Three Cranberry wrestlers vying for state medals

Dalton Wenner shakes hands with Sierra Chiesa before their Regional matchup last week in Sharon.​

The Cranberry trio of Brayden McFetridge, Elijah Brosius and Dalton Wenner will each wrestle for a medal on the closing day of the PIAA AA Wrestling Championships in Hershey.

It was a roller-coaster day for the Berry squad on Friday.

McFetridge opened the day’s competition with a 215-pound consolation round 2 match against Kollin Brungart of Penns Valley. The senior, who attends Oil City High School, won by a pin in 2:06. In consolation round 3, he defeated Grant Mathias of Berlin Brothersvalley in a 5-0 decision. The win secured him a spot in a medal match.

Friday night, he dropped his second match of the tournament with a 8-0 major decision to Vitali Daniels of Bentworth. This put McFetridge into the seventh-place match, where he will compete against Dante Burns of Conwell-Egan. McFetridge is 38-6 on the season and 3-2 in the tournament so far.

​Brosius and Wenner both opened their days with quarterfinals matchups in the championship round but struggled to move forward into the semis.

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Brosius, a sophomore student at Oil City High School, lost by a 16-1 technical fall to a nearly unbeaten Brandt Harer of Montgomery, who is 45-1 on the season. The 121-pounder rebounded from the loss in dramatic fashion, defeating Jack Kazalas of Quaker Valley with a takedown in a sudden victory period. In the consolation round 4, he dropped a 2-1 heartbreaker to Aiden Grogg of Saucon Valley.

Tomorrow, he faces off against Max Wirnsberger of Meadowbrook Christian for a shot at seventh place. Brosius is 32-11 on the season and 2-2 so far in the state tournament.

Cranberry’s youngest state qualifier, freshman Dalton Wenner, lost 6-0 to William Detar of Trinity in the 107 quarterfinals. In consolation round 3, Wenner matched up against North West Regional foe Sierra Chiesa of Northwestern. It is the third time the two have wrestled each other in a high-stakes setting this season. And like the finals of the regional competition and the Fred Bell tournament, Wenner again came out on top, but this time Chiesa kept it closer, losing 11-5.

In the consolation round 4, Wenner dropped a 7-0 decision to Kole Davidheiser of Faith Christian Academy, making him Cranberry’s other wrestler in a seventh-place match. He will wrestle Gage Swank of Muncy to determine which medal he will take home. Wenner is 33-5 on the season and 2-2 at the tournament.

Dane Wenner was Cranberry’s other wrestler competing on Friday. He closed out the tournament at 1-2 after dropping a consolation round 2 match to Tyler Morrison of West Perry. He ended his season with a 36-11 record.

All AA medal matches for each weight bracket will compete on Saturday, starting at 2 p.m. Medals will be awarded to the top eight wrestlers in each class, guaranteeing that Cranberry will have three medalists this year. As a team, Cranberry has scored 21 points and is currently tied for 30th out of 113 teams represented at the championships.

Conneaut Area has two wrestlers vying for medals Saturday as well. Collin Hearn advanced to the third-place match with a 3-2 victory over Luke Sugalski of Faith Christian Academy in the 160 consolation semifinals. He will face Deegan Ross of Lackawanna Trail in the final match of his high school wrestling career. Hearn is 37-6 on the season and has a career record of 113-28.

His teammate Hunter Gould will wrestle for fifth place at 127. The CASH junior dropped a 6-2 decision to Coen Bainey of Bald Eagle Area in the consolation semis and will face fellow District 10 wrestler Cyrus Hurd of North East today. The two faced off last weekend at the regional finals, where Hurd won by a 2-1 margin. In the District 10 finals in February, Gould defeated Hurd by a 15-0 technical fall in 3:27.