Feb 9, 2019 3 min read

HERSHEY – A familiar opponent tripped up the Canon-McMillan wrestling team on Saturday at the PIAA Class AAA Team Tournament.

The Big Macs started the day in the consolation bracket and looking to wrestle back to third place after losing to Cedar Cliff in the opening round on Thursday.

In the morning session, Canon-McMillan took care of business in its first dual meet of the day, topping Spring Ford, 39-26, with eight bout wins, including pins from Jacob Houpt, Ken Hayman, John Shanahan, Gerrit Nijenhuis and Alec Hendal.

However, in the consolation semifinals, the Big Macs were topped, 30-24, by Kiski and eliminated from the tournament. The victory was the third in three tries for the Cavaliers over Canon-McMillan this season.

“I think we wrestled a heck of a match right here,” Big Macs coach Jeff Havelka said when asked how this dual meet compared to the other two. “I’m so proud of these kids for stepping up the way they did.”

Canon-McMillan fell behind early against Kiski, dropping the first two matches by fall to trail, 12-0.

Nijenhuis, an individual state championship contender, got his team on the board with a 13-5 major decision victory over Nick Delp to cut the score to 12-4.

At the halfway point, the Big Macs trailed 18-13 but started to build some momentum with a fall from Hendal at 220 pounds and 8-2 win by Houpt at 106.

Wins from Costa Moore and Jimmy Baxter at 113 and 120, respectively, gave Canon-McMillan its first lead of the dual meet at 19-18, but a Kiski fall at 126 put the Cavaliers back up, 24-19.

A 2-1 win for Ken Hayman cut the lead to 24-22 before the biggest and perhaps most controversial moment of the meet.

Canon-McMillan’s Remington Ross trailed 3-2 with time running down in his match with Kiski’s Sammy Starr. Ross appeared to convert a shot for a takedown as time expired for the 4-3 win, but after the referee awarded two points, the second referee stepped in and said that time had expired and the takedown was waved off, giving Starr the win and the Cavaliers a 27-22 lead.

“It’s a close call; it can go either way,” Havelka said. “But we didn’t get it so it is what it is. They said that before he gave the two, the buzzer went off.”

Tanner Rohaley’s win at 145 made the score 27-25 and kept the Big Macs alive, but Enzo Morlacci topped Canon-McMillan’s Blake Joseph 4-0 in the final match of the dual meet to hand his team the victory.

The Big Macs have a dual meet scheduled at Indiana on Thursday and will then prepare for the individual portion of the postseason, which begins on Feb. 23 with the WPIAL Section Tournament at, of all places, Kiski.