WEEK 11 DISTRICT 10 BASKETBALL RANKINGS

Girls

CLASS AAAA
Team Record Last week
1. McDowell 14-9 1
2. East 13-4 2
3. Strong Vincent 10-10 3
4. Central Tech 4-17 4

CLASS AAA
1. Mercyhurst Prep 21-1 1
2. General McLane 18-4 2
3. Slippery Rock 16-6 3
4. Franklin 15-5 4
5. Meadville 16-6 5

CLASS AA
1. Villa Maria 18-4 1
2. Girard 20-2 3
3. Saegertown 19-3 4
4. Cambridge Springs 18-3 2
5. Sharpsville 17-5 5

CLASS A
1. Farrell 18-2 1
2. Eisenhower 15-5 2
3. Conneaut Valley 12-10 3
4. Cochranton 10-12 5
5. Jamestown 8-13 4

Boys

CLASS AAAA
Team Record Last week
1. Cathedral Prep 16-5 1
2. McDowell 19-2 2
3. Strong Vincent 14-7 3
4. East 8-12 4
5. Central Tech 8-13 5

CLASS AAA
1. General McLane 18-3 1
2. Meadville 13-8 3
3. Franklin 15-6 2
4. Grove City 14-8 4
5. Hickory 14-9 NR
Dropped out: Slippery Rock (13-8)

CLASS AA
1. North East 20-1 1
2. Farrell 19-3 2
3. Sharon 18-5 3
4. Girard 17-4 4
5. Fairview 17-4 5

CLASS A
1. Kennedy Catholic 12-9 2
2. West Middlesex 14-7 1
3. Iroquois 12-9 3
4. Conneaut Valley 11-10 4
5. Vision Quest 6-9 5

The top two teams in Region 2 will meet Saturday night when Villa Maria takes on Girard at 8:30 at Penn State Behrend's Junker Center.

The date of the game was reported incorrectly in the Friday, Feb. 8, Erie Times-News.

Villa Maria (19-4, 13-0), the No. 1-ranked Class AA team in the state and District 10, beat Girard 44-26 Jan. 14 in their only matchup this season. Girard (21-2, 11-2) is in second place.

-- staff report

WEEK 12 DISTRICT 10 BASKETBALL RANKINGS

Girls

CLASS AAAA
Team Record Last week
1. McDowell 15-9 1
2. East 14-6 2
3. Strong Vincent 11-11 3
4. Central Tech 5-17 4

CLASS AAA
1. Mercyhurst Prep 23-1 1
2. General McLane 19-5 2
3. Franklin 17-6 4
4. Slippery Rock 17-7 3
5. Meadville 18-6 5

CLASS AA
1. Villa Maria 20-4 1
2. Girard 21-3 2
3. Saegertown 21-3 3
4. Cambridge Springs 21-3 4
5. Sharpsville 19-5 5

CLASS A
1. Farrell 20-2 1
2. Eisenhower 18-5 2
3. Conneaut Valley 13-11 3
4. Cochranton 12-12 4
5. Kennedy Catholic 9-15 NR
Dropped out: Jamestown (9-15)

Boys

CLASS AAAA
Team Record Last week
1. McDowell 21-2 2
2. Cathedral Prep 17-6 1
3. Strong Vincent 16-7 3
4. East 9-13 4
5. Central Tech 8-14 5

CLASS AAA
1. General McLane 21-3 1
2. Franklin 17-6 3
3. Meadville 15-9 2
4. Hickory 14-10 5
5. Slippery Rock 15-8 NR
Dropped out: Grove City (15-9)

CLASS AA
1. North East 23-1 1
2. Farrell 21-3 2
3. Sharon 19-5 3
4. Girard 20-4 4
5. Fairview 19-4 5

CLASS A
1. Kennedy Catholic 14-9 1
2. West Middlesex 16-8 2
3. Conneaut Valley 13-10 4
4. Iroquois 13-11 3
5. Union City 10-14 NR
Dropped out: Vision Quest (6-11)

The Millcreek School Board is expected to approve McDowell High School's new football coach Wednesday at noon.

Board Personnel Committee Chairman Michael Palermo said the committee has chosen a single candidate to recommend to the board. He said the name of the candidate is not being released until the board votes.

Former coach Joe Tarasovitch resigned in December to become assistant principal at Walnut Creek Middle School.

The meeting will take place at the Millcreek Education Center, 3740 W. 26th St.

