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Freedom In the Morning Call Newspaper.
Photo Credit: Jeff Kaboly
FROM MORNING CALL: Freedom had a strong tournament, placing fourth with four regional qualifiers, including 220-pound champ Evan Kauffman. Most surprising was freshman Dylan Brown, who won four consolation-round bouts to place fourth at 106. Freedom also won the 3A Sportsmanship Award, presented by the District 11 officials.
Read full article here:
By Nick Fierro and Mark Wogenrich, Of The Morning Call
11:43 p.m. EST, February 24, 2013
http://www.mcall.com/sports/
4 Freedom Wrestlers Advance to North East AAA Regions.
220 Evan Kauffman our District XI AAA Champion, 195 Johnny Callahan 4th place , 170 Jake Young 4th place, and Freshman 106 Dylan Brown all will be competing in the AAA Regions.
9 Freedom Wrestlers Place in District XI Tournament.
Congratulations to all our wrestlers, Dylan Brown, Willie Byrnes, Adam Evans, Cole DeGieusspi, Josh Young, Jake Young, Johnny Calahan, Evan Kaufman, and Cordell Cotto.
Freedom’s Willie Byrnes Pins No. 2 seed Sage Karam.
Freedom’s Willie Byrnes defeats Nazareth’s Sage Karam by fall in 5:38 in the 138 pound weight class in the preliminary round of the District 11 Class 3A wrestling tournament at Liberty High School on Friday.
Willie Byrnes the Freedom Patriots sophomore seeded No. 15 in the District XI AAA tournament pulls off an impressive victory over the No. 2 seed Sage Karam of Nazareth with a pin in 5:38.
District 11 AAA wrestling highlighted by trio of unlikely.
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/sports/index.ssf/2013/02/district_11_class_aaa_wrestlin_4.html
District 11 Class AAA wrestling highlighted by trio of unlikely runs to semifinals.
By Brad Wilson | The Express-Times
on February 22, 2013 at 11:26 PM
Freedom’s Willie Byrnes defeats Nazareth’s Sage Karam by fall in 5:38 in the 138 pound weight class in the preliminary round of the District 11 Class 3A wrestling tournament at Liberty High School on Friday.
Not many Lehigh Valley wrestling devotees expected to see Freedom’s Willy Byrnes, Bangor’s Charlie Sell and Nazareth’s Chase Zemenak among the semifinalists at the District 11 Class AAA tournament.
Reasons for such doubts seemed valid. Zemenak wasn’t supposed to put weight on a fractured knee suffered six weeks ago for four months, meaning today was well in advance of that projection. Sell’s path to the semis was blocked by No. 3 seed Kyle Baker of Easton and the Slaters don’t often tame a Red Rover. And Byrnes had just finished sixth in the D-11 junior varsity tournament, not quite making him a prime candidate to excel at the varsity event.
All good reasons — and all utterly, completely and totally wrong.
The unlikely trio are among 24 area semifinalists who will go for berths in the final and an assured spot at the Northeast Regional in today’s semifinals at 10:30 a.m. at Liberty High School. The finals will be 7:15 Saturday night.
Easton led the local parade of semifinalists with eight, all shooting to extend the Rovers’ streak of district champions to 66 years. Northampton has five in the semis, Freedom and Nazareth four apiece, Liberty two and Bangor one.
The Red Rovers trail Parkland, which also has eight semifinalists, 93.5-85.5 in the team standings (Parkland has 14 wrestlers alive, the Rovers 13) with Stroudsburg a distant third at 57.5.
Perhaps Byrnes’ odyssey to the semis took the unlikeliest path. The Patriots sophomore, fresh off that JV sixth place and seeded No. 15 in the tournament with a 7-15 record, trailed second seed Sage Karam of Nazareth in the third period before he threw a mighty headlock that ensnared the junior for a pin in 5:38 that had the crowd leaping to its feet.
“I had to go and try something, I was losing,” Byrnes said. “I don’t hit that move very often, but I felt good when I hit it and I knew I had him.”
Then Byrnes battled No. 7 seed Brian Morales of Stroudsburg in the quarterfinals, fought off a deep shot at the third-period buzzer in a tied match and then took down Morales in the overtime to win 5-3.
“That was torture, going to overtime,” Byrnes said. “He almost had me (in regulation).”
Byrnes said he wasn’t really confident coming into the tournament.
“I haven’t been wrestling especially well,” he said. “I credit this success to inspiration from my coaches and to do this at districts makes it extra special. This is far and away the best I have wrestled all season.”
Speaking of inspiration and coaches, Sell’s 4-2 come-from-behind win over Baker had Bangor coach Rick Thompson all fired up.
