HERSHEY — The Chambersburg wrestling team put up a great fight Thursday night in the PIAA Team Championships, despite missing two key members of their lineup.

Ashton Romberger

The Trojans faced District 7 champion Canon-McMillan in the round of 16 at Giant Center and suffered a 41-24 defeat.

Chambersburg (19-4) will face Erie Cathedral Prep (13-8) in a first-round consolation match Friday morning at 10:30.

“Missing two of our starters (Zach Evans at 215 and Jaccob Stoner at 172), who were sick, made the chance of us beating them extremely difficult,” Trojan coach Matt Mentzer said. “They have some good kids on that team, but I think we could have beaten them.”

The Big Macs (15-2), who will meet Spring-Ford in the quarterfinals Friday, won nine of the 13 bouts. But the four the Trojans did win were all by pin.

Avery Kuhns (285), Zach Sherman (114), Ashton Romberger (133) and Tyler Frye (152) earned the pins.

Mentzer said, “The places where we had the better kid, we got the bonus points. Those four went out and fought hard and did a nice job.”

The match started at 189, with a bout between two state-ranked wrestlers. Canon-McMillan’s Gabriel Stafford took a 3-2 win over Aiden Hight.

“We had to have that one to have a chance,” Mentzer said. “Aiden gave up an early takedown, then did a nice job after that. He had a couple of takedowns that went out of bounds.”

Two of Chambersburg’s top wrestlers, Rylan Carter (121) and Luke Mentzer (127) lost to state-ranked opponents.

Coach Mentzer said, “Sherman led only 1-0 after two periods, then got a takedown and worked in a tight half for his pin. Kuhns had a kid who weighed about 280 and had a good record, but the dominated him.

“We just didn’t have the energy level we needed to match them. The kids knew we had our backs to the wall without those two starters.”

Canon-McMillan 41, Chambersburg 24
189 — Gabriel Stafford (CM) d Aiden Hight, 3-2 (0-3)
215 — Geno Calgaro (CM) p Ben Chambers, 1:02 (0-9)
285 — Avery Kuhns (Ch) p Noah Livesay, 0:46 (6-9)
107 — Tanner Mizenko (CM) p Ben Hoover, 4:58 (6-15)
114 — Zach Sherman (Ch) p Collier Hartman, 5:35 (12-15)
121 — Brandon Dami (CM) md Rylan Carter, 9-0 (12-19)
127 — Andrew Binni (CM) d Luke Mentzer, 8-2 (12-22)
133 — Ashton Romberger (Ch) p. Ryder Joseph, 1:22 (18-22)
139 — Luke Shaffer (CM) p Riley Beecher, 4:49 (18-28)
145 — Josiah Gardner (CM) d Logan Mickey, 10-5 (18-31)
152 — Tyler Frye (Ch) p Racer Litster, 1:45 (24-31)
160 — Blake Wood (CM) d Ivan Mixell, 4-3
172 — Matthew Furman (CM) won by forfeit