-- Sarah Weber

Members of the Harbor Creek wrestling program were honored prior to Saturday’s finals of the District 10 Class AA tournament at Sharon.
His peers voted Mark Sallot Section 1 and District 10 coach of the year. Sallot, in his sixth season, guided the Huskies to the Region 3 title and their first berth in the PIAA AA team tournament.
Harbor Creek’s Adam Trimble and Jeff Sanford also received Kevin Kubalic Memorial Scholarships from the District 10 Wrestling Association. Trimble, a district finalist at 135 pounds, and Sanford (152) each received $1,000 scholarships for their academic and athletic accomplishments.
**
Harbor Creek assistant coach Derek Chew also was cited for helping organize the inaugural Hamot Sports Medicine Senior Showdown in 2007. The exhibition event, which pitted the region’s elite Class AAA and AA wrestlers, generated more than $2,200 for District 10’s wrestling scholarship program.
The Showdown returns to Harbor Creek Junior High School on Wednesday, March 19, at 7 p.m. Brian Hills of Reynolds will coach the AA team and Corry’s Skip Laird the AAA corner.
Tickets will be $5 per person.Chew hopes to announce this season's Showdown match-ups during the Northwest Region Class AA tournament.
**
Greenville’s Luke Marshall and Kody McInturf were on the same team, but their district results were radically diverse.
As the fourth seed from Section 2, Marshall was the only wrestler who reached a final from the preliminary round. The Trojans’ 112-pound sophomore opened with a pin of Fairview’s Joe Gennaro, then upset Section 1 champion Levi Morton of North East 10-7 in the quarterfinals.
Marshall decisioned Commodore Perry’s Nate Dias 9-6 in the semifinals before Shane Rankin, Union City’s freshman phenom, ended Marshall’s title bid with a 15-2 major decision in the 112 final.
Marshall (31-13) still qualified for Friday’s Northwest Region Class AA tournament despite the loss.
McInturf was nowhere as fortunate. The Section 2 champ at 215 was tournament favorite, but the senior’s career ended when Hickory’s John Apa pinned him in the fifth-place final.
Commodore Perry’s Brian Hooks pinned McInturf in the quarterfinals. He received a bye in the first round of consolations and beat Harbor Creek’s Mike Paradise 7-1 in the second round.
But that would be the last scholastic win for McInturf (34-7).
Union City’s Jared Burger pinned the Trojan in the consolation semis and Apa followed with his fall in the 215-elimination match.
**
Cambridge Springs middleweight Carl Parkin is the first Blue Devil in the AA regionals since Keith Smith qualified in 2000.
Parkin (160) began the district tournament as the second seed from Section 1. The senior decisioned Reynolds’ Gregg Baptiste 5-3 in overtime before he lost to eventual champion Caleb Kolb of Grove City 4-2 in the semifinals.
Parkin (29-6) qualified for regionals with his 8-3 win over Sharon’s Lewendo Teague in the consolation semis, then claimed third seed with a 6-1 decision over Eisenhower’s Mick Johnson.
“We’ve waited for someone to step up in this program,” Blue Devils coach Dana Mason said, “and Carl is that spark. He can lead the march to prove that Cambridge Springs is no longer a wrestling doormat.”

