WILLIAMSPORT - Eleven area wrestlers, led by six from Line Mountain and four from Shamokin, will wrestle in today's semifinals after advancing, some in exciting fashion, in Friday's quarterfinals at the District 4 AA Championships at Williamsport Area High School.
Line Mountain, advancing six of eight wrestlers, took the lead in the team standings over Mifflinburg, 54-45. Mifflinburg has four wrestlers in the semfinals and seven in the consolation brackets.
Shamokin is tied with Lewisburg for sixth place with 35 points.
Zain Retherford (112), Mason Zimmerman (119), Seth Lansberry (125), Adam Kritzer (135), Travis Erdman (140) and Kenny Rothermel (189) advanced for the Eagles, with Zimmerman and Kritzer needing overtime wins in the quarters.
Brandon Pesarchick (130), Josh Lahr (135), Lee Supsic (152) and Wes Tillett (285) advanced for the Indians, as did Southern Columbia's Brian Watkins (145).
In addition, eight other area wrestlers will still wrestle in today's consolation rounds.
Retherford, a defending state champion, raised his record to 35-1 by pinningWyalusing's Brandon Kelley (29-6) in 1:44. He will face South Williamsport's Andrew Gipe (27-6) in the semifinals .
After a scoreless regulation, Zimmerman took Troy's Braden Calkins down in the overtime to raise his record to 30-11. Zimmerman pinned Sayre's Lucas Murphy in the preliminary round and will
wrestle Benton's Colt Cotten (31-4) in the semifinals.
Lansberry (31-7) beat Mount Carmel's Nick Dusendschine for the third time this season with an 8-0 win in the 125 quarterfinals. Lansberry will wrestle Northeast Bradford's Zack Green (35-2) in the semifinals. Dusendschine, who won a preliminary bout, is 30-8 and will wrestle in the consolation round.
Kritzer (30-11) trailed Hughesville's Kyle Barnes 3-1 with about 15 seconds left in the quarterfinal bout after Barnes took him down, but Kritzer quickly worked a reversal, then took Barnes down in overtime. He'll wrestle Towanda's Caleb Willey, who decisioned Mount Carmel's Dylan Hornberger 6-1, in the semifinals. Willey is 37-4.
Hornberger had a preliminary win and will take a 27-5 record into the consolation bracket.
Erdman pinned Midd-West's Nicholas Kratzer in 1:52 to remain unbeaten (37-0) with the hope of meeting fellow unbeaten Luke Frey of Montoursville in the final. Erdman will wrestle Central Columbia's Herbie Shannon (27-6) in the semifinals. Frey (30-0) will wrestle Wyalusing's Joe Champluvier (27-6) after pinning his quarterfinal opponent.
Pesarchick (26-5) pinned Hughesville's Tyler Snyder with a second left in the second period. He will wrestle Montoursville's David Batkowski (28-1) in the semifinals.
Lahr (27-5) had a 9-1 major decision over Benton freshman Jeric Kasunic and will wrestle Troy's Cyle Ercolino (30-4) in the semifnals.
Supsic advanced to the semifinals with a mild upset. After pinning Sugar Valley Charter's Derek Swartz in the preliminary round, he got a third-period takedown for a 4-2 win over Wellsboro's Jake Clemens (34-5). Supsic (23-7) will wrestle Muncy's Zach Strickland (35-3) in the semifinals.
Watkins (27-2) also had a mild upset, beating defending state qualifier Ben Emmett of Central Columbia 3-2 in the quarterfinals. Watkins wll wrestle Towanda's Zach Ripic (35-5) in the semifinals.
Rothermel (25-13) decisioned Wyalusing's Anthony Clark 6-3 and will take on Muncy's Ryan Hembury (34-3) in the semifinals.
Tillett (26-5) pinned Midd-West's Jake Heintzelman in 37 seconds to earn a semifinal bout with Lewisburg's Sean Charest (22-4).
Line Mountain's Colton Zimmerman (103) and Cody Rebuck (152), and Mount Carmel's Brett Przekop (160) dropped quarterfinal bouts.