Scotties’ Kitta makes fast work of opening bout
HERSHEY — When it takes you longer to explain how you pinned your opponent than it did to actually pin him, you’ve had a pretty good day as a wrestler.
That was Jordan Kitta’s day at Giant Center in Hershey on Thursday as the Southmoreland High 195-pound senior decked David Tirpak of Northwestern Lehigh in just 56 seconds to advance to this morning’s quarterfinal round of the PIAA Class AA Individual Wrestling Championships.
“It was a nice shot open so I thought I’d take it,” Kitta said. “I saw him step up and I was gonna cradle him, but he dropped down.”
And once Tirpak did, it was all over, which saved Kitta from expending a lot of first-round energy.
“A tournament this big, no match is easy,” Kitta said. “The last thing you want to do is go out there and play with him, and then he catches you and you get pinned.”
Kitta, the Southwest Regional champ with a 33-1 record, faces Logan Murphy (40-7) of Boiling Springs in today’s quarterfinal round. He beat Murphy here last year. If he survives that round, he’ll face Ray O’Donnell, of Saucon Valley, or Ryan Solomon, of Milton. Combined, those two are 75-1.
“They’re both real tough kids,” Kitta said.
Teammate Austin Griffiths at 106 dropped a tough 2-0 decision to Boiling Springs’ Korbin Myers in the first round, but bounced back to defeat Dominic DeGraba of Dallas Area, 4-1, to remain in the consolation bracket.
The consolation round was where Kyle Gray’s high school career came to an end. Wrestling for Mapletown, which this year brought back wrestling on a probationary feeder level for the first time since 1987, Gray was pinned in 1:13 at 195 pounds by Milton’s Solomon and then dropped a tough 3-2 overtime decision to Alex Svetz of North East.
“We had 20 kids try out and 15 stuck it out,” coach Chris Shilk explained.
“We had four seniors and one senior leader and he was able to make it to Hershey,” he said about Gray. “It’s nice when you have young guys who have never seen wrestling before see a kid like that come into the room and show them the type of work it takes to get to that level and the amount of dedication you have to have to the program. It was a real asset.
“It was really amazing to be able to take a team resurrected from the ashes and be able to show the kids the journey from sections to districts to regions and even down to the state tournament.”
Shilk said there are some small colleges looking at Gray.
“With a wrestling career for Kyle to fall back on it will only help his academic career going forward,” Shilk said.
Jefferson-Morgan’s Dustin Conti is going forward at 170 pounds after a 6-1 decision over Evan Heffron of Tri-Valley.
A couple of a takedowns sandwiched around a second-period reversal did the trick for Conti, who noted that he was wasn’t feeling all that well.
“My stomach hurt, but I felt like I could have dominated more,” said Conti, who will meet Tristan Sponseller (45-2) today. “I think I’m set up pretty good where I’m at (in the bracket).”
J-M teammate Jason Miller, a sophomore, is out of the 120-pound bracket after losing by fall in 1:34 to Zeke Moisey of Bethlehem Catholic and then a 12-5 decision to Jared Woomer of Bellwood-Antis.
Beth-Center junior Zach Swarrow (31-9) earned himself a rematch with Bedford’s Ryan Easter by defeating Willie Gruver of Redbank Valley, 4-2, at 113 pounds. An early single-leg takedown and late nearfall sealed it for Swarrow.
Easter had to work overtime to dump Matt Williams of Pen Argyl, 3-1.
“I have Easter next,” Swarrow said. “He beat me 4-2 last week. I can beat him. I just have to go out and wrestle good.”
“He reversed me (last week) in the second period and I reversed him with 20 seconds to go, but I got in bad position and he reversed me at the end,” Swarrow said about last week’s Southwest Regional matchup.
“We’re familiar with each other.”
West Greene junior 220-pounder Cody Jacobs lost a pair of matches Thursday as he was pinned in 3:03 by Evan Dailey of Ft. LeBoeuf before dropping a 9-2 consolation match to Kane Kralik of Palmerton.
Action resumes at 9 a.m. today. The highlight of the Class AA tournament is Derry Area’s Jimmy Gulibon attempting to become just the 10th four-time champion in 75 years of the PIAA tournament. The last four-timer was Jeremy Hunter of McGuffey in 1993-96.