by Tom Utescher The grappling groups from Germantown Academy, Germantown Friends, Penn Charter, and Springside Chestnut Hill Academy all trekked out to Malvern Prep last Friday and Saturday to take part in the 2017 Pennsylvania Independent Schools Wrestling Tournament (PAISWT). In the battle for the team laurels, the only serious challenge presented to perennial Wilkes Barre powerhouse Wyoming Seminary was presented by Malvern's own team, but the upstate squad fought off the Friars to prevail, 373.5 points to 343.5. In the middle of the competition, Springside Chestnut Hill rose as high as third in the running point totals, but the team that emerged in third place at the end was GA, with 131 team points. The Patriots received individual third-place performances from freshman Chris Kim (106 lbs.), senior Brandon Seidman (113), and junior Pat Salmon (182), and a fourth-place showing from sophomore Mark Fasciocco (120). Another Inter-Ac League school, Haverford, slipped into fourth place with 119.5 points just ahead of SCH and the Hill School, which tied for fifth with 118.5 points apiece. Sophomore Luke Purcell (126 lbs.) and junior Myles Hugee (145) came in third for the Blue Devils, and junior Kyle Williams (138) finished fourth for Springside Chestnut Hill. After number seven Episcopal Academy (95.5 team points) came eighth-place Penn Charter (89.5), whose highest finishes were fourth-place outcomes for senior Billy Costello (285 lbs.) and junior Alex Koenig (152). Another senior heavyweight, Tunde Sogo, placed fifth to serve as the standard bearer for Germantown Friends. Five of the Tigers' eight entries at PAISWT were ninth-graders, and the team wound up in 16th place with 31 points. There was a 32-man bracket in each of the weight categories, but since there weren't that many teams at the tournament, many wrestlers received a bye in the initial stage and went right into the round of 16. One of these was GA's Kim, the only 106-pounder from the area schools. He lost his first match in a 4-1 decision, but won out the rest of the way, starting the consolation bracket with a 16-second pin. A 5-1 decision then put him into the bout for third and fourth place overall (wrestlers kept feeding in from the main draw), and he emerged with a 5-4 victory over Episcopal Academy's Blair Orr, the same opponent who'd beaten him in the main draw. Kim's teammate at 113 lbs., Seidman, began competition in the round of 16, as did SCH sophomore Simon Kioko and two freshmen, PC's Jess Anderson and Javier Carmona of GFS. Carmona lost his opening match, while the other three advanced with pins. In the quarterfinals, Seidman notched his second first-period pin, but Anderson lost and left the main draw and Kioko was defeated by the eventual class champion from Wyoming Seminary. Carmona's run ended when he was pinned in the consolations by Kioko, who then won by pin, lost by technical fall, and finally captured fifth place with a 9-7 decision. Anderson began consolations with a pin, lost his next match by the same means, and then ended up eighth when he was edged out in his last match, a 5-6 decision. Seidman left the main draw through a semifinal loss to the champion, then notched a quick pin in consolations and went on to win the third-place bout, 9-4. GA's Fasciocco started out at 120 lbs. with a 9-3 decision, then succumbed in the main draw quarterfinals to the second-place man in the class. SCH junior Jordon Bell faced two familiar opponents, falling to GFS freshman Ben Egner in the main draw, and to Penn Charter junior Jordan Steinhouse in consolations. After his opening win, Egner went down to the Wyoming Seminary grappler who won the class, and he wasn't able to advance in the consolation draw. Steinhouse, who won by decision (8-6) and then lost his second match in the main bracket, began consolations with a pin, as did GA's Fasciocco. Next, the two faced one another, with the Patriot grappler capturing a 3-1 decision and with Steinhouse going on to win the seventh-place match, 9-7. Meanwhile, Fasciocco took a 4-3 decision to get a shot at third place, but came out on the short end of a 4-2 score in that final contest. Charter's 126, sophomore T.J. Henry, moved right into the quarterfinals with a pair of byes. In his first action on the mat he won a 6-4 decision, but then he ran up against the champion (from - where else - Wyoming Seminary). Later, he lost a 4-6 decision in consolations and then regrouped to finish fifth as he closed out the meet with an 8-1 victory. In the round of 16 at this weight, SCH's Purcell pinned Germantown Friends freshman Jake Moss. Moss got a bye in consolations, but lost his next match. Purcell proceeded to pin his next opponent, then slipped out of the main draw with a setback against the eventual runner-up. Feeding right into the consolation semifinals, he recorded a major decision (11-2) and then a regular decision (7-3) to win third place overall. Two freshman, SCH's Marco Goldberg and GA's Deon Savage, squared off at 132 lbs. in an incomplete round of 32. Goldberg won by technical fall, 20-4, and after Savage logged an 8-6 decision in consolations, he wrapped up his weekend with a loss in the next round. After an initial bye, GFS freshman Liem Kleitz was defeated in the main draw round of 16, then moved up in the consolations when his opponent couldn't make weight. Kleitz then made his exit in the next round. For Goldberg, an 11-3 major decision and a loss to the class runner-up followed his win over Savage. Two consolation successes (10-2 and 10-6) and then a loss in the consolation semifinals slotted him into the fifth/sixth match. Meanwhile, PC senior Gene Naumovsky had gone right through to the main draw quarterfinals at 132 lbs. with a bye and a win by forfeit. After logging a 19-4 technical fall, he lost to the eventual second-place finisher. Another setback in consolations meant Naumovsky's last match was against the Blue Devils' Goldberg, and the SCH grappler prevailed, 7-5, to finish fifth overall. The only area 138's were SCH's Williams and Charter sophomore Sam Shemtov. They started out against each other in the round of 16, where Williams engineered a first-period pin. Shemtov