Over the course of the week, Wrestling teams from Cedar Crest, ELCO, Lebanon, Northern Lebanon, and Palmyra competed at tournaments taking place across Pennsylvania. As a result, our local wrestlers claimed a total of nine medals. Of the award winners, two returned home with gold around their necks. Northern Lebanon’s Aaron Seidel won the Bethlehem Holiday Wrestling Classic for the third straight year. The other winner was Palmyra Girls Wrestling’s Shayla Carl, who pinned all four of her opponents on the way to climbing the podium.
Below you will find brief summaries of showings made by each of our LebCo teams at the various tournaments.
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Bethlehem Holiday Wrestling Classic
The tournament said to be the nation’s largest tournament that only includes public schools, took place on Thursday and Friday at Bethlehem Liberty High School. In this year’s edition, there were 34 teams. Northern Lebanon was among the participants, and they announced their presence early on when they went 6-2 in the opening round. When all of the wrestling was complete, the Vikings left with two medals. Julian Zaragoza took 6th place wrestling at 114 pounds. Aaron Seidel added another gold medal to his collection, defeating Greater Latrobe’s Luke Willochell with an 8-4 decision in the championship finals. In addition, Seidel won four other matches, two by pinning his opponent and two by technical fall (a 15-point advantage that ended the match). Northern Lebanon finished 17th at the hyper-competitive tournament, even as they were without nationally-ranked Sam Wolfold (rest).
Northern Lebanon
Team Finish – 17th place
1st – Aaron Seidel (121#)
6th – Julian Zaragoza (114#)
Trojan Wars
On Friday and Saturday, both ELCO and Palmyra competed at Chambersburg’s Trojan Wars. The event drew 51 teams from Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Delaware. ELCO claimed two pieces of hardware, while Palmyra’s Joshua Smith went 3-2 and finished one match shy of winning a medal at 127 pounds. For the Raiders, Ashton Kriss earned a 6th-place award in wrestling at 114 pounds. At 215 pounds, Kyle Miller took 7th place.
ELCO
Team Finish – 33rd place
6th – Ashton Kriss (114#)
7th – Kyle Miller (215#)
Palmyra
Team Finish – 41st
Hanover Area Holiday Classic
On Wednesday, Palmyra Girls Wrestling was one of twenty-three teams to compete at the Hanover Area Holiday Classic. Despite only entering three girls, Palmyra left Hanover with two medals. At 155 pounds, Shayla Carl tore through the competition to win gold, pinning her finals opponent from Downingtown West. Riley Zettlemoyer, competing at 112 pounds, took 3rd place. As a result of the two shiny medals, Palmyra took 12th place.
Palmyra
Team Finish – 12th place
1st place – Shayla Carl (115#)
3rd place – Riley Zettlemoyer (112#)
Jim Thorpe Christmas Tournament
Cedar Crest competed at the Jim Thorpe Christmas Tournament on Wednesday and Thursday. The Falcons had a strong showing, with three team members finishing the tournament with medals. Landyn Kline was the highest finisher, taking 5th place at 189 pounds. At 152 pounds, Lucas Gerrett finished 6th. Kenyon Figueroa, wrestling at 145 pounds, finished 8th overall.
Cedar Crest
Team Finish – 24th place
5th – Landyn Kline (189#)
6th – Lucas Gerrett (152#)
7th – Kenyon Figueroa (145#)
Donegal Holiday Tournament
On Friday and Saturday, Lebanon took part in the tournament hosted by Donegal. Isaiah Covington (133 pounds) and Wyatt Clawser (139 pounds) each won a contested match on behalf of the Cedars. Covington won in a :25 pin, while Clawser won a 5-1 decision. Yebiel Bonilla picked up a win on account of a forfeit.
Lebanon
Team Finish – 17th place