“I have not been this happy in a long time.” Thompson said. “Charlie Sell is what I want all the kids from Bangor to do. He’s the perfect example. We need more Charlie Sells in the Bangor program.”
Sell, who will meet Byrnes in a semifinal, trailed Baker, ranked No. 5 at 138 in the region by The Express-Times, 2-0 but used a reversal to tie the match.
The Slater sophomore, seeded No. 6, came close to a takedown several times in regulation but then decisively scored a takedown in the extra session.
“I thought I had the takedown in the third period but the referee didn’t so I just knew I’d get it if I kept going at him,” said Sell, now 26-3 on the season. “I knew I’d wrestle him in the quarterfinals and I was looking forward to wrestling him because he’s from a big school and we don’t get a chance to wrestle big schools often.”
Zemenak might be the most inspiring of the trio, since his knee injury seemed certain to cost him his junior postseason year after he finished fourth in the state as a sophomore.
But there he was Friday, the No. 1 seed at 126 and acting like it, hammering Northampton’s Paul Hetrick and then Pleasant Valley’s Bale Brannon by a combined 26-2 to roll into the semis where he will meet sophomore Shane Jones of Stroudsburg, the No. 5 seed.
“I am just so lucky to here,” said Zemenak (17-3), who broke a bone inside his knee six weeks ago. “I don’t worry about things I can’t control, but I didn’t think I’d be here at all two weeks ago. I’m limited in what I can do, and there are no guarantees. I was just happy to compete.”
Zemenak said he was severely tested by the return to competition.
“This is exhausting,” he said. “But I feel pretty good, better than I would have been not competing. I am going to give it my best shot.”
Which, like Byrnes’ and Sell’s, has been pretty good so far.
NOTES: WGPA (1100 AM) will air the semifinals live at 10:30 a.m. … Easton’s Dyvon Gibson, seeded No. 6 at 152, grounded out an impressive 7-3 quarterfinal win over Freedom’s No. 3 seed Josh Young at 152 for the Rovers’ highlight of the day, though top seeds Robbie Rizzolino (132) and Evan DiSora (160) looked dominant … DiSora and Nazareth’s 285-pounder Aaron Bradley posted 11-second pins; Bradley (29-1) has two falls in a combined 60 seconds.
Josh Newhart and Willie Byrnes Place 6th JV Tournament
Freedom Wrestlers Josh Newhart and Willie Byrnes both finished strong and placed 6th in the JV Wrestling District 11th Tournament.
Wrestling News: John Callahan Ranked 3rd at 195lbs
John Callahan breaks top five and gets ranked 3rd by The Express-Times individual wrestling rankings.
195 pounds
1. Jr. Jovon Reyes (26-2) Dieruff
2. Sr. Josh Alpha (28-6) Bethlehem Catholic
3. So. John Callahan (22-6) Freedom
4. So. Omar Haddad (24-14) Parkland
5. Jr. Nic Sevi (20-6) Nazareth
Photo Credit Jeff Kaboly
Honorable mention: Jr. Justin Blobe (28-7) Saucon Valley; Sr. Mike Farrell (13-7) Belvidere; So. Tim Hinkle (15-14) Phillipsburg; Sr. Kyle Levy (24-9) Voorhees; Jr. Jagger Miller (16-16) Easton; Jr. Jared Nosal (16-6) Catasauqua; Sr. Dan Pepe (21-8) North Hunterdon; Sr. Paul Rallis (16-10) Hunterdon Central.
Comments: Callahan, who has impressed us from the start of the season, posted the results of the week at any weight class, topping Haddad 3-1 and Williams Valley’s 27-3 Jonathan Rummel 3-2 to make his debut in the ranking here at No. 3. That knocks Blobe down to the honorable mentions, but there’s a lot of movement left here, we think, for his return.
Jake Rugis Places 3rd in Jr High District XI Tournament.
212 lb Freedom Wrestler Jake Rugis captures 3rd place in the District 11 Jr. High Wrestling Tournament with a 4-3 victory over Easton Reds RJ Zimmerman.
Evan Callahan District XI Jr High Champion
Evan Callahan dominated everyone he faced, the 167 lb Freedom Patriot Wrestler went through the District 11 tournament pinning one after another until he stood at the top of the podium victorious. 2013 District 11 Jr High Champion.
Gianni Palaios Places in the Jr High Districts XI Championships
Freedom has a bright young star emerging in the 80 lb weight class with wrestler Gianni Palaios.The 80 lb wrestler fought hard against stiff competition to finish strong and take 8th place.
