By T.J. Turrisi
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).
