Brian Heard and Caleb Marzolino followed up preliminary round byes with victories Thursday, placing the two Abington Heights wrestlers in Friday’s quarterfinals of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Individual Wrestling Championships at the Giant Center in Hershey.
Austin Smith and Mason Whitney each lost and fell into the consolation bracket where they will still have a chance to finish as high as third in the state. Smith won his first bout before losing. Whitney lost in the preliminary round.
Heard, at 172 pounds, and Marzolino, at 215, are one win away from clinching state medals.
Heard defeated Pennridge’s Talan Hogan 6-2 to advance into a quarterfinal matchup with Trinity’s Bode Morgan.
After taking Hogan 17 seconds into the bout and scoring a reversal nine seconds into the second period, Heard held him down for the remaining 3:34 of those periods for a 4-0 lead.
Hogan scored a takedown midway through the third period to get without 4-2, but Heard reversed him seconds later and held him down the rest of the way.
Marzolino defeated Franklin Regional’s Juliano Marion 4-1. He will meet Wilson’s Ryan McMillan next.
Marion did not score until escaping with 20 seconds left.
Marzolino led just 1-0 going into the third period on an escape 12 seconds into the second. He put Marion on his back midway through the third for three back points and a 4-0 lead.
Smith defeated South Fayette’s Luke Dunlap 6-4, then was pinned by Collin Gaj from Quakertown at 5:32.
In the first bout, Smith was trailing with 30 seconds left in the second period when he scored a takedown for a 2-1 lead. An escape and takedown early in the third period made it 5-1 before Dunlap did the same to make it 5-4. Smith scored the last point on an escape with five seconds left.
Gaj built a 9-2 lead – 4-1 after one period and 6-2 after two – before posting his pin.
Shikellamy’s Alex Reed defeated Whitney 4-2 in the preliminary round.
Reed built a 4-0 lead on takedowns in each of the first two periods. Whitney escaped late in the second period and gained a point by penalty for Reed’s stalling in the third period.
The Class 3A bracket is down to four title contenders and eight in the consolation bracket in each weight class. The second round of consolations and the quarterfinals are scheduled to start at 2:15 p.m.
In Class 2A, which resumes earlier Friday, Scranton Prep 215-pounder Louis Paris dropped a 5-0 decision to Bishop McCort’s Jordan Butler.
Notre Dame Green Pond’s Connor Smalley then pinned Paris in 3:52 to knock him out of the tournament.
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