WILLIAMSPORT - For an unbeaten, top-seeded wrestler, Southern Columbia's Kent Lane drew a fairly tough quarterfinal match at Friday's Class AA Northeast Regional.
But Lane, wrestling coolly againt four-time regional qualifier Andrew Gipe of South Williamsport at 126 pounds, remainined unbeaten at 33-0 with a 9-4 decision to lead five area wrestlers who advanced to today's semifinal round.
Also advancing were Line Mountain's Cam Newman (106), and Seth Lansberry (138), and Southern's Blake Marks (152) and Jake Becker (285), who won his 100th career bout.
Wrestlers who lost first-round bouts and will move to the consolation round are Southern's Brett Shepard (113), Mount Carmel's Blake Panko (138) and Shamokin's Zach Biddiscombe (220).
Lane will wrestle Montoursville's Keith Batkowski (32-7) in this morning's semifinals.
Newman (32-7) had no trouble in his quarterfinal, scoring a 16-0 technical fall in 5:25 over Hanover Area's Zack Meckes. He'll have a tough semifinal draw against unbeaten District 4 champion Zack LeBarron (33-0) of Warrior Run.
Lansberry (34-3) scored a 16-3 major decision over Lackawanna Trail's William Lee. He will take on District 2 champ Nick Heck (30-1)
of Wyoming Area in the semifinals.
Marks (33-4) pinned Greater Nanticoke's Maurice Wood in 1:07. The Southern freshman will wrestle Troy sophomore Nick Stephani (32-3) in the semifinals.
Becker (34-3) was a 6-2 winner over GAR's Elijah Gresham and will face defending state champ Nazar Mironenko (32-3) in the semifinals.
Shepard (28-9) was a 9-3 loser to District 2 champion A.J. Luton of GAR, the top seed. He'll face Hanover Area's Brad Glazenski (22-15) in the consolations.
Panko had the night's toughest draw. He was pinned in 2:28 by Benton's unbeaten Zain Retherford and will take a 28-10 record into his consolation bout against Western Wayne's Morgan Fuller (32-9) who dropped a 4-2 decision to Bucktail's Dmitri Probst.
Biddiscombe (24-12) dropped an 8-7 decision to District 2 champ Zac Faust of GAR, just missing a dump on a late shot. He'll wrestle Lake-Lehman's Kody Pachamovitch (11-11) in the consolation round.
Benton leads the tournament with 18 points, with Central Columbia and Warrior Run tied for second at 12. Southern is tied for seventh in the standings with seven points and Line Mountain is 12th (6.5).
Semifinals and first-round consolations start at 9:30 today. Top three finishers at each weight advance to the state tournament.