Photos courtesy of Diane Shannon.

Pottstown (PA), Thursday, January 26, 2006

The first round of matches for district duals has been completed, and after the dust settled, Downingtown West moves on to the next round to face Conestoga. There were plenty of bumps in the road during this match, with our experienced wrestlers getting beat by some of the toughest competition yet this year, and our young wrestlers stepping in and coming up big for the team win. Pat May, Matt McDonough, Jake Miller, and Josh Homer, are all underclassmen and won some really tight matches for the W!!!!

The Whippets came into the match ranked fifth out of the sixteen teams. Quakertown was ranked twelfth. With the win, Downingtown advances to next round on Friday, February 3rd against Conestoga High School. More details about this event will be announced within the next couple of days. Downingtown West improved their record to 2-0 Ches-Mont, 10-0 D-1, 16-1 overall.

Nojan Zomorrodian (215) started the night by pinning his opponent in 1:01, giving Downingtown a lead that they wouldn’t relinquish. Heavyweight Alex Bause was in clear control of his match and cruised to 9-1 major decision. The 103 pound bout placed two state ranked wrestlers against each other, with Leister coming out with the win against Akers. The 112 pound match was a real dog fight, Pat May, our own “Pit Bull” used three takedowns and a very well maneuvered escape to win 7-3. D.J. Evans had another tough fight losing a close one to Rosencranz. Jason Scanlon (125) got the Whippets back on track. He came out quickly and scored often, ending up with a 15-0 technical fall.

Momentum did not have a chance to grow, because Chris Uhler gave up a pin to Weibel and Quakertown managed to get within two team points of Downingtown. With the score 17-15 in Downingtown’s favor, the Whippets needed the middle weights to step it up. Matt McDonough, Jake Miller, Steve Rathfon and Josh Homer answered the challenge. Matt scored a major decision 11-2, Jake won by decision 7-2 and Steve was a take down machine finishing with a technical fall 21-6. Josh Homer showed amazing grace under pressure. A freshman wrestling at a strong 152 weight class, he never backed down. He impressed everyone with a decision. Watch him! There will be great things to come in the future.

Chris Kalbach wrestled for the first time after his ankle injury, but got on the wrong side of Mike Ronzano, a wrestler who lost to A.J. Detwiler by one point. The pressure to win was on Paul Roseberry and our senior captain lived up to the expectations and "rolled" his opponent over for a pin in 1:26. With Paul’s win, Downingtown’s lead for the night was secure! The final bout was much awaited, matching state ranked Pat Flynn against Joe DeGaravilla. Coming off his 100th win the night before against a tough Craig Whitaker, we were all hopeful that Joe could stay out of Flynn's pinning combination. He hung tough for the first period, just giving up one takedown, but the second period came to a quick end with Joe on the wrong side of the "slap".

This win was a good combination for the Whippets. There were enough big losses by big wrestlers to keep them humble and hungry. There were enough wins by the young guys to give us the team win and let everyone see the future of Downingtown West Wrestling. Congratulations and now get ready for part two!!!