HERSHEY, Pa. — Kiski Area sophomore Shane Kuhn finished off an upset so exciting he got a bear hug from his coach after the referee raised his arm in victory at the PIAA Wrestling Championships.
In a Class AAA quarterfinal round in which favorites generally held form, Kuhn's dramatic victory over Chambersburg's Dawson Peck — the PIAA's defending runner-up in the heavyweight division — caught the attention Friday of the savvy Giant Center crowd that swooned over the pin at 5:27.
"I knew I could keep the match close, but I never dreamed of pinning him though," said Kuhn, still dripping with sweat after jogging off the mat. "It still hasn't hit me yet, I'm so excited."
The first two sessions Friday whittled the Class AA and AAA brackets down to the semifinal matchups, with the AA semifinals to be held Friday evening. Derry Area senior Jimmy Gulibon advanced, as expected, in Class AA, and is now two victories shy of claiming four straight PIAA titles. Only nine other wrestlers have accomplished the feat since the tourney began in 1938.
The AAA grapplers return for their semis Saturday morning. It should be enough time for Kuhn to catch his breath.
The early rounds of the PIAA tournament may look like organized mayhem to the uninitiated, with six matches going on simultaneously. The sounds of officials' whistles and the near-constant pleading from coaches and parents in the stands add to the chaos.
So it's a big deal when cheering from one corner of the Giant Center gets so loud it catches the attention of the rest of the spectators in the arena. Kuhn's bout, near the end of the round as the other mats began to clear, turned into a crowd-pleaser.
"When I was on top of him, I felt like I was there for an eternity holding him on his back, waiting for the pin," Kuhn said. "I could hear the crowd screaming, and whenever the ref hit the mat, everyone went crazy in the stands."
Solanco sophomore Thomas Haines' victory at 220 pounds also caught the crowd's attention, but only because of the writhing pain that left his foe, Parkland's Shaun Heist, sprawled out on the mat after the pin in 1:35. Haines used a move in which he had Heist's straightened left leg turned back nearly 180 degrees while Heist was on his back.
Heist screamed and immediately reached for his leg after the pin was called. Parkland coach Ryan Nunamaker told The Morning Call of Allentown that the initial diagnosis on Heist was a partially torn hamstring.
"I just felt like something gave, I could feel something give," said Haines, who won last year at 215 as a freshman.
Haines said he's much more comfortable in Hershey now that he's familiar with the surroundings.
"One thing the big crowd here doesn't get to you as much. You know that (other competitors) are on that upper level, and you know that you're on that level," Haines said. "It's a lot different from last year. Last year I felt real small. The whole arena, all the big names. It's kind of belittling."
Canon-McMillan led the AAA team standings after the quarterfinal round. One of the school's top wrestlers, junior Connor Schram, beat Bellefonte's Thomas Traxler 13-5 to advance to the semis at 120.
Schram, the 103-pound champ as a freshman, is looking to rebound after losing in the finals at 112 last season. The loss motivated Schram in the offseason, but he said he cleared it from his head once his junior season began.
Another Canon-McMillan junior, Cody Wiercioch, beat Bald Eagle Area's Jacob Taylor 9-0. Besides being teammates, Schram and Wiercioch also have another common interest — they both take part in gymnastics, another sport in which flexibility can be important.
Schram said gymnastics is just for fun, and not particularly for training for wrestling though.
"We try to do it get our minds off wrestling, try something different," he said.