Feb 6, 2019 3 min read

It’s been a long, hard road so far in the postseason for Canon-McMillan’s wrestling team.

The Big Macs finished in third place in the WPIAL Class AAA Team Tournament and earned a spot in the state team event, but it came at a cost.

Canon-McMillan lost Jacob Gardner with a broken ankle suffered in a semifinal loss to Kiski. Gardner was the starter at 120 pounds.

And Gerrit Nijenhuis appeared to injure his knee in a loss to Max Shaw of Thomas Jefferson in the Big Macs’ quarterfinal win over the Jaguars.

Nijenhuis did not wrestle in a 77-0 rout of City League champion Carrick in the preliminary round of the PIAA Team Tournament.

Canon-McMillan takes on Cedar Cliff tonight in the first round at the Giant Center in Hershey. First whistle is at 8 p.m.

“I don’t know a lot about Cedar Cliff,” said Canon-McMillan head coach Jeff Havelka. “We’ll get on the internet and do some (research). We’ll see how we match up. They were at Powerade and one of their wrestlers made it to the 126-pound finals.”

That would be J.J. Wilson, a senior who dropped a 3-1 decision to Angelo Rini of Cleveland St. Edward’s in the December tournament. Ken Hayman of Canon-McMillan was in the weight class but on the other side of the bracket.

Donovan Ball, a 195-pound senior also made it to the finals, where Shaw of Thomas Jefferson won a 7-2 decision. The Big Macs Evan Miller was on Bell’s side of the bracket but the two did not wrestle.

Cedar Cliff finished 11th in the Powerade team standings with three placewinners. Canon-McMillan finished 20th but also had three placewinners: Nijenhuis second at 182, Hayman fourth at 126 and Gio Ramos eighth at heavyweight.

Cedar Cliff upset top-seeded Dallastown, 39-28, Saturday to win its second consecutive District 3 title. Head coach Rob Rapsey told Dustin Hockensmith of the Harrisburg Patriot-News that he believes his team is ready for a deep run in the tournament.

“We’re looking for a good battle the whole way through,” Rapsey said. “We’re going to get what we’re going to get, but I want to see us not give an inch. I want to see everybody have to battle us to beat us, then we’ll see what happens. Our plan is to go down and battle tooth and nail, and we’ve done it all year so I don’t see a reason why things would change.”

Cedar Cliff had pins from 106 through 132 to open a 34-9 lead over Dallastown.

Win or lose, Havelka said the experience of competing in this double-elimination tournament in the Giant Center can only be beneficial.

“Once we get in and see it, we’ll be fine,” Havelka said. “It helps get you used to wrestling there for (the individual tournament).”