2004 PIAA Wrestling Tournament

PA Wrestling's Notes and Quotes

Page 9

Some fans show their anguish....	Surrounded by Zebras? Nah.. Jake Strayer shows his disappointment in a close 3-1 decision over Rendos.

District 2 Crestwood's 119-pounder Joe Kemmerer wont his 100th match with a 6-3 decision over Cumberland Valley's Ryan Williamson the AAA Quarter-Finals.

Collision course:  AAA 125.. two returning PIAA Champions march towards an intriguing bout if both continue to win. Charles Griffin of Reading and Coleman Scott of Waynesburg notched their quarterfinal bouts. Griffin with a 10-2 win over tough Nate Nauroth of Quakertown and Scott with a 10-0 blanking of Easton's Alex Krom.

The Fan Fest with the Legends of Pennsylvania Wrestling is going well.. Many former PIAA Champions and Hall of Fame coaches are in the lobby at a table signing autographs and chatting with fans. They will be available an hour prior to each session.

No Interviews, thanks: Word is a few individuals declined interviews with the AP "until" it was all over. Hmmmm... sometimes funny things happen on the way to championships.

By David Ackley

Pennsylvania Wrestling News

Instead of watching from the floor this afternoon, I went skyward to the Harrisburg Patriot-News suite high above the Giant Center floor for the quarterfinal round. What a great view it afforded of the six mats and what great action!

In what was probably the best match of the day in either AA or AAA, Mike DePellegrini and Mike Parisi thrilled the crowd with a wild, inexplicable and confounding 14-12 match won by DePellegrini.

“It’s funny but in every sport you see that momentum is so big and this match was no different,” sadi DePellegrini’s coach Ken Whitesel. “When momentum swings it’s hard to stop it and regain control.”

DePellegrini seemed to have the match well in hand.

Leading 11-0 midway through the second period, the Konkrete Kid hit Whitsel’s star 140-pounder with a cement job and had him fighting off the fall just inside the circle. DePellegrini was able to eventually work off his back and escape with a win.

“That was by far the most intensive match, no doubt, I’ve ever been in … whew!” he said. “I expect that every match from here out will be, too.”

DePelligrini will have a long wait, about 19 hours before he’ll meet a defending champion – Greensburg-Salem’s Donnie Jones.

Whitsel and DePellegrini spent the week discussing just what Jones is going to go through.

See, Whitsel was in Jones the same situation 25 years ago, when Rec Hall was still home to the PIAA finals. Like Jones, Whitsel was a defending champion and heavily favored, but failed in his repeat quest.

“Coach told me about how everybody guns for the champ and now it’s my turn to gun for Jones,” DePellegrini said. “Up ‘til now the Parisi match was the biggest of my life, now it’s my next one.”

GIANT KILLER – Pennridge’s Doug Weidner ended Zach Sheaffer’s unbeaten run at 44 with a 6-3 win in overtime. … Clearfield which has crowned more state champs than any other school in the tournament’s 68 year history with 38 has a chance to add two more. Both Matt Kyler and Brad Pataky advanced to the semifinals.

SEE YOU LATER – I’ll be back on the floor with the breaking stories from this evening’s Class AA semifinals.