One of the Franklin Regional wrestling team’s goals was met Jan. 22 when the Panthers defeated Norwin to claim the Section 9-3A title.
Now it is on to the WPIAL team tournament for the No. 2-ranked Panthers.
They were scheduled to play host to first-round and quarterfinal matches on Jan. 29 and hoped to reach the semifinals and finals on Feb. 1 at Peters Township’s AHN Arena.
“I believe we have a strong body of work with our wins against Norwin, North Allegheny, Moon and Kiski Area,” Franklin Regional coach Matt Lebe said. “That was a great team and a great program we just beat.
“Since the county tournament, we needed to get better, and we did. We’ve continued to work and that gave us the opportunity to compete this week for the title.”
Their second goal was to win a WPIAL title and qualify for the PIAA tournament for the second consecutive year. To reach the semifinals, the Panthers (13-0) needed to defeat either Moon or Peters Township in the first round and then either North Allegheny or Fox Chapel in the quarterfinals.
Franklin Regional rallied for a 28-19 victory against Norwin by winning the final four bouts, including 5-4 victories by Luke Ankney (160 pounds) and Ethan Cartwright (172).
Henry Patts clinched the win with a major decision win at 189 and John Montgomery closed out the match by winning at 215.
“It was a great match,” Lebe said. “They won the toss and were able to dictate the matchups and after they won 139, which is a match we got at counties, we decided to bump up.
“It was a dogfight between two great teams. We won some toss-up matches, and we relied on our conditioning and toughness.”
One area of his team that Lebe is proud of is its conditioning. That was a huge factor in the Panthers’ win against Norwin.
“This group loves to work hard,” Lebe said. “You get rewarded with hard work. It showed up in critical points of the match. Where we were able to rely on conditioning.”
Heavyweight Eli Daugherty in overtime and freshman Max Firestine at 145 also won close matches for the Panthers.
Earning bonus points for Franklin Regional were freshman Beau Fennick at 107 and Chase Smith at 133. Fennick won by technical fall and Smith by a major.
There were no pins in the match.
Ankney’s win was the 100th of his career.
“I knew I could beat the kid if I kept after him,” Ankney said. “It was a fun match. My coaches kept pushing me. I know I’m tougher than any kid I’m going to wrestle this year. The coaches believe in me. This was our best win so far this season.”