— Mike Copper

As the medals rolled out of McDowell Intermediate High School’s gym on Saturday night, one thing was clear.
A lot of the best talent in Class AAA wrestling in this neck of the woods still has a lot of growing up to do.
Of the 42 wrestlers who earned District 10 AAA top-three finishes, 27 were underclassmen, including 15 freshmen and sophomores.
If D-10 accepted a fourth AAA regional qualifier -- as many coaches and observers have argued for years that it should -- another 10 underclassmen would be headed to Altoona this weekend as fourth-place finishers.
One of the freshmen who will make the trip, Dennis Diodati of Conneaut Lake, put on one of the best performances of the night in the 171-pound consolation final against General McLane freshman Doug Myers.
With the bout tied at 3, Diodati slipped into a cradle after Myers attempted a roll. The three near-fall points gave Diodati (27-8) a 6-3 win.
Diodati has heard the theory that underclassmen can’t win at the upperweights, but his emergence this season, along with that of the talented Myers (24-17), Corry freshman Dustin Taubert (21-19) and Cathedral Prep sophomore Jermaine Easter (22-9) -- all just in the 171-pound class -- has helped fuel the youth movement in D-10 AAA.
“I thought I had a chance (to get to regionals) at the beginning of the season,” Diodati said. “It actually took some of the pressure off knowing that I had three more years to get there if it didn’t work out this year.”
Diodati was far from alone. Corry freshman Austin Gillihan won the 112-pound title, marking the second straight year the tournament crowned a freshman champ.
Sophomores Shelton Mack of Meadville (103) and Jake Kondrlik of Corry (140) and juniors Rocco Wellek of Cathedral Prep (125), Matt Laird of Conneaut Lake (135), Brian Greenlee of Franklin (145) and Nick Milano of Cathedral Prep (160) also won titles, and Warren freshman Amani Bosko (125) was second.
Corry -- the banner-carrier for D-10 AAA’s youth movement -- advanced five, one freshman and four sophomores, to Altoona.
“We thought we could prove something this weekend even though we’re young,” Kondrlik said of Corry’s underclassmen dominated lineup. “Most of us have been wrestling together for a long time and we expect to see each other win. So it doesn’t really matter that much that we’re freshmen and sophomores.”
**
Credit Pennsylvania Wrestling News editor Jon Connole for this weekend observation: In what had to be at least a rarity, if not unprecedented, the D-10 AAA tournament brought under one roof the grandson of an Olympian and the son of an Olympian.
Cathedral Prep sophomore 145-pounder Jamal Lyons’ grandfather is former Olympic qualifier Jimmy Carr. Four-time Olympic heavyweight medalist Bruce Baumgartner’s son Zac is a freshman 135-pounder for General McLane.
**
D-10 honored three longtime contributors before Saturday’s AAA finals: Former Maplewood wrestler and sports writer Craig Phillips, former Corry wrestler and coach Scott Crowell, and coach and referee Jack Sinnott.

-- John Dudley

Some PIAA basketball playoff games scheduled for Feb. 29 have been postponed until March 1. All sites within PIAA District 2 and 4 are postponed.
Sites and times for the games are listed as reported below.

A Girls

Venue and Time Change for Saturday
2-1 Old Forge vs 4-2 Lourdes Regional
Saturday, March 1
Marywood University, Scranton, 4:30 p.m.

AA Girls

4-1 Loyalsock vs 2-3 Elmer L. Meyers
Saturday, March 1
Montoursville Area HS - 6 p.m.

2-1 Dunmore vs 1-2 Delco Christian
Saturday, March 1
Scranton HS, 6 p.m.

2-2 Wilkes Barre GAR vs 4-2 East Juniata
Saturday, March 1
Wyoming Valley West, Plymouth, 6 p.m.

AAAA Girls

2-1 Scranton vs 11-2 Northampton
Saturday, March 1
Marywood University, Scranton, 7:30 p.m.

A Boys

2-1 Old Forge vs 4-2 Lourdes Regional
Saturday, March 1
Marywood University, Scranton, 6 p.m.

4-1 North Penn vs 2-2 Susquehanna Comm.
Saturday, March 1
Montoursville HS, 7:30 p.m.

AAA Boys

2-1 Scranton Prep vs 4-2 Danville
Saturday, March 1
Scranton HS, 7:30 p.m.

4-1 Selinsgrove vs 3-7 Hershey
Saturday, March 1
Shikellamy HS, Sunbury
7 p.m.

-- Source: www.piaa.org

ALTOONA -- Cathedral Prep sophomore 145-pounder Jamal Lyons was taken from Altoona High School Field House on a stretcher Friday night with what appeared to be a serious arm injury during the opening round of the Northwest Region Class AAA wrestling tournament.

Lyons, a regional champion last year at 140 pounds, was leading his preliminary match against Philipsburg-Osceola junior Ethan Greenawalt when he injured his left elbow. Cathedral Prep coach Keith Miller said initial indications were that the elbow was dislocated.

Greenawalt (17-14) was awarded a pin before officials realized Lyons was hurt. The injury occurred after Lyons shot in on a takedown attempt and Greenawalt caught him in an underhook and locked on his elbow. Greenawalt then attempted to throw Lyons to his back -- a move known as an "elevator" -- and Lyons went to the mat and did not attempt to fight the pin.

Miller did not confirm whether Lyons might be able to return, but the injury appeared to be serious enough to knock Lyons out of the tournament.

Lyons was a District 10 runner-up this season.

-- John Dudley