Chambersburg’s Cole Grove, left, controls Kyle Miller of Cumberland Valley in a 132-pound match Thursday in the Trojans’ 35-30 win. Grove won a 15-2 major decision to clinch the team victory. (Photo by Darby Sells)

NEW KINGSTOWN — It was not just a win over Cumberland Valley, even as rare as that is for the Chambersburg wrestling team.

Oh, no, this was much more.

The Trojans won eight bouts, including the capper in the final bout by Cole Grove, to hand the Eagles a 35-30 Mid Penn Commonwealth defeat Thursday night at the CV Dome.

The victory likely lifts Chambersburg into a tie with Central Dauphin for the Commonwealth Division title, each with 5-1 records, if CD defeats State College on Saturday as expected. It is the first Mid Penn wrestling championship for Chambersburg.

It also guarantees that the Trojans will be one of the top four seeds for the District 3 Team Championships (they are currently No. 2), which means that Chambersburg will host first- and second-round bouts Tuesday evening.

The team’s final regular season record of 13-1 is perhaps the best in school history.

Even with all that, Chambersburg coach Matt Mentzer remains focused on his kids.

“All of those are nice accomplishments, and the kids worked hard to get them,” Mentzer said. “But that’s not why I’m here.”

Mentzer has always believed that if the individuals on a team do their job, the team part will take care of itself.

Guy Lozius of Chambersburg, right, puts the clamps on Dontey Rogan of CV during a 7-4 win for Lozius at 220 pounds. (Photo by Darby Sells)

Thursday, in a match that had many twists and turns and a lot of coaching strategy and lineups switches, plenty of Trojans did their jobs.

None more so than Grove, who has had a rockier season season than he expected, thanks in part to an injury.

But with the match on the line, Mentzer forfeited the next-to-last bout to CV, bringing the Eagles to within 31-30, and let Grove go out to face Kyle Miller for a winner-take-all bout.

“I knew about two matches before mine that it might come down to me,” Grove said. “I try not to put any extra pressure on myself so that I can go out and perform well. I just wanted to have some fun.”

He did have fun. He took Miller down and added two back points for a 4-0 lead after one, made it 8-1 after two with another takedown and tilt, then finished with a takedown to Miller’s back and an emphatic 15-2 major decision.

Grove said, “I wanted to stay aggressive and focus on scoring points, instead of worrying about what my opponent was going to do. I think that’s hurt me this year.”

The strategy started right away, when Mentzer moved Spencer Runshaw up from 138 to 152. That enabled the Trojans to rip off five consecutive victories and roll to a 25-6 lead.

“Coach told me right before we were leaving on the bus,” Runshaw said. “He told us the game plan and I watched some film of the guy I was going to get. I just tried to keep a high pace and try to wear him down.”

Chambersburg’s Tate Nichter, top, rides Jacob McKenzie of CV with bars in their 145-pound bout. Nichter won by a pin in 4:55. (Photo by Darby Sells)

Tate Nichter began the run with a third-period pin at 145, Spencer Runshaw took an 8-0 major decision, Seth Runshaw notched a pin, Carson Mello earned a huge 3-0 decision over Matt Barrick on a third-period escape and takedown and Luke Nichter finished it, taking only 28 seconds for a fall.

After CV received a forfeit at 195, Chambersburg got two more key wins — by Guy Lozius at 220 (7-4 decision) and Wyatt Hull at 285 (8-1 decision).

That gave the Trojans a 31-12 lead and enough cushion to withstand a Cumberland Valley charge.

Mentzer said, “A lot of those matches, I felt we had the better kid, so the more points that are scored, the more chance the better kid will win. We didn’t want 3-2 wins, and the kids went out and scored early and kept going.”

The bouts at 113 and 120 help set up Chambersburg for the win, too, although CV won them both. Ben Monn, ranked No. 5 in the state, was held to a 4-0 win by Karl Shindledecker, and Anthony Colangelo battled favored Ruston Dzielak tough in a 6-2 defeat.

“Those two did save points, but I didn’t look at it like that,” Mentzer said. “They both went out there to win, not just to not get pinned.”

In the end, Chambersburg had eight winners, and seven of them were wrestling up at least one weight than normal.

“It went pretty much as we hoped for,” Mentzer said. “We won every single match I thought we had to to get to those eight wins.”

Spencer Runshaw said, “Winning this was everything to us, because we wanted this (division title) so bad. Now we hope to keep it going and we want to get to Giant Center (for the PIAA team tournament).”

Spencer Runshaw of Chambersburg, right, controls Ben Belga of CV during an 8-0 victory Thursday at 152 pounds. (Photo by Darby Sells)

Chambersburg 35, Cumberland Valley 30
138 — Cade Reichart (CV) p Anthony Peace, 1:10 (0-6)
145 — Tate Nichter (Ch) p Jacob McKenzie, 4:55 (6-6)
152 — Spencer Runshaw (Ch) md Ben Belga, 8-0 (10-6)
160 — Seth Runshaw (Ch) p Keegan McCoy, 4:46 (16-6)
170 — Carson Mello (Ch) d Matt Barrick, 3-0 (19-6)
182 — Luke Nichter (Ch) p Evan Boyd, 0:28 (25-6)
195 — Jacob Lucas (CV) won by forfeit (25-12)
220 — Guy Lozius (Ch) d Dontey Rogan, 7-4 (28-12)
285 — Wyatt Hull (Ch) d Connor Mundis, 8-1 (31-12)
106 — Noah Groelly (CV) p April Rump, 3:16 (31-18)
113 — Ben Monn (CV) d Karl Shindledecker, 4-0 (31-21)
120 — Ruston Dzielak (CV) d Anthony Colangelo, 6-2 (31-24)
126 — Mason Viehman (CV) won by forfeit (31-30)
132 — Cole Grove (Ch) md Kyle Miller, 15-2 (35-30)