Thursday rewind and a look ahead

   An awesome environment and a lot of exciting bouts made Thursday's dual between Chestnut Ridge and Berlin a great one. On paper two days ago, I analyzed the match as a 6-5 split for the Lions with three tossup bouts. As we all know now, it ended up being a 10-4 overall split for Chestnut Ridge and a lopsided looking 43-19 score, though it was much closer than that inside the numbers. Here's a few things that I took away from this match:

— I had given Berlin the 113-pound advantage, and that proved to be completely opposite, as Chestnut Ridge freshman Blake Dunlap was very impressive in his 8-2 decision against Berlin junior Tommy DeArmitt. Dunlap wasn't part of the opening night lineup for the Lions, but he is quickly elevating himself into a wrestler to watch with a 5-0 record.

— I also gave the Mountaineers the edge at 195 with Stew Trulick against Chestnut Ridge's Brad Winegardner. Both had good records coming in, but I thought Trulick's edge was with a little more varsity experience. However, Winegardner came away with the 6-4 win thanks to a late takedown.

— I thought Chestnut Ridge's Derrick Claar would prevail at 126, though I had only given the Lions a slight advantage there. Berlin's E.J. Custer is a tough customer, but Claar proved to be much tougher as he dominated Custer before pinning him to close out the dual.

   If you didn't know yet, I shot video of the bouts at 195 (Winegardner's win) and 220, where Chestnut Ridge's Dan Albright beat Berlin's Mitchell Walker in overtime. You can access those videos here.

   It was a little late getting back to Bedford and putting together the paper, and I didn't have a a lot of time to go over the other matches of the night. But one bout that stuck out to me from Bedford's 57-19 win over North Star was the 220-pound bout, where Bedford's Chance Williams beat Levi Albright in the ultimate tiebreaker. Williams is a junior but hasn't had much of a chance, no pun intended, to crack the varsity lineup until this season. That said, he's quietly 11-5. Albright had won last month's Southmoreland Holiday Classic, beating another county wrestler in Northern Bedford's Eric Grace for that title. Grace beat Williams last week. With Williams added to the list of hopefuls at 220, this weight is certainly one to keep an eye on for the upcoming postseason.

   On Saturday, the highlight event for the Bedford County locals is the Mountaineer Duals at Berlin, where it could have been expected to be a repeat of Chestnut Ridge vs. Berlin for the championship, provided each team would win its pool. However, as noted by Eric Knopsnyder in Knop's Knotes from 1-13, we will not see this if the pool rounds turn out as such. Chestnut Ridge, by virtue of its win last night over Berlin, would draw the championship match while Berlin would be relegated to the third place affair, as tournament organizers like in many other events do try to stay away from common opponents.

   I do understand that for the pool rounds, but I can't buy it for the title match. Berlin goes unbeaten in its home duals and can only wrestle for third place because of a loss to Chestnut Ridge two days earlier, which myself, Eric, and other media on hand as well as fans of both sides can attest to that the match could have been very different had the Mountaineers caught a few more things in their favor.

   Regardless, here are the pools for Saturday:
   Pool A @ Berlin HS Gym - Archbishop Wood, Bellwood, Berlin, Centreville, VA, and Frankfort, WV
   Pool B @ Berlin MS Gym - Chestnut Ridge, HOPE for Hyndman, Southern Huntingdon, West Shamokin, Osbourne Park, VA

   The match schedule will be drawn up at weigh-ins. Wrestling is set to begin at 9 a.m. Also on Saturday is a dual meet with Bedford visiting Claysburg. Varsity only at 2 p.m.