Philipsburg-Osceola Mountaineer Tournament
In my coaching career I have had many one point losses, 5 if you are counting and I am sure Don Goss is, but never for a tournament title and never have I felt OK with it, that is until this year. The young Lancers over achieved in many people’s eyes and finished second at the Philipsburg-Osceola Mountaineer Tournament by one point! I was disappointed to not earn the title but we not only competed with, but beat many other great teams with a lineup that featured 10 freshman or sophomores, two juniors and two seniors.
Stonis (kneeling), Lester, Myers, Baker.
The pool style tournament ended with most wrestlers having 5 matches on the day and the Lancers scoring 163 points to Corry’s 164. We crowned 4 Tournament Champions and also had two finish in second place. Tournament Champions were Dalton Lester-152, Dougie Myers-171, Seth Stonis-189, and Caleb Baker-285. For all four this was their first High School tournament title. The foursome also won their titles in dominating fashion scoring multiple bonus points along the way. Baker’s performance was flawless as far as tournament scoring was concerned. In his first varsity tournament Baker recorded 5 falls in 5 matches, dismantling then pinning highly regarded District 10 foe Tyler Meneely of Corry with 1:12 left in the third period for the Championship. Dalton Lester debuted his new offensive wrestling style and also scored bonus in all 5 of his matches, scoring 3 wins by fall and major decisions by scores of 9-0 and 8-0. Dalton pushed the pace of all his matches looking to score and also avoided giving up a single point all tournament. Dougie Myers recorded pins in 4 of 5 bouts and wrestled to a 2-1 victory in the semi finals. Doug’s pins came in at times of :33, :47, 5:23 (while trailing by a point), and 2:48 in the finals. Senior captain Seth Stonis was untested until the finals where he earned a hard fought 5-2 decision over an accomplished Alan Dreibelbis of State College. Bigger, stronger, healthier and more determined Seth scored a fall, a technical fall and two majors on his way to the finals.
Paul Scharrer and Zac Baumgartner ended the day with a loss in the finals and a runner-up finish. Paul majored and pinned his opponents before his defeat in the finals. Zac opened his season with a pin and two decision by the scores of 8-2 and 3-0 on his way to the finals.
Corey Goss was the lone Lancer finishing in 3rd place earing two falls along the way. Corey dropped a tough match to eventual Champion Beau Norton of Corry to knock him out of contention for the title.
Tyler Bowers, DJ Myers, Ryan Ruth and Travis Bryant all reached the consi-finals before losing their final match and finishing in 4th place. Tim Wheeling added a 5th and Zac Chivari ended his first varsity tournament in 6th place.
An extra congratulations to Tim Wheeling, Zac Chivari and Travis Bryant for winning their first varsity matches.
Special thanks to the few families and fans that made the trip to support the hard work and successes of the boys.
One thing I have learned through the many “almosts but not quites” that i have been part of is that, there is always a very fine line between winning and losing. This line can be stumbled over at any time if a wrestler does not relaize that the outcome is very much in their hands, each and every team member. The decsions made on and off the mat, in the weeks and days before the match and the minutes and seconds during the match can effect the outcome of the battle. That being said, the staff and I were very pleased with efforts and results of the team. Although this team is young there really are no limitations to what we can achieve this season.
Coach Cook
No tags for this post.“Motivation comes from within each individual, It’s a personal thing. It’s pride, guts, desire, whatever you want to call it; some people have it in their bellies, and some don’t”
Mike Ditka, NFL Hall of Fame Coach
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