Conti, Kitta come up short in Class AA semifinals
Jefferson-Morgan’s Dustin Conti (top right) battles Ft. LeBoeuf’s Craig Cihon during their 170-pound semifinals match at the PIAA Class AA Individual Wrestling Championships Friday in Hershey. Cihon defeated Conti, 8-6. (Photo by The Associated Press)
Jefferson-Morgan’s Dustin Conti (left) battles Ft. LeBoeuf’s Craig Cihon during their 170-pound semifinals match at the PIAA Class AA Individual Wrestling Championships Friday in Hershey. Cihon defeated Conti, 8-6. (Photo by The Associated Press)
HERSHEY — The PIAA Class AA Individual Wrestling Championships semifinal round ended in disappointment for two area wrestlers Friday night.
Attempts by Jefferson-Morgan’s Dustin Conti at 170 pounds and Southmoreland’s Jordan Kitta at 195 to make Saturday night’s finals were stopped short, but those two and two other area wrestlers will be on the awards stand after this afternoon’s finals.
Southmoreland freshman Austin Griffiths will wrestle for third place today at 106 pounds while Zach Swarrow of Beth-Center will vie for seventh.
Conti, after winning a quarterfinal round bout 5-4 over Bermudian Springs’ Tristan Sponseller, dropped an 8-6 semifinal match to Craig Cihon of Ft. LeBoeuf. Cihon got in on Conti twice for takedowns and his four escapes offset Conti’s impressive ability to immediately register reversals.
Conti tried a number of double-leg takedown shots in the fast-paced match, but Cihon was able to counter, and he slipped a Conti headlock attempt for the final two-pointer.
Conti lost a frustrating consolation semi by a 2-1 overtime tiebreaker in which he almost gave up a takedown at the end of the first period to Muncy’s Troy Hembury and almost scored a reversal of his own at the end of the second. Neither one got the call but Hembury escaped late in the third overtime period for the win.
Conti will wrestle for fifth place today against United’s John Blankenship.
Kitta, meanwhile, was stifled by the strength of Milton’s Ryan Solomon in a 3-0 semifinal loss. Kitta edged Logan Murphy of Boiling Springs, 6-5, in Friday’s quarterfinals, but Cihon prevented Kitta from getting any productive shots and rode Kitta for the entire third period.
Kitta also lost his consi semi 8-5 to North East’s Alex Svetz, 8-5, and will fight for fifth today against Brandon Smith of Lewisburg.
Southmoreland’s Griffiths has won four straight matches in the consolation bracket after losing 2-0 in the first round to finalist Korbin Myers of Boiling Springs, 2-0.
Three of the wins came Friday as he blanked Kane’s Cody Blankenship, 2-0, Burgettstown’s Austin McDermitt, 7-0, and Saigertown’s Tyler Vath, 3-1.
“It’s amazing in itself just to get to that point, losing in the first round as he did,” Southmoreland coach Michael Wildey said. “It’s 2-0 and he was in that match. It’s remarkable as a freshman to make it into that situation.
“Now we go against Justin Patrick, who we’ve wrestled a few times, so we’ll see what happens here.”
Patrick, from Ligonier Valley, has defeated Griffiths a couple of times this season.
Beth-Center’s Swarrow was beaten, 4-2, by Bedford’s Ryan Easter. Swarrow then pinned South Fayette’s Seth Carr, before falling 7-0 to Josh Patrick of Ligonier Valley. Swarrow fill meet Mifflinburg’s David Sheesley today for seventh.