Caleb Marzolino advanced to the Class 3A 215-pound championship match with two more victories Friday in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Individual Wrestling Championship at the Giant Center in Hershey while Abington Heights teammates Brian Heard and Mason Whitney also clinched state medals.
Marzolino will finish with either gold or silver when the finals are conducted beginning at 4 p.m. Saturday. Heard will be in the top six while Whitney will place either seventh or eighth.
After opening with a win Thursday, Marzolino added two more Friday, beating Ryan McMillan from Wilson West Lawn 5-1 in the quarterfinals then pinning Jake Conroy from Ringgold in 1:04 of the semifinals.
McMillan took a 1-0 lead on Marzolino with an escape 18 seconds into the second period.
Marzolino answered with a takedown for a 2-1 lead going into the third where he added an escape, then the clinching takedown with 25 seconds left.
In the semifinal, Marzolino took Conroy down to his back and registered the pin for the quickest finish of any of the 26 Class 3A bouts in the round.
Heard is 3-1 in the tournament with just a one-point loss. He will finish between third and sixth in the state at 172 pounds.
Whitney went 2-1 Friday and is 3-2 for the tournament at 121 pounds.
Trinity’s Bodie Morgan downed Heard 6-5 in Friday’s quarterfinals.
Heard escaped three times, but Morgan had a 2-1 advantage in takedowns and scored the winning point on an escape with five seconds left.
The loss dropped Heard into the consolation bracket where he defeated Sun Valley’s Brandon Carr 10-7 and Council Rock South’s Bekhruz Sadriddinov 10-0.
Heard overcame a 4-2 deficit against Carr, then broke a 5-5 tie, taking the lead for good with three back points in the third period.
The consolation semifinal round was set for Saturday morning at 9:30, followed by the third-, fifth- and seventh-place matches, beginning at 11:30. Heard will compete in both, but Whitney does not wrestle until the seventh-place bout.
Marzolino will face unbeaten Dillon Bechtold from Owen J. Roberts in the final.
Bechtold, a state runner-up last season, is 41-0. He has a 128-12 career record.
Marzolino, a three-time District 2 champion and three-time state qualifier, was eighth in the state last season. He is 37-2 this season and 128-15 for his career.
While Marzolino is committed to Indiana, Bechtold is headed to Bucknell.
Whitney won two decisions to begin Friday, beating Gettysburg’s Myles Grossman 6-2 and Northeastern’s Elijah Hewitt 3-0. He then lost to Pennridge’s Cole Coffin 3-0.
Austin Smith went 1-1 Friday and was eliminated after going 2-2 in the tournament at 152.
Smith beat Donegal’s Ruben Mumper 12-4 then lost to Harriton’s Nadav Nafshi 6-3.
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