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Dragons have big day at D-10 championships

Warren leads team standings after first day as nine advance to semis

Warren's Jake Engstrom was one of nine Dragons to advance to the D-10 Class 3A semifinals on Friday.

ERIE – It was quite the night for the Warren Dragons in the District 10 Class 3A wrestling championships at McDowell on Friday.

The Dragons won seven quarterfinal matches – six via pin, as well as a tech fall and two byes, putting a total of nine wrestlers in the semifinals beginning at 9 a.m. today.

All that success resulted in the Dragons being in first place in the team standings after one day of action with 27.5 points, holding a narrow lead over General McLane (26).

“The kids are really pumped,” said Warren coach Dean Johnson. “We’ll have some tough matches tomorrow, but we’re excited.”

Jake Fankhouser (120) and Nick DeSimone (160) both received byes to the semis, but their teammates were eager to join them there.

Alex Anderson (113) and Jake Engstrom (138) each earned first period falls in the quarterfinals, while Avery Smith (106), Owen Balas (145) and Brett Cummings got their takedowns in the second and Alex Weston in the third.

Then there was Blake Ristau, who won via tech fall, 15-0 at 152.

“A lot of them were boys we’ve already wrestled, so we figured if we kept after them then we could get some pins,” Johnson said, adding that his wrestlers were able to get a lot of bonus points for the team race.

Because of the high number of falls, the quarterfinal round took justt one hour and 20 minutes to complete.

John Fankhouser lost a tough 10-1 decision at 126, with Johnson saying: “I thought he wrestled a really good match,” while noting the strength of his opponent, McDowell’s Jeff Boyd.

Liam Stevenson (182), Dominic Caprino (195), Riley Zaffino (220) and Matt Ristau (Heavyweight) all dropped their quarterfinals matches, but remain alive.

Today’s action gets underway with the semifinals at 9 a.m., followed by first round consolations and consolation semifinals.

The third and fourth place matches will be wrestled beginning at 2:30 p.m. on two mats, with the Parade of Champions followed by the championship bouts at 4:30 on one mat.

“This is a great bunch of boys,” Johnson said. “This is the best team I’ve ever coached. It’s been a pleasure to coach them.”

The top four in each weight class advance to the Northwest Regional Tournament next weekend in Altoona.

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