advanced with a bye and with a pin in the consolation bracket, then finished eighth when he was less successful in his last two bouts. Williams carried his second main-draw match with an 8-5 decision, then left that bracket through a loss by decision to the runner-up at his weight. He won 3-1 in the consolation semifinals, then wound up fourth when he was outpointed, 7-3, by a formidable Haverford foe. There were also just two area entries at 145 lbs., Springside Chestnut Hill's Hugee and fellow junior George Schwartz of Germantown Academy. Schwartz started out with a 5-0 decision in the round of 16, then lost in the quarterfinals, while Hugee, a higher seed, went through to the quarterfinals with byes. He opened up with a pin, but then was beaten by yet another Wyoming Seminary champion. In the consolation segment, Schwartz pinned his first rival before a pair of unfavorable decisions put in him eighth place overall. Hugee accepted a forfeit in the consolation semifinals, then won the third-place match with a pin late in the opening period. PC's Koenig, SCH junior Andrew Cramer and GA 11th-grader Drew Sandifer all started out at 152 lbs. in the round of 16, where Cramer won with a quick pin and Koenig pinned Sandifer in the second period. After a bye to open consolations, Sandifer advanced with a pin, then was halted at the next stage through a 6-10 decision. Koenig logged another pin to reach the main semifinals, but then lost a decision (10-5) to Malvern's Chris Hisey, the eventual class runner-up who had just beaten the Blue Devils' Cramer in the quarterfinals. Cramer moved on in consolations with a pin and a decision, and although he lost his final two bouts he came away with a sixth-place finish. Feeding into the consolation bracket later on, Koenig collected a major decision (14-6), then came out on the other end of a high-scoring decision (8-11) to place fourth overall. Germantown Friends' Aidan Kleitz, the twin brother of Liem, was wrestling up at 160 lbs., where he had the misfortune to meet the class champ (from Wyoming Seminary) right away. He got underway in consolations with a second-period pin, then succumbed by decision in his next outing. The only other area 160 was GA junior Mike Roman, who began with a pin and then was pinned himself in the third period by the champion from "Sem." Roman collected a forfeit in his first consolation round, and after losing his next contest, he produced an 8-0 major decision to win the battle for seventh place. Two 170 lb. entries, junior Ishmael Bynum of GFS and freshman Matt McGlinchey of PC, began with setbacks in the round of 16, where Bynum fell to the weight class winner from (wait for it...) Wyoming Seminary. In consolations, McGlinchey was able to move along with a bye and a win by forfeit before succumbing in his next contest. Bynum went 1-1 in this bracket, winning the first of these bouts in a 6-2 decision. In the 182 lb. class, GA's Salmon and fellow junior Dante DiStefano of Penn Charter started out in the round of 16, Salmon pinning his rival while DiStefano (a first-year wrestler) succumbed in the same manner in his debut. Later, after profiting from two consolation byes, DiStefano moved farther along with a 12-6 decision before being overcome in his last two matches and ending up in eighth place. In the first of these last two encounters, the PC man was pinned by GA's Salmon, who had left the main draw through a 2-4 decision and then started consolations with a pin before meeting DiStefano. Salmon kept rolling, winning one decision at 14-1 and then another at 6-3 in his successful quest for a third-place finish. SCH senior Michael Spirito and GA junior Ben Sawyer were the area entries at 195 lbs., and both began in the main draw quarterfinals thanks to byes. Sawyer was edged, 3-2, in his first contest, and Spirito had to withdraw from the mat due to an injury, a stinger in his neck. Medically cleared to return later on, the Blue Devil captain received a bye in his first consolation round due to his third-place seed for the tournament. He was then able to pull out a 7-6 win by decision, and since this victory earned him no lower than a sixth-place finish (qualifying him for the prep school Nationals), he forfeited the five/six match to GA's Sawyer to avoid the risk of re-injury. Sawyer had won his first two consolation clashes by major decision. He then lost a regular decision, which put him the slot for fifth place. There were byes into the round of 16 for the three area entries at 220 lbs., senior Dan Smith of GA and juniors Sean Edling of SCH and Quincy Henderson of GFS. Henderson lost his opener, while Edling produced a pin and Smith moved ahead thanks to a forfeit. Edling then left the main draw after a loss by fall to the champ from Haverford, while Smith dropped down after losing a decision, 2-4. The Tigers' Henderson had two byes to start the consolation draw and then he faced Edling, who'd just entered the bracket and won this match with a first-period pin. Edling was edged 6-9 in his next contest, and at the end he was unable to prevail in the match for seventh and eighth place. GA's Smith pinned his first two consolation-round rivals, and then he rebounded from a loss by decision to win the fifth-place match with a pin in the first period. The two area seniors in the 285 lb. class, PC's Costello and Sogo of Germantown Friends, have both had very successful seasons. Both began at PAISWT in the quarterfinals, Sogo staying in the main bracket with a pin, while Costello lost by fall. The Quakers 12th-grader would work his way back to the consolation semifinals with a pair of pins, the first coming in just 13 seconds. Sogo was knocked out of the main draw by the eventual champ from Malvern Prep, Seth Janey (who will be Sogo's classmate at Cornell University). The GFS senior then fed into the consolation bracket just at the stage where he would meet Costello in the semifinals, and here the Charter grappler prevailed, 8-3. In the bout for fifth and sixth place overall, Sogo's opponent forfeited, while in the three/four match Costello suffered a pin at the hands of Hill School's Will Hare, whom he'd already faced in the main quarterfinals.