CORRY — Youngsville’s junior high wrestling team competed in the annual Corry JV/Junior High tournament Saturday. This year’s iteration offered a field of 18 teams and a bevy of talent.

At 96 pounds, Jacob Battko began his day with a bye and then faced Landon Walizer of Corry in the quarterfinals. Battko took a 2-0 lead into the second period when Walizer tied the match and eventually scored the fall. In his consolation bouts, Battko picked up two pins over Andrew Sandau of Conneaut and Zita Scheidel respectively. Battko met Kael Kimmy of North East in the consolation semifinals. Battko took a 2-0 lead into the second period. Battko then got out of position, allowing Kimmy to capitalize and score the fall.

At 103 pounds, Ayden Dean began his day with a quick fall over Cailee Bennett of Conneaut. Dean then won 3-2 over Pryce Whitman of Saegertown and won by fall over Nick Titus of Sharpsville to make it to the semifinals. In the semis, Dean had another close bout with Roman Kafferlin of Corry. Kafferlin scored an escape in the second period and made the point stand in a tight 1-0 loss for the young Eagle. In the consolation semifinals, Dean matched up with Finley Fourspring. Fourspring scored a reversal in the second period when Dean got out of position from top and kept that two point lead until the final whistle, winning 2-0 over Dean.

At 110 pounds, Brayden Patch began his day with a match against Thayne Gourley of Eisenhower. Gourley carried a 5-0 lead into the second period. After a great sequence of movement from both wrestlers, Gourley scored the fall and Patch fell to the consolation bracket. After a bye, Patch faced Juniel Rodriguez of Erie. Patch started the second period down 2-0 and worked to escape from bottom. Rodriguez unintentionally used a trapped arm mat return on Patch. The trapped arm mat return resulted in an illegal slam call with Patch landing hard on his knee and having to take injury time. Patch was unable to continue the match which caused Rodriguez to be disqualified. Patch would then have an injury default his next match to Parker Savitz to conclude his tournament.

At 132 pounds, the Eagles featured Brenton Myers and Tucker Sanford. Myers dropped his opening bout to Jack Brown of Northwestern by fall and met Sawyer Boyd of North East in his consolation bout. Boyd and Myers were scoreless after one and Boyd scored an escape in the second period to take a 1-0 lead. Myers started on bottom and secured a reversal about halfway through the period to take the lead, 2-1. Myers surrendered the deciding reversal in a scramble near the end of the match to lose 3-2 and bow out of the tournament.

Sanford began his tournament with a pin in 2:07 over Zach Nichols of Corry, then lost in the quarterfinals by fall to Kyle McGirr of Greenville. Sanford rebounded from the quarterfinal loss by posting back-to-back first period pins over Sawyer Boyd of North East and Colton Godfrey of Greenville, respectively. Sanford had a highly entertaining consolation semifinal bout against Jack Brown of Northwestern, with both wrestlers exchanging the lead as well as back points before Sanford collected the fall in 2:51. Sanford went on to drop his consolation final bout by fall to Keenan Miller of Bradford to finish his tournament in 4th Place.

At 140 pounds, the Eagles again featured two wrestlers, Mason Fleming and Collin Havers. Fleming began his tournament with a shot at redemption against Brody Porter of Titusville whom Fleming had lost to by major decision earlier in the year. Fleming held a 3-2 lead as the match wound down, but Porter threw Fleming to his back with less than 20 seconds left to win 7-3. Fleming then won three straight matches, two of which were by fall and the other by major decision. Fleming ran into another Porter in the consolation semifinals, this time it was Brody’s cousin, Colton. Fleming ceded a single point, an escape, to Porter as the action continued in the second period. Fleming attempted to claw his way back into the match by firing off a shot as Porter looked to score. Porter would then toss Fleming to his back to jump out to a 6-0 lead. Fleming picked up an escape in the third period, but that was it as Porter won 6-1 to conclude Fleming’s day on the mat.

Havers kicked off his day with a pin in 1:57 over Carter Krall of Greenville. Havers added another win by pin with a fall over Gavin Carter of Titusville in the quarterfinals. Havers posted a come from behind win by pin over Wyatt Keem of Cambridge Springs in the semifinals. Havers fell behind 2-0 before turning Keem for the pin at 2:15 to advance to the finals. In the finals, Havers capped his pin parade by pinning Brody Porter of Titusville in 1:20 to cap a banner day for the young Eagle.

At 157 pounds, Ryker Chase took the mat for the Eagles. Chase began his day losing by fall to Gavin Roessner of Coudersport. In his consolation bout, Chase fought hard against Brady Snyder of Greenville. Chase was able to fend off several pin attempts before surrendering the fall and bowing out of the tournament.

“Overall, we had some successes today. We were holding our own against good competition and making strides in the areas we’ve been working on,” said Coach Tim Suydan, “We had a fair amount of mental errors, however. Those mental errors proved to be the difference in our close matches. We need to clean those up. The good news is: the kids are willing to work on those things. They want to be better.”

The Eagles will be back on the mat Thursday for their final home dual meet of the year against Sheffield. The Little Eagles will get the evening started with a dual meet against the Little Wolverines. Junior high and varsity will follow.