Karl Shindledecker of Chambersburg, behind Maddox Shaw of Thomas Jefferson (in gold), tries to hold his opponent down during a 126-pound quarterfinal bout Friday at the PIAA Wrestling Championships. Shaw earned a 5-0 decision.
HERSHEY — Those dreams of golds medals will to be revised.
Chambersburg’s Karl Shindledecker and Shippensburg’s Dominic Frontino both had trouble getting into their offense and were denied victory in the quarterfinal round of the PIAA Class 3A Wrestling Championships on Friday afternoon at Giant Center. They have both earned medals and can finish as high as third place.
Shindledecker was matched up with freshman Maddox Shaw of Thomas Jefferson at 126 pounds and Shaw prevailed 5-0. Those were the first points scored against the Trojan senior in seven postseason bouts.
Mentzer said, “That was a real good young kid. He slowed the pace of the match down by controlling Karl’s wrists with the overhook on their feet — it was the same kind of technique we saw last year in regionals from (Mac) Church (of Waynesburg). (Shaw) controlled the ties, but he didn’t attack from it, and Karl didn’t do enough to clear himself from it.”
Shaw struck for a sharp takedown by catching the opposite single less than a minute into the bout, and rode Shindledecker the rest of the way. In the second, Shindledecker chose neutral, but Shaw’s defense was up to the task and he couldn’t score. Shindledecker, who is very good on top, could hold Shaw down for only about 20 seconds and that made it 3-0. Shindledecker tried a variety of shots in the final minute, but Shaw countered them all and finally scored a takedown at the buzzer.
There was a really strange occurrence in the bout before the Shindledecker-Shaw match — one of the wrestlers tossed up all over the mat and it took arena workers over 10 minutes to clean it up and sanitize the mat.
“The situation with the match before kind of messed things up … although it was for both kids. You kind of get into a routine before each match — and we had to wait, what, 10 minutes? It was awkward for both kids, but there was no other way to handle it. I’ve never seen something like that before.”
Frontino met up with Dylan Evans of Chartiers Valley — who had knocked Frontino out oft he regionals last year — and suffered a 10-3 defeat. Evans was able to control Frontino”s hands in neutral, which allowed him to push Frontino around. That led to a fireman’s takedown worth four points. Another takedown made it 6-1 after one period.
After an escape, Frontino got his best shot in, but Evans was able to withstand a long scramble and come out on top to lead 8-2. He added one more takedown in the final period.
In a second-round consolation bout at 189, Ship’s Diesel Koser was edged 3-2 by Sam Milligan of Strath Haven. Milligan nearly surrendered a takedown at the edge, but he shifted his weight at the right time and, instead, he gained two points with 38 seconds left to go up 3-1. Koser escaped at 0:13 and very nearly pulled off a desperate shot at the end, but it was waved off by the officials.
Koser, a junior, finished with a 32-11 record.
Shindledecker came back in the third round of consolations to pick up a 7-0 verdict over Gunnar Myers of Wallenpaupack. That will guarantee him a top-8 medal, which will be the third PIAA medal of his career.
After scoring on a single-leg attack in the first period, Shindledecker made it 4-0 in the second with a smooth and lightning-quick duck-under. He finished it off with an escape and takedown in the third. Shindledecker will take on Braxton Appello-Fries of Nazareth in a consy bout Saturday.
Also in the consolation round, Frontino made quick work of Mason Stein of Central Bucks East. Stein caught Frontino’s ankle, but the Greyhound junior countered well, worked Stein into a cradle for the takedown, then took his time to score the fall in just 40 seconds.
Frontino will meet Dagen Condomitti of Northampton in the next round of consolations on Saturday.