| 3/15/2007 | Email this article Print this article |
writer@thealmanac.net" >by David Assad, Freelance Reporter Chartiers Valley had a pair of medal winners at the PIAA Class AAA tournament. Junior Dan Utchel finished sixth at 215 pounds and junior Eric Kush placed seventh at 285. Utchel reached the semifinals by defeating Ray Bennett from Abington Heights, 10-8, in the quarterfinals. He then came up one match short of the finals, losing against eventual state champion Justin Wieller of Northampton, 8-3. Utchel suffered a right shoulder injury at the PIAA. He tried to gut it out in the fifth place match after forfeiting a fourth-round consolation match that dropped him out of third-place consideration. Kush won his first match at Hershey, 6-3 over Brian Ellixson of Haverford. But he lost in the quarterfinals, 7-1, to Michael Gesford of Hershey.
Kush bounced back in the consolation rounds by winning 11-3 over Nick Irwin of Parkland before losing again. However, Kush ended the tournament with a pin over Evan Craig from Abington Heights in 3:46, to claim a seventh-place medal. Char Valley finished with 15 points, good enough for a 31st place team-finish in the standings. “To have two guys come up with medals after never wrestling here before is a great way to end the season,” said Colts coach Bill Evans. “Dan has what appears to be a pretty nasty tear in his deltoid muscle and we thought it was best for him to drop out [after the semifinal loss], but he’s a warrior. He wanted to go to work.” Utchel ended the season with a 6-1 loss to Brandon Miller of Middletown in the fifth-place consolation match. “Danny doesn’t like to walk away from a fight,” Evans said. “He was disappointed with the way he wrestled the last match, but I was really happy with the way he wrestled overall anyway.” Home |
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