By John Grupp
TRIBUNE-REVIEW<\/p>\n
HERSHEY — One of the most anticipated championship matches in PIAA wrestling history ended with a whimper.<\/p>\n
Somebody finally found a way to keep up with the Joneses.<\/p>\n
Joey Ecklof of Northampton thumped Donnie Jones of Greensburg Salem, 10-3, for the 152-pound title in a showdown of two-time defending champions in front of 8,685 fans at the PIAA Class AAA Wrestling Championships on Saturday at Giant Center.<\/p>\n
“Today was his day, and it wasn’t mine, “Jones said. “He has three state titles, and I have two.”<\/p>\n
It was the first-ever finals meeting between two multiple-state champions since the Pennsylvania high school wrestling tournament began in 1938.<\/p>\n
It also marked a clash between two of the nation’s top wrestling regions — the WPIAL and District 11 — and a pair of recruits headed for rival colleges, West Virginia (Jones) and Pitt (Ecklof).<\/p>\n
Jones lost his chance at a third title, but senior Connellsville teammates Steve Bell and Ashtin Primus, senior Dan Burkholder of Trinity and senior Corbin Semple of Waynesburg won their first championships.<\/p>\n
Bell (47-4) took down Plum senior Sean Clair 17 seconds into overtime to win a 7-5 decision and avenged an earlier loss in the WPIAL 125-pound finals.<\/p>\n
Primus (45-6) used his most-feared weapon, the cradle, to pin Josh Barrick of Big Spring in the second period of the 135-pound finals.<\/p>\n
Burkholder (24-1), who missed half the season with a knee injury, capped his dominant postseason run with a 10-2 decision over previously undefeated Clint Collins of Upper Merion in the 140-pound finals.<\/p>\n
Semple (43-4), who finished eighth in the state last year, beat defending champion Nick Guida of Parkland, 4-3, in the 171-pound finals.<\/p>\n
North Allegheny sophomore Rob Waltko (38-4) also reached the finals, staying with undefeated Austin Carter (45-0) of Council Rock South into the third period, before being pinned at 5:02.<\/p>\n
Jones won the 130-pound title as a sophomore and 140 last year. The heavier Ecklof took the 135-pound crown as a sophomore and 145 last year.<\/p>\n
The final was the highlight of the three-day event. Jones scored a 20-5 technical fall against Ryan Uber of<\/p>\n
Warren in the semifinals yesterday morning. Ecklof upheld his part of the bargain with a 5-2 decision over Brent Fiorito of Upper Perkiomen, setting the stage for the unprecedented final.<\/p>\n
Ecklof, who was named the tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler, stunned Jones, taking him down for a 2-0 lead less than 10 seconds into the match.<\/p>\n
“I think he wasn’t expecting that, “Ecklof said. “He came out leaning too hard. It was right there, so I hit it.”<\/p>\n
Ecklof (31-3) scored another takedown late in the first period for a 4-2 lead. Jones (37-2) escaped in the second to cut the deficit to 3-2, but Ecklof caught the Greensburg Salem star for a five-point move and led 9-3 after two periods. Jones finished with no takedowns, scoring on three escapes.<\/p>\n
“He just got his butt beat, “Greensburg Salem coach Randy Parsley said. “I’d rather have him get beat than lose.”<\/p>\n
Bell and Clair were tied at 5 after regulation, but Bell used a leg-trip on the attacking Clair for the winning takedown.<\/p>\n
“He was standing real close with his legs and he was open for it, “said Bell, a Maryland recruit who joins his cousin, Jarrod King, as a state champion from Connellsville.<\/p>\n
The loss concluded a run of PIAA frustrations for Clair (40-2). The Eastern Michigan recruit had reached the finals – and avoided a third consecutive PIAA semifinal loss — with a stirring third-period comeback against State College junior Kyle Fluke, where he erased a 5-1 deficit for a 6-5 decision.<\/p>\n
But Clair, who will leave Plum with a 151-13 career record, became the first wrestler in WPIAL history to claim four PIAA medals without winning a gold.<\/p>\n
“I choked, “he said. “I lost. I’m just angry.”<\/p>\n
Primus, the WPIAL champion, capped his unchallenged run to his first state title by pinning Barrack of Big Spring at 3:15 in the 135-pound final.<\/p>\n
Overall, 24 WPIAL wrestlers won top-eight medals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By John GruppTRIBUNE-REVIEW HERSHEY — One of the most anticipated championship matches in PIAA wrestling history ended with a whimper. Somebody finally found a way to keep up with the Joneses. Joey Ecklof of Northampton thumped Donnie Jones of Greensburg Salem, 10-3, for the 152-pound title in a showdown of two-time defending champions in front […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wrestling"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2B7Di-es","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}