COAL TOWNSHIP - Line Mountain head wrestling coach Lon Balum could have empathized with General William B. Travis on Saturday.
Travis, the commander of Texan forces at the Alamo, had a high-powered lineup which included luminaries such as Davey Crockett and Jim Bowie.
Only problem was, no matter how strong his lineup, there were just too many of those darn Mexicans.
That's kind of what happened to the Eagles at the Southern Sectional tournament. Eight Line Mountain wrestlers advanced to next week's District 4 AA tournament, including a tournament-best five champions but ultimately, there were too many of those darn Mifflinburg Wildcats.
Mifflinburg had only one cham-
pion but advanced 11 wrestlers to the district tournament, with four runnerups and six consolation winners, to hold off Line Mountain for the team title 152.5-142.5. Mifflinburg unseated host Shamokin Area, which had won three straight titles, although the Indians did have three champions and a runnerup in finishing third.
Nineteen area wrestlers advanced to the district tournament. In addition to Line Mountain's eight, Shamokin and Mount Carmel each advanced four wrestlers and Southern Columbia advanced three.
Colton Zimmerman (103), Zain Retherford (112), Seth Lansberry (125), Travis Erdman (140) and Kenny Rothermel (189) won titles for Line Mountain. Brandon Pesarchick (130), Josh Lahr (135) and Wes Tillett (285) all won their third straight sectional titles for Shamokin, and Southern Columbia's Brian Watkins (145) claimed his first sectional title.
Other area wrestlers to advance were Line Mountain's Mason Zimmerman (119), Adam Kritzer (135) and Cody Rebuck (152); Mount Carmel's Meyrick Lamb (171), Nick Dusendschine (125), Dylan Hornberger (135) and Brett Przekop (160); Southern's Justin Janovich (112) and Jake Becker (189); and Shamokin's Lee Supsic (152).
Mathematical chance
Going into the finals, Line Mountain trailed Mifflinburg by 17 points, but when Midd-West's Zach Heeter upset Mason Zimmerman 7-3 in the 119-pound final, it became apparent the hill would be too steep to climb for the Eagles.
"Mathematically, we had a chance, but we just told our guys to do as well as we can," Balum said. "The higher you place here the better you set yourself up at districts, and that's what it's about now. Mifflinburg just had too much for us. They had a great tournament, and we did, too. I'll take it."
Freshman Colton Zimmerman got the finals off to a fine start for Line Mountain, defeating senior Zach Tamanini of East Juniata, who had beaten him earlier this season, 8-4. Zimmerman (16-12) also was a solid 11-4 winner over Mifflinburg's Branden Hicks in the semifinals.
Defending state champion Zain Retherford (33-1) took some tough shots from his closest area rival, Mifflinburg's David Sheesley, early in the match before pinning Sheesley in 4:28 in the 112 final, Retherford's only bout of the day.
Heeter (24-10) used a four-point move in the second period for a 4-1 lead against Mason Zimmerman (28-11) a defending champ, and held on for a 7-3 win. Zimmerman almost had a big move at the end but couldn't quite finish it.
Lansberry (30-7) had an uneventful 2-0 win over Mifflinburg's Zane Rowe in the 125 final, and had a big 7-0 win in the semifinals over Dusendschine.
In one of two bouts matching returning state qualifiers (the other was Retherford-Sheesley), Lahr downed Kritzer 4-3 in the 135 final. Lahr (26-5) controlled most of the bout but Kritzer (28-11) had a late reversal.
"Those guys are going to go at it," Balum said. "Adam wrestled well against a state placewinner, and knows he belongs. They're two tough kids."
"It looks like it's going to be that way," Lahr said when asked if he thought he and Kritzer would see more of each other. "I'm just glad I'm healthy this year. I just go out and wrestle."
Lahr had a knee injury last season which limited his effectiveness.
Erdman (36-0) continued his impressive senior season with two pins, against Southern's Logen Mensinger in the semifinals and against Mifflinburg's Alan Miller in the final at 140.
Rothermel (24-13) took apart Danville's Casey Klein (25-6) 12-2 in the 189 final and also looked good in beating Becker 11-3 in the semifinals.
Pesarchick (25-5) pinned East Juniata's Sean Heggs (30-3) in 2:34 in the 130 final. Tillett (25-5) had to work a little harder. He needed a late takedown for a 3-2 win over Mifflinburg's Nazar Mironenko in the 285 final.
Happy senior
Watkins (26-2) was likely the most pleased winner. He pinned Midd-West's Trae Manning in the 145 final in 1:58, finally winning a postseason championship with his 106th career win against just 23 losses.
"How about it, huh?," the senior said. "It feels good to finally get one of these. You can't get too high or too low, though. That's the secret to wrestling, just keeping your confidence and knowing you can wrestle with these guys."
At the other end of the scale, Lamb (28-8) probably was the least happy finalist. He had a 6-1 lead over Midd-West's Aaron Shrawder (19-8) in the final but got caught with a big move and pinned.
Also losing in the finals was Supsic, who earned his 100th career win in the semifinals but dropped an 11-7 decision to Danville's Kody Getkin in the final.
Dusendschine (29-7), Hornberger (26-4) and Przekop (28-6) all wrestled well in consolation rounds for Mount Carmel after dropping tough semifinal bouts.