Photos courtesy of Diane Shannon

Spring-Ford High School, Royersford (PA), Saturday, February 25th 2006

In what was the most exciting wrestling event this year, Downingtown West placed second in the District 1 South Tournament for the second year in a row. Eight Whippets earned medals and advanced to next week’s regional tournament at Norristown High School. The team was led by first place finishers Rob Akers (103) and Steve Rathfon (140). Akers improved his season record to 37-1 by dominating all three of his opponents with tech falls. Rob started with a 16-0 victory over Chris Pharoah (Strath Haven). He followed by defeating Will Bentley (Owen J. Roberts) 17-2 and finished the event by overpowering Kyle Liberato (Great Valley) 16-0. At the 140 pound weight class, Steve Rathfon used his strength and technique to control his opponents. With each opponent, Steve managed to improve on the outcome of his bouts. The first match was an 8-2 decision over Justin Hostetter (Oxford), his next match was 11-2 major decision over Taylor Petrellis (Ridley) and Steve pinned Cliff Pang (Conestoga) in 2:43 to close out an excellent weekend of wrestling.

The remaining medalists for the weekend were Joe deGaravilla (189) who placed 2nd. D.J. Evans (119) and Jason Scanlon (125) earned 3rd place medals. Nojan Zomorrodian ended the tournament with a 4th place medal. Pat May (112) and Jake Miller (135) each finished 5th.

Make sure to look at the weekend photos by Diane Shannon.

Read the article by NATE HECKENBERGER, Staff Writer for the daily local.