BETHLEHEM - Tri-Valley's Sammy Hepler rocked Liberty's Memorial Gym on Saturday night - and left with a bunch of hardware.
Locked in a 1-1 battle with Bethlehem Catholic's Jake Riegel, the freshman 106-pounders scrambled in sudden-victory overtime of the first final at the District 11 Class AA Wrestling Tournament. In trouble several times during the match, Hepler eventually scooted toward a mount position at the same time planting Riegel's shoulders flat.
The referee blew his whistle and slapped the mat for the fall in 6:37. Many in the packed gym jumped to their feet, cheering in a deafening roar. Hepler thrust one arm into the air, then ran over and leaped into the arms of coach Ty Rothermel and gave a big hug to coach Dave Boltz.
"I don't even know what to say. It's awesome,'' Hepler said. "I knew he was slowing down and I had to keep pushing the pace. I got the takedown and it was bonus that he went to his back.
"I knew he was flat. When I looked back, I could see it,'' he added. "It was great to see all the crowd cheering.''
Hepler won the pinner award, winning by fall in all four of his matches at districts. He also shared the Outstanding Wrestler award with Pen Argyl's Andrew Sutton.
Hepler started a huge night for the Schuylkill League as Tri-Valley's Anthony Snyder (152), North Schuylkill's Auston Hummel (170) and Schuylkill Haven's Nate Kramer (285) captured district gold. The area had just one champion (Tamaqua's Colin Mashack) at last year's district tournament.
Tri-Valley's Caleb Bordner (120) and Hunter Harner (145), as well as Pine Grove's Guy Zimmerman (182) and Ryan Martin (220), had to settle for sliver.
Bethlehem Catholic's Joey Gould controlled the style and pace, constantly tying up Bordner's hands and arms in a 3-0 victory. Harner led 5-4 late in the third period and was in on the leg of Pius X's Michael Comunale before Comunale worked to a dominant position. He broke Harner's grip and took him to his back for a five-point move that produced a 9-5 decision.
The Pine Grove seniors ran into the Bethlehem Catholic buzzsaw, Zimmerman falling 3-1 to Jose Ortiz and Martin getting pinned in 5:26 by Andrew Dunn.
North Schuylkill's Alek Hummel fell 5-0 to Catasauqua's Rhaine Sziy in the 195-pound final.
Earlier, Harner became Tri-Valley's second champion of the night with a 15-2 beatdown of Palisades' Christian Gretzinger. Two quick takedowns made it 4-1 after one period. With a reversal and two sets of back points, Snyder's lead swelled to 11-1. He added two more takedowns in the third period to win going away.
"When you start (scoring), it feels like you can't stop until you get the job done,'' Snyder said. "The more points, the merrier, the more team points. ⦠It feels awesome. It was my goal at the beginning of the year.''
Hummel scored just one takedown, but it made the difference in a 3-1 decision over Bethlehem Catholic's Nick Cortopassi. Hummel trapped Cortopassi's legs and popped his head free at the edge of the mat, receiving the winning score with two-tenths of a second left in the match.
"I just needed to hook that leg,'' Hummel said. "I thought if I hooked that leg, I'll get two. ⦠Finally, all I've worked for is starting to do something. It's starting to pay off.''
The final bout of the evening featured a rematch of the Schuylkill League Tournament final between Kramer and North Schuylkill's Nate Gadinski, which Gadinski won by fall.
This time, the evenly matched heavyweights traded escapes into the tiebreaker. Kramer, who upset top-seeded and previously unbeaten Brady Mutton of Pen Argyl in the semifinals, got the advantage by riding Gadinski for the entire 30 seconds.
In the second tiebreaker period, Kramer escaped with 18 seconds remaining, then countered a desperation takedown attempt to post a 4-1 victory.
"Since that (league) match I've been working on my conditioning, and it's gotten a lot better,'' Kramer said. "We've wrestled a few times. We know what we're going to do to each other. I tried to stick this one out and win it with conditioning and heart. It's a good feeling, football and now (wrestling). It's great.''