Seven pins help PC wrestlers take down SCH Blue Devils, 58-11

by Tom Utescher
Posted 1/22/25

While it's likely that defending champ Malvern Prep is heading toward another Inter-Ac League wrestling title, it appears that a battle for second place could be shaping up between Germantown Academy and Penn Charter following PC's 58-11 victory over Springside Chestnut Hill Academy last Friday evening.

GA defeated the SCH Blue Devils, 60-12, back on January 3, and the Patriots are scheduled to meet the PC Quakers on January 31. Both GA and Charter have beaten Episcopal Academy and have yet to face Haverford School.

When SCH wrestled GA, the Blue Devils were missing seniors Sean Brett …

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Seven pins help PC wrestlers take down SCH Blue Devils, 58-11

Posted

While it's likely that defending champ Malvern Prep is heading toward another Inter-Ac League wrestling title, it appears that a battle for second place could be shaping up between Germantown Academy and Penn Charter following PC's 58-11 victory over Springside Chestnut Hill Academy last Friday evening.

GA defeated the SCH Blue Devils, 60-12, back on January 3, and the Patriots are scheduled to meet the PC Quakers on January 31. Both GA and Charter have beaten Episcopal Academy and have yet to face Haverford School.

When SCH wrestled GA, the Blue Devils were missing seniors Sean Brett (150 lbs.) and Nasir Yard (190 lbs.) for medical reasons. The two 12th-graders competed last Friday at Penn Charter, providing all 11 SCH points with a technical fall and a win by forfeit, respectively.

The Quakers won seven matches by fall (pins), one by forfeit, and two by technical fall. Charter went into the match without injured middleweight veteran Grey Catlow-Sidler, a Prep All-American who will wrestle at the NCAA Division I level at Long Island University.

Longtime Penn Charter head coach Peter Shaifer has shifted into the role of assistant coach this season. The new head coach is Steve Wallace, who coached for 17 years at Pennsauken (N.J.) High School and has worked with numerous wrestling club teams and organizations.

Last Friday, neither team had an entry for the 106 lb. and 113 lb. weight classes, so the first team points weren't posted until the visiting Blue Devils forfeited to Penn Charter freshman Mac Weinstein at 120 lbs.

Both squads showed up for the 126 lb. contest, and PC sophomore Cole Furtek quickly executed a takedown and then pinned SCH freshman Talan Ferraro 36 seconds into the match. In a 132 lb. bout between freshmen, PC's Matteo Prichett matted visitor Shawn Quinn in 44 seconds, lifting the Quakers to an 18-0 advantage in the meet.

Charter added five team points with a technical fall in the 138 lb. category. To pile up takedown points (along with a near fall), Quakers senior Munir German deliberately allowed several escapes by SCH sophomore Shane Keefe. Keefe avoided a pin at the end of the first period, but German was awarded a near fall at the end of the sequence, gaining the 15-point margin (at 19-4) needed for the tech fall.

Another Penn Charter 12th-grader, Henry Greenberg, took the mat for the 144 lb. bout. He produced a pin against Devils freshman Alex Strock with 26 ticks remaining in the opening round.

The scoreboard now read 29-0 in favor of the hosts, but the Blue Devils made a mark on the visitors' side at 150 pounds. While PC's Griffin LaMent avoided a pin, he fell far behind fellow senior Sean Brett in points. 

Two takedowns put Brett up 6-1 in the first period, then in the second he performed an escape and a takedown to make it 10-1. Starting down again in the third, the SCH senior escaped, got a takedown, and then scored a near fall with three seconds remaining to wrap up an 18-1 technical fall.

At 157 lbs., Quakers senior Hugh Maley started with a takedown, then junior John Piezcynski of the Blue Devils reversed his PC rival to cut his deficit to one point, 3-2. Maley staged a reversal of his own, though, and went on to pin Pieczynski just over a minute into the match.

Two takedowns sandwiched around an escape gave the Charter 165, Simon Bethea, a 6-1 lead over fellow junior Tristan Ferraro. Working off of the second takedown, Bethea cashed in with a pin with 25 seconds left in the opening period.

The action at 175 lbs. ended with 35 seconds to go in the first frame, with Leo Pritchett, a Quakers senior, pinning Blue Devils junior Robbie Murray. The meet score changed to 47-11 when the visitors acquired their last six points of the evening, thanks to the Quakers' forfeit to Nasir Yard at 190 lbs.

When Penn Charter junior Augie Turner squared off against SCH 10th-grader Nolan Delaney in the 215 lb. class, Turner scored a takedown and a near fall in both the first and second periods to take a 14-0 advantage into round three. Turner escaped from the bottom position 11 seconds into the third stanza, locking in a 15-0 victory by technical fall.

The Blue Devils' Amari Fallen went ahead early in the 285 lb. match with a takedown, then he was reversed by fellow junior Tristan Padgett. Behind 3-2 for the start of the second period, Padgett escaped from the bottom, took down Fallen, and pinned him with 22 seconds left.