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Montgomery has five wrestlers win gold at Central Sectional en route to team title

HUGHESVILLE — As Montgomery’s Trace Furman was wrestling in the 152-pound championship finals, teammates Brandt Harer, Carden Wagner and Liam Seeley sat next to their coaches near the mat watching Furman compete.

All three of those wrestlers seated had won gold medals and were waiting to see another Red Raider secure gold. It took just over five minutes, but Furman did just that as he secured a tech fall over Loyalsock’s Kayden Keefer, 17-2, in 5:09.

The Red Raiders accumulated gold medals on Saturday afternoon nearly as fast as Harer wins via tech fall as Montgomery ended Saturday with five gold medals and an impressive 10 wrestlers securing spots in Saturday’s District 4 championships as one took silver, three took bronze and one took home fourth-place titles. That podium representation helped Montgomery secure the Central Sectional team championship as well with 220 points as Montoursville finished in second (171.5), South Williamsport in third (121) and Muncy in fourth (108.5).

“Just the whole season we wrestled super dominant,” Wagner said.”This is just a great year to finish off my senior year with and I’m really proud with us and the whole team.”

Oberheim (114), Seeley (121), Wagner (127), Harer (145) and Furman (152) all left Hughesville with gold around their necks, Josh Knoebel (160) took silver, Raiden Felix (172), Evan Hugar (215) and Kiegan Clark (285) took bronze, and Gage Furman (189) finished with a fourth-place medal.

“Hopefully we just keep moving guys on and hopefully get as much people as we can up to states,” Wagner said.

The Red Raiders were outstanding throughout Saturday’s sectional tournament.

Oberheim, ranked No. 5 in the state at 114, pinned Benton’s Kaleb Collae in the final in 1:15 and had a dominating 15-0, 40-second tech fall win in the semifinals over Loyalsock freshman Miles Ransom-Rennicks.

Oberheim’s title win was a string of three straight gold medals for the Red Raiders. At 121, No. 23rd-ranked Seeley dominated his way through the bracket.

Seeley had a 15-0, 1:56 quarterfinal tech fall against Loyalscok’s Owen Peck before pinning Bloomsburg’s Jake Keller in 12 seconds. In the final, it was more of the same with a 1:11 fall against Roman Maiorana of Muncy.

At 127, Wagner had a good matchup with Muncy’s Gage Swank in a battle of state-ranked opponents. Wagner (No. 15) led Swank (No. 10) in the first period, 6-2, before he was able to get a pin against him and secure another Montgomery gold medal.

“He’s really good on top so I just stayed patient and waited for the opening and saw it and took it. Coming in as the underdog, it felt really good,” Wagner said. “Coaches told me to keep my wrist away from him trying to tilt me because that’s where he’s best at and that’s where I had to go.”

Wagner never let Swank get momentum early and was able to carry it into a pin in 1:31.

At 145, Harer did what he does best and won via tech fall in the final. Harer had three tech victories on Saturday by beating Central Columbia’s Ethan Miller (15-0, 45 seconds) in the quarterfinals, Bloomsburg’s Alex Billmeyer (15-0, 34 seconds) in the semifinals and cruising to a 16-0, 30-second win over Loyalsock’s Ivan Baker in the final.

The tech fall win in the final at 145 gave Harer his 100th career tech fall win, becoming just the second wrestler in Pennsylvania history to reach the milestone as he joined Bishop McCort’s Bo Bassett, who reached the milestone at last weekend’s state duals tournament in Johnstown.

The win also gave Harer his 205th for his career, one shy of tying the state’s all-time wins record.

At 152, Furman outworked Loyalsock senior Kayden Keefer to pick up a dominant 17-2, 5:09 tech fall in the third period.

“He was just pushing the pace a little more than I was, controlling my wrists a little more than I could,” Keefer said about wrestling Furman. “He won a couple flurries, scrambles, I could have scored on him, but I didn’t.”

Furman led 4-0 early in the second period and held a 7-0 lead with 40 seconds left. Heading into the third period, that lead was up to 11-1. Furman shot low in the third period and grabbed Keefer’s leg and was able to use it for a 14-1 lead just 15 seconds into the period before securing the tech fall victory.

At 160, Knoebel had a tough matchup going against state-ranked Kile Hartman of Hughesville. Hartman (38-10) is ranked No. 23 in Pennsylvania and held a 3-0 lead with 30 seconds remaining and went ahead 6-0 as Knoebel tried fighting from the bottom.

“I like to get a takedown first and then wrestle from there,” Hartman said of his strategy against Knoebel.

Hartman had a reversal a minute into the third period to take an 8-0 lead before he was able to get a pin.

Knoebel had an outstanding semifinal matchup against Montoursville standout Blake Frey, ranked No. 27 in the state. Knoebel and Frey were tied at 1-1 after three periods when Frey was awarded a point on a technical violation with 67 seconds left in the third. Knoebel would win it in the third overtime period in a thrilling matchup for fans in attendance.

Felix was glad to secure a bronze medal, his highest finish in his career at the sectional tournament after a fourth-place medal as a junior.

Felix won his opening matchup against Benton’s Ryder Wilson by major decision, 17-5, but fell into the consolations after losing to No. 30th-ranked Jayden Hamm of South Williamsport. But in the consolations, Felix kept battling and had a 17-1, 3:31 tech fall win in the consolation semifinals against Christian Levan of Bloomsburg before beating Central’s Logan Miller in the third-place bout, 17-2, 4:01.

“For me to get the win, any win your goal is to score points first and look for fall, tech, whatever you want. But the most important thing is winning,” Felix said. “Last year I placed fourth here, this year third, so any little step is just a good sign that you’re moving forward in a good way.”

At 189, Furman fell to South Williamsport’s Cole Gerber in a tough matchup by decision, 6-2. Gerber secured a 3-0 lead in the final 20 seconds of the first period. Two escapes by Furman cut the deficit to 6-2 going into the third after Gerber had a takedown in the second. Three stalling calls resulted in Furman getting two points, but the Red Raider wasn’t able to secure a late takedown to win.

Hugar won by injury time roughly 30 seconds into the first period against Bloomsburg’s Malcolm Tagba at 215 in the third-place final. At 285, Clark battled South Williamsport’s Oz Bird and escaped with a 10-6 decision victory.

Bird held a 3-1 lead but a takedown with 1:35 to go in the third period gave Clark a 3-4 lead. An escape seconds later tied it up. Clark would secure two takedowns, however, to seal it.

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