Blair Defeats Easton 51-10 to Cap Off a Three-Win Day at the NHSCA Final Four of High School Wrestling

BLAIR FACES #5 ST. EDWARD OF OHIO THIS SATURDAY JANUARY 26

Easton, Penn. Wrestling inside Easton High School’s home gymnasium is tough for any team. The Blair Bucs knew this, but they drove the 45 minutes this past Saturday January 19 with one thing in mind-to win. And they did. Blair pulled out all stops…all student-athletes competed hard and they came away with a big 51-10 win over the #24-ranked Easton Red Rovers. Scoring crucial pins for Blair were Garrett Frey at 135 lbs., Corey Peltier at 171 lbs., Ben Krakower at 189 lbs., and Kyle Hanson at HWT.

“Beating Easton at Easton is always tough. They are a perennial powerhouse and their kids always show up to wrestle us. We were able to pull out all the close matches, and that kept the momentum going for us,” said Blair Head Coach Jeff Buxton. “Easton has a solid line-up with two state champions; they will do well in both their dual state and individual state tournaments.”

Other highlights of the Blair-Easton dual included: Evan Silver winning by 19-7 at 103 lbs.; Sean Boyle looking solid at 112 lbs. to win 14-1; Anthony Valles shutting out his opponent 7-0 at 125 lbs.; Austin Ormsbee edging his opponent 6-4 at 140 lbs., and at 145 lbs. Mario Mason got back into the mix, this time he came away with a 7-2 decision.

Two other Blair athletes wrestled well, but came up a bit short: Tony Buxton lost a hard-fought battle to Pennsylvania state champion and #6-ranked Kegan Handlovic at 119 lbs. and Joe Stanzione ran into the top 130 pounder in the nation, Jordan Oliver. Both wrestlers fought hard and will learn from these matches heading into this weekend’s competition. Buxton’s match could have gone either way.

SHANAMAN/HANZLIK:
In one of the most exciting matches of the night Jesse Shanaman needed three overtime periods to come out a winner. He scored a reversal and two backpoints and came out the winner by a score of 8-4 at 152 lbs. Adam Hogue (160 lbs.) won by a score of 15-6, and Steve Hanzlik escaped with 45 seconds left to secure a 6-5 decision at 215 lbs.

Blair was 3-0 on the day: the Bucs also defeated Benton (Penn.) 66-3 and East Side, South Carolina 54-9.

BLAIR SUPER QUAD – JANUARY 26:
Next up for the Bucs is the Blair Super Quad this Saturday January 26. The action will commence at 2:30 p.m. inside the Blair gymnasium. Blair will face Bergen Catholic (New Jersey), McDonogh (Maryland), and #5-ranked St. Edward High School of Ohio, last year’s national champion.

“Saturday we are renewing our rivalry with St. Edward and we are looking forward to an exciting match as both teams get up for the annual meet. This is a season where I don’t think we’ve put our best team out on the mat yet, but it is January and everyone has a few bumps and bruises. This is our first home meet and there will be some great wrestling,” Jeff Buxton said.

Please direct all questions and comments to buxtoj@blair.edu.