On Monday, February 5, 2018 the Northern Lebanon wrestling team defeated the Wilson Area Warriors in the first round of the PIAA State Wrestling Championships. The match took place at Nazareth Middle School with the Vikings coming away with a 49-21 win. The Vikings defeated the District 11 runner-up in the same round of states last year.
Northern Lebanon continues to dominate, posting a 20-1 record on the season so far.
The Vikings sent 10 wrestlers home with a win including Brandon Breidegan, Kyler Anspach, Seth Fischer, Colin Leonard, Nick Winters, Steve Herb, Ethan Herb, Blaise Bressler, Luis Negreiros, and Kyle Sonnen.
Head Coach Rusty Wallace commented on Sophomore Nick Winter’s ability to pull through in a tough swing match that took all 3 periods to win. “He (Winters) was down 5-0 and he kept battling. He ended wrestling a full six minutes and we won a lot of matches tonight our guys did that.”
The Sophomore himself had a few words about his match. “He could get the cradles really easily,” said Winters (22-13). “If he wouldn’t have caught me in the cradles, it wouldn’t have been a close match.”
Senior Kyler Anspach also faced a tough obstacle, wrestling above his weight. Anspach came up with a pin that boosted the Vikings onto victory. Coach Wallace talked about Kyler and his match on Monday night. “We sent Kyler up to 120. He wrestled a kid who was bigger and stronger than him and he did a nice job. He stayed in position, tossed the kid and finished it. That was a huge pin for him and for us.”
The Vikings will face District 9 champion Brookville at the Giant Center on Thursday at 4:00 pm.
Last year the Vikings defeated Brookville 29-27. At that time Brookville was the defending state champions and ranked #2 in the state.