King of the Mountain wrapup

Four out of the five years that Bedford has had the King of the Mountain Tournament on its schedule, I've made the trip. As always, there's not a shortage of quality competition anywhere in the Central Mountain gymnasium.
I heard several people mention that the tournament seemed deeper than in years past and I agree. With Bethlehem Catholic, Cumberland Valley, Fort LeBoeuf and others getting involved this season, it was a significant upgrade for an event that is already known as one of the best in the nation, in the conversation with tournaments such as the Beast of the East and Reno Tourmanent of Champions.

Raising the Bar

Bedford junior Ryan Easter is currently 78-14 in his career and he is a two-time state placewinner, a sixth place medal last season after taking fifth as a freshman.
But Easter isn't resting on those laurels, and he has much bigger aspirations.
"I want to be a state champion," he said. If that happens, he would be Bedford's first since the mid-1960's and only the school's third ever.
Here's what he told me next, about an hour after he lost in the King of the Mountain 126-pound final to Lansing, N.Y. standout William Koll.
"I want to go undefeated the rest of the year after this."
With Bedford's schedule and the possibility that the Bisons could advance to Hershey again for the Class AA state duals, that is a lofty goal. But don't mistake that for any type of arrogance or bravado. As much as I know Ryan, he's a very confident wrestler who believes highly in himself.

Bedford's Ryan Easter against Lansing's William Koll on Saturday.

Freshmen Phenoms

Not only did seeing the debut of Bedford's Jonathan Gabriel give me a taste of some of the immense talent pouring into the varsity wrestling ranks, but others from the region and even out of state raised my eye. For more on Gabriel, pick up Monday's Bedford Gazette as I chronicalled his first two days of varsity competition.

One of these is Mifflin County's Hayden Hidlay, who I had heard about but had never seen of course. Boy, did Hidlay impress. He was the 10th seed in the 113-pound bracket and came within an overtime score of knocking off top seed, defending KoM champion, and defending Class AAA state champ Ethan Lizak of Parkland, a junior. Losing 4-3 in the finals does nothing to deflate anything this ninth grader will do later this season or in the future.

Another heralded freshman is Phillipsburg, NJ's Brandon Paetzell. Now, some of you know that Phillipsburg, NJ is my hometown and where I went to school. So naturally, I'm going to have a rooting interest in my Stateliners.

So I also keep up on what is going on with P'burg, as it is affectionately known, as well as high school wrestling in that state. Heck, I even watched an hour-long video preview about the New Jersey season last week. Call me crazy, as my wife often does this time of year.

Now back to the topic. What I didn't know until Saturday morning was that Paetzell had a connection to Gabriel, not just after the two wrestled on Friday night in the second round where Gabriel won in overtime.
From what I was told, Gabriel had never beaten Paetzell before in any competition. I checked with young Gabriel after the tournament and he recalled a bout with Paetzell at a tournament in Indianapolis.

"Yeah, I think he beat me pretty bad," he said.
After finally winning against his old foe on Friday, Gabriel acknowledged that nobody told him who it was until the final whistle blew.

The Week Ahead

The big match coming up this week is Bedford hosting Chestnut Ridge. Likely the two best teams in District 5, it should be a good one and a possible preview of the two getting together again in the district duals come early February.
Also on the card on Tuesday is Northern Bedford against Tussey Mountain, while the Panthers wrestle Everett later in the week for any county fans.