Abington Heights senior Brian Heard completed a four-year sweep of District 2 championships and repeated as Northeast Regional champion to lead a group of three Comets who qualified for the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Individual Championships March 4-6 at The Giant Center in Hershey.
Mason Whitney won the district title and placed third in the region and Jake Schiavone landed a state spot by taking fifth in the region.
Heard improved to 49-3 on the season with 26 pins and 16 technical falls. Last year’s state fifth-place state finisher is 173-24 for his career with 97 pins and 29 technical falls.
Abington Heights was second in the team scoring in the district tournament and was the highest finisher among district schools in the Northeast Regional.
Northeast Regional
Heard finished off technical falls in the first period in the first two rounds of the 172-pound bracket Feb. 28 and March 1 at Bethlehem Liberty High School.
The second day was much more difficult.
Heard decisioned Shane McFillin from Bethlehem Catholic 7-5 in the semifinals, then needed the second tie-breaker period to stop Connor Wetzel from Shikellamy 2-1 in the final.
Whitney won four of five bouts to end up third at 127. He recovered from a semifinal loss with two straight wins, including 12-4 over Easton’s Noah Fenner in the consolation final.
Schiavone went 4-2 to take fifth at 114. He shut out two opponents and won the fifth-place bout and his state berth with a 4-1 victory over Bethlehem Liberty’s Jasiah Pagan.
Luke Evans also reached the fifth-place bout, but lost to Whitehall’s Trokon Kai, 7-2.
Nazareth beat Bethlehem Catholic 161-141 for the team title.
Keith Yusinski dropped two decisions by a total of five points at 160.
Abington Heights compiled 67 points for eighth place out of the 50 teams that sent wrestlers to regionals.
District 2
Heard and Whitney each won District 2 Class 3A titles with technical falls in the final when the two-day tournament wrapped up Feb. 22 at Wilkes-Barre Area.
After reaching the 172-pound final with three straight first-period pins, Heard defeated Wallenpaupack’s Gabriel Caufield 20-2 in 2:53.
Whitney topped Hazleton Area’s Tyler Youngcourt 17-1 in 2:24 at 127. Following a first-round bye, he made the final with a pair of first-period pins.
Schiavone and Evans advanced to the final, but dropped four-point decisions and finished second.
Yusinski pinned West Scranton’s Evan Walsh in 47 seconds of the 160-pound consolation final to take third.
Freshman Chace Berry was fourth at 145.
J.J. Beck and Frank Scalpi finished fifth at 133 and 215.
Wallenpaupack outscored Abington Heights 200-160½ at the top of the 12-team field.
