SPRING GROVE — Chambersburg continued its stretch of excellent wrestling Thursday night and got its just rewards.

The Trojans defeated Elco 40-27 in a semifinal match of the District 3 Class 3A team wrestling tournament at Spring Grove. That win put Chambersburg (15-3) into the district championship for only the second time ever. The Trojans will take on Gettysburg (18-2) at Central York at 1 p.m.

Zach Sherman

The win also clinched a berth in the PIAA team championships —  the first round is Tuesday night. The Chambersburg-Gettysburg winner will go against a preliminary round winner (District 12-2 vs. District 1-3), while the loser will meet the District 1 champion.

Trojan coach Matt Mentzer said, “(When we looked at the matchups vs. Elco), we had it maybe six wins for us, five for them and two toss-ups. So we knew it’d be close. And we figured 172 and 107 would be really key matches. But since 107 went last, the way it worked out, it was irrelevant.”

Chambersburg trailed 21-20 after the No. 6 seed Raiders (13-2) got a pin from Klint Miller at 160. But Isaiah Tasker scored a major decision at 172, 13-3 over Brinley Donmoyer, and Jaccob Stoner followed with an 18-9 major at 189 over David Nelson, giving the Trojans a 28-21 advantage with two bouts left. Elco got 6 points back with Kyle Miller’s pin at 215.

Then Frank Barrientos did his thing, scoring a pin in just 30 seconds, to bump the lead to 34-27 and clinch the win. With the match already won, Elco chose to forfeit to Isaac Brambley at 107.

Mentzer said, “When Isaiah, Jake and Frank all got bonus points, we had the 7-point lead we needed. So it was Tasker and Stoner that set the table for the end.”

The Raiders got off to a good start, with three technical falls in the first four bouts, to lead 15-6, with only Zach Sherman’s pin at 127 on Chambersburg’s ledger.

Then came back-to-back-to-back Trojan wins — a pin from Ashton Romberger (139), an 18-1 tech fall from Justin Deneen (145) and a 9-4 decision from Logan Mickey at 152, to put Chambersburg up 20-15. Klint Miller’s pin at 160 put Elco back on top, but then the Trojans won four of the last five.

“Looking back, we had two points saved when we didn’t get pinned at 121 (Brayan Gonzales) and 133 (Ethan Pazkowski),” Mentzer said. “If they don’t do that, then we would have only had a 5-point lead with two to go, and that would have changed things — they would have had a chance to win at 107.”

Chambersburg has already lost to Gettysburg this year, 37-23, in December. The Warriors, the defending District 3 champion, will be shooting for their fifth title. The Trojans made the final only once before, losing to Central Dauphin in 2013.

Mentzer said, “The boys are pretty happy tonight. If we can wrestle the way we have the last couple of matches, we will be a tough out.”

Chambersburg 40, Elco 27
114 — Kane Kline (E) tf Cody Seabolt, 16-1 (0-5)
121 — Zane Trostle (E) tf Brayan Gonzales, 19-3 (0-10)
127 — Zach Sherman (C) p Steve Smith, 1:03 (6-10)
133 — Ashton Kriss (E) tf Ethan Pazkowski, 19-3 (6-15)
139 — Ashton Romberger (C) p Jacob Kuhne, 0:34 (12-15)
145 — Justin Deneen (C) tf Blain Blauch, 18-1 (17-15)
152 — Logan Mickey (C) d Mitchell Frederick, 9-4 (20-15)
160 — Klint Miller (E) p Zethan Sleighter, 1:29 (20-21)
172 — Isaiah Tasker (C) md Brinley Donmoyer, 13-3 (24-21)
189 — Jaccob Stoner (C) md David Nelson, 18-9 (28-21)
215 — Kyle Miller (E) p Omar Henchey, 1:22 (28-27)
285 — Frank Barrientos (C) p Cody Landis, 0:30 (34-27)
107 — Isaac Brambley (C) won by forfeit ((40-27)