NTL WRESTLING: TOWANDA'S VANDERPOOL, ROBINSON GET WINS TO ADVANCE TO QUARTERFINALS (2025-03-06)
BY CHRIS MANNINGNorthern Tier Sports ReportHERSHEY — It was a mixed day for Towanda at the opening day of the PIAA, Class AA Wrestling Championships Thursday.
Riley Vanderpool (145) had a dominant performance to punch his ticket into the quarters, Sawyer Robinson (215) gave everyone a heart attack (in the most figurative sense) as he won his match in sudden victory, Mason Higley (285) fell in a tight one in his opening round match, and freshman Gage Evans (133) came up just short, going 0-2.
Vanderpool used a big 12-1 win over General McLane’s Clay Kimmy in his opening round match to reach the quarters.
“It feels great,” Vanderpool said about the win. “I came in today just knowing I had to win my first one. It’s all just going to move on from there, but just worrying about one match at a time right now.”
Kimmy came out hard but Vanderpool defended him well, then went on the attack, getting a single leg off a scramble, then pulling in the other leg for a 3-0 lead. He’d ride out Kimmy the rest of the period.
“That kind of motivated me for this match,” Vanderpool said about that opening sequence. “When I got that takedown in the first period, I was just thinking to myself, I can actually win this - let’s do it.”
Vanderpool would get a reversal in the second to take a 5-0 lead, then turned the corner in the third to go up 8-0.
He added a tilt to push his lead to 12-0, with Kimmy finally scoring with an escape late.
“It feels good knowing I can ride somebody that good, because I might use it throughout the tournament,” said Vanderpool. “You never know.”
Towanda coach Bill Sexton was impressed with his senior.
“I thought Riley excellent today,” said Sexton. “He came down relaxed, went out focused, wrestled a real strong match, scored, and then kept scoring building his points - I was very pleased with him.”
Vanderpool will get Faith Christian’s Mason Wagner in the quarters on Friday morning.
Robinson won a back and forth 16-10 match over Cory’s Kael Albers, one that wasn’t decided until the senior Knight got a big takedown in sudden victory.
“It feels pretty good, but I have to wrestle better if I want to make it,” Robinson said.
He was down 10-9 late in the third when he got the escape point to tie it up at 10-all with 12 seconds left. In sudden victory he got to Albers’ leg, and from there it was a battle of wills between the two exhausted wrestlers, with Robison prevailing for the takedown, and got three back points at the end.
He started strong, getting a takedown to go up 3-0, but then found himself down 6-3 as Arbors reversed him, and nearly pinned him.
I knew I should have been up by more,” said Robinson.
Robinson was on top to start the second, and closed the gap with two back points. Arbors, though was able to get the reversal to extend the lead to 8-5.
Robinson, though, ended the period with a reversal of his own to cut it to 8-7. The reversals continued into the third, with Robinson getting a reversal to open the period, followed by Arbors getting one back to retake the lead, 10-9.
“Both of us just had funky wrestling styles, and we were just going at it,” remarked Robinson.
In the overtime Robinson was able to get in on a shot, but struggled to finish as Arbors did his best to sprawl, and push Robinson down.
“I was trying to break him down from there, but I realized his base was too good,” explained Robinson. “I had to to take it up.”
Arbors lost his balance, and fell to his back, and that was the match.
“Hopefully I can make the next match a little less close,” said Robinson.
“Sawyer put on an entertaining match,” remarked Sexton. “One thing you can pretty much always count on in a Sawyer match is that there’s going to be some weird situation, flopping around where he’s going to come out of it scoring points. That’s pretty much what that match was, back and forth, but he got it done when he had to, that’s the most important thing.”
Higley wasn’t as fortunate in his close loss, 6-2, to Bishop McCort’s Caleb Rodriguez.
Rodriguez got a first period takedown to go up 3-0, though Higley reversed him to cut it to 3-2 after one.
Rodriguez would ride out Higley in the second period, then scored the deciding takedown late in the third when Higley needed to score.
“He gave up an early take down, and the kid did a good job of keeping him up,” Sexton said. “You’ve got to take chances when you’re in that situation, a 3-2 match at the time, he had to take another shot, and the kid was able to use his weight. Hopefully he bounces back.”
Higley will face Delone Catholic’s Caleb Tyler in the second round of consolations Friday.
Evans wrestled through an elbow injury to get his first state experience on Thursday.
He opened with a 12-2 loss to Bald Eagle Area’s Caden Judice, then fell 12-4 to Bishop McDevitt’s Zane Crouse in the consolations.
“Gage was far more relaxed in his second match,” Sexton said. “I think he was real tight during the first one. You’ve got to get here to experience it, then you’ve got to figure out what it’s like, and how you can use that in the future. He got here as a freshman, he’s already the second freshman in our program’s history to get here, and hopefully he uses this experience, builds on it, and continues to help him over the next three years.”
In his opening round match the two were even until Judice got a takedown with 17 seconds left to go up 3-0. He added a reversal in the second for a 5-0 lead.
Judice got another takedown in the third to extend his lead to 8-0, though Evans came back with a reversal off a switch for an 8-2 score.
Judice got an escape, then a final takedown to finish on top.
In the consolation match Evans was poked in the eye early, but recovered to keep things neutral through one.
Crouse would get two takedowns in the second for a 7-1 lead, then added back points early in the third to go up 10-1.
Evans would score a reversal to cut it to 10-3, but Crouse came back with a reversal of his own for a 12-3 score.
Evans did get an escape to finish on his feet for a 12-4 final.
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PHOTOS BY CHRIS MANNING & LANCE LARCOM
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