a great tournament. We kind of took all his competition away in the finals. He could win the thing.”
Burger (47-2) won a 13-7 decision over Commodore Perry’s Brian Hooks to advance to the consolation finals.
He will have a shot at third place against Josh Rogers (31-6) from St. Pius X.
Cochranton sophomore Matthew Bryer will be on the medal stand at 130 pounds. Bryer never fell behind in a dominant, 7-2 decision win over Mifflinburg’s Ethan Midkiff Friday morning to advance to the third-round consolations.
“I didn’t feel very good after my first match, but I felt better (Friday) morning,” Bryer said. “I usually don’t do too well in my first match.”
Bryer got the first takedown by staying in good position and was able to fight Midkiff off the rest of the way.
Bryer lost a 3-0 decision to Joe Lascari from North Star in the third-round consolations. He will face Laike Gardner of Biglerville, to whom he lost 11-9 in overtime in the prelims, in today’s seventh-place consolation at 12:30 p.m.
Eliminated from contention were Tyler (112) and Aaron (119) Roberts from Jamestown with losses in the second-round consolations.
Tyler Roberts was topped by Polacek, 12-2. Polacek was dominant from the top position, scoring all 12 points with tilts. Tyler Roberts finished his junior season with a 35-7 mark.
Aaron Roberts dropped a 9-4 decision to Michael Rhone of Benton in the quarterfinals. His 35-11 sophomore season came to close with a 3-1 downfall to Ben Carey from Montoursville in the consolation second round.
Other District 10 wrestlers in the championship finals include Mason Beckman from Reynolds at 119, Commodore Perry’s Stephen Ceremuga (189) and Sharon’s Jordan Moss (145).
Local Sports
Three locals will medal, but all fall short of gold in Class AA
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DISTRICT 10 BASEBALL: Big Reds shut down Lions
SLIPPERY ROCK — The Linesville baseball team, with its mix of experienced and lesser-experienced players, has been capable of two different kinds of games this season.
The first is the sharp, skillful kind of effort the Lions put together Monday in their 10-7 win over Cochranton in the District 10 Class A quarterfinals. -
DISTRICT 10 BASEBALL: Mercyhurst outslugs Lake in D-10 semis
ERIE — After a District 10 Class A championship game appearance last year, the Conneaut Lake baseball team lost four seniors who were important to the team’s success.
Even though the talented quartet graduated and Lake featured just three seniors this year, the team came together and reached the district semifinals. The team’s end result, and the school’s last game as a baseball team due to Conneaut Lake, Conneaut Valley, and Linesville consolidating into Conneaut Area Senior High, was a 15-4 loss in six innings to Mercyhurst Prep on Friday at Ainsworth Field in Erie. -
DISTRICT 10 BASEBALL: Panthers edge Tigers, reach D-10 title game
ERIE — The Saegertown baseball team made an art form of compiling mercy rule wins this season. Nearly all of the Panthers’ 20 regular season victories were by 10 runs or more, as double-digit hits and runs scored were the norm.
The playoffs have been a different beast for the defending District 10 Class AA champion Cats, but they continue to find ways to win. -
BOYS VOLLEYBALL: Cardinals come back from losers’ bracket to win D-10 title
The very first word spoken by Cochranton boys volleyball coach Brad Custead in his post-match interview will sum up Friday night’s District 10 championship finale better than all the words that follow it.
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Bulldogs' trio ready for state track and field meet
Meadville’s best now look to be among Pennsylvania’s best as Paige Kassab, Chaykala Lindsey and Heather Sternby compete in the PIAA Class AAA Track and Field Championships, which run Friday and Saturday at Shippensburg University’s Seth Grove Stadium.
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D-10 SOFTBALL: Tigers no-hit in loss to Braves
HARBORCREEK TOWNSHIP — The Maplewood softball team had no answer for Iroquois starting pitcher Megan Martin on Tuesday during the District 10 Class AA quarterfinals on the campus of Penn State Behrend in Erie.
Martin worked around two errors during a no-hitter that included zero walks. And the Braves’ offense was sure to back her up during Iroquois’ 10-0 victory in five innings. -
D-10 BASEBALL: Prep rolls past ’Dogs in four innings
ERIE — Hitting, they say, is contagious. And the Cathedral Prep baseball team had a full-blown outbreak against Meadville on Tuesday at Ainsworth Field, notching 13 base hits in a 16-1, four-inning rout of the Bulldogs during opening round action of the District 10 Class AAA playoffs.
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DISTRICT 10 BASEBALL: Lake storms past Eisenhower
ERIE — The Conneaut Lake baseball team started off its postseason with a bang. Numerous bangs, actually.
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DISTRICT 10 BASEBALL: Lions top Cards
ERIE — If this story had to describe every clutch hit, gutsy pitch, run-saving defensive play, or momentum-shifting moment during Monday’s playoff classic between Region 3 foes Cochranton and Linesville; there wouldn’t be room for much else in today’s newspaper.
The bottom line is: You should have been there. -
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Meadville junior Matt Izbinski laced a hard spike down the line, and so ended the regular season for the Bulldogs boys volleyball team — with a 3-1 win over McDowell, and a 9-0 run through Region 1. It all summed up on Friday night at the House of Thrills.
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