Abington Heights led all District 2 teams, finishing seventh, behind six teams from powerful District 11, Feb. 27-28 in the Class 3A Northeast Regional at Bethlehem Liberty High School.
Brady Full and Mason Whitney led the way for the Comets, finishing third in their weight classes to earn spots in the state championship March 5-7 at the Giant Center in Hershey.
Abington Heights scored 67½ points, 7½ more than eighth-place Hazleton Area.
Notre Dame-Green Pond won the title by a half-point over Nazareth with 139½. Northampton, Bethlehem Catholic, Easton and Emmaus finished third through sixth.
Full and Whitney followed similar paths at 127 and 133.
Each went 4-1 on the weekend, recovering from close quarterfinal losses with three straight wins. They controlled the bouts in their first three wins before getting through tight decisions in the consolation finals.
Full outscored opponents 32-0 in a technical fall, major decision and additional decision in his first three wins at 127. His loss came 4-1 to Easton’s Nicholas Salamone. Full defeated Andre Cerrato from Bethlehem Catholic 6-2 in the ultimate tiebreaker for third place.
Whitney avenged a double overtime loss from the quarterfinals when he beat Nazareth’s Caleb Kosko 4-2 for third place. He ended each of his other three bouts in 2:20 or less with a pin and two technical falls.
Three Comets finished sixth, led by Lucas Drake, the team’s only semifinalist.
Drake reached the semifinals at 152 with a first-period pin and a technical fall. He was pinned with two seconds left in the semifinals, then dropped a two-point decision and a one-pointer in a pair of overtimes.
Dakota Sandy and Frank Scialpi were sixth at 114 and 215.
Sandy went 3-3 with two technical falls and a major decision, but he lost his last two bouts by a total of five points.
Scialpi also 3-3. He won twice by pin, but was pinned three times, including in his last two bouts.
Chace Berry won his opener at 145, but then lost two straight and was eliminated.
Class 2A
Lackawanna Trail’s Mark Rebmann placed fifth at 145 Feb. 27-28 at Williamsport.
Rebmann lost his opener, then won three of four consolation bouts. His last two wins came by pin, including stopping Canton’s Tommy Preston in 3:25 of the fifth-place bout.
The four other Lions went 0-2 in the tournament.
Line Mountain won with 109 points, 10½ more than Montoursville. Honesdale was fourth, leading District 2 teams with 92½.
Lackawanna Trail was tied for 30th out of 42 teams with 11 points. Scranton Prep was one of seven teams that did not score.
Girls
Lackawanna Trail freshman Cidney Schaffer pinned four straight opponents to win the Central Regional 100-pound title Feb. 28 at Milton. She also earned a spot in the state tournament in Hershey, where she will try to add to her perfect record of 11-0 with 11 pins when competing against other girls.
Schaffer needed just 27 seconds to defeat Curwensville’s McKenzie Astorino in the final.
Athens edged Montgomery 100½-100 for the title.
Lackawanna Trail was 21st with 30 points.
Of the 66 teams with entries, nine, including Scranton Prep, did not score any points.
