January 19, 2006 Issue                                               

©2005 The Chestnut Hill Local

Chestnut Hill Academy wrestlers fall to Fords
by TOM UTESCHER

CHA’s Sam Gilbert

Last Friday’s Inter-Ac League wrestling opener at Chestnut Hill Academy got underway almost an hour behind schedule, and with a total of six matches decided by pins and two more by forfeit, the actual meet didn’t last much longer than the delay beforehand.

Unfortunately for the host Blue Devils, the two forfeits and four of the pins put points on the visitors’ side of the scoreboard, helping Haverford School to a 42-24 victory. The Fords upped their overall dual-meet record to 4-2, while CHA dipped to 2-7.

The action commenced with the 135 lb. bout, in which Chestnut Hill’s Alex Blenheim built up a 5-2 lead over two periods. At the start of the third, however, visitor Joe Tornetta scored a reverse, and he went on to pick up a pin with 1:09 remaining in the match. The Devils leveled the team score at 6-all thanks to Malcolm Taylor, who quickly took down Brian Eberly and pinned him with eight seconds left in the opening round.

The Fords answered with their own first-period pin at 145, where Justin Schellenger defeated the Blue Devils’ Matt Flannery, but CHA won at 152 lbs., with Henry Gilbert going ahead on an early takedown and then leading the rest of the way to post a 6-2 decision. At this juncture, Chestnut Hill was only trailing 9-12 in the meet score, but the Fords then ran off five straight victories (four of them pins), to go up by a full 30 points.

After visiting 160 James Nelson matted the hosts’ Don Leatherwood in the opening frame, two impressive 171-pounders took the mat. Opening the scoring with a takedown, Drew Hanna of Haverford stayed ahead of CHA’s Sam Gilbert through two periods. The score was 7-4 at the start of the third, but Gilbert escaped from the bottom position and then tied the score at 7-all by nailing a takedown with 1:26 to go.