Giovanni Lomonaco photographed above.
By: Tyler Myers
It was the PIAAA District II tournament, the stage had been set over two days at Wilkes-Barre Area high school, and the Wallenpaupack Buckhorns had every intention of walking away from the weekend adorned in gold.
The Buckhorns’ crusade to the crown began with a nearly ideal beginning. They closed Friday with an astounding 10 wrestlers in the championship bracket and the other three still holding strong in the consolation bracket. Leading at the top of team scores, they found extra points in pins and tech-falls and managed to edge out a lead over Abington Heights, making an early grab at 1st place over the 11 other teams.
The team continued their purple-clad plight upon the bracket into Saturday, keeping their strong team lead above Abington Heights and Delaware Valley until the very end. The final team score mirrored the duals against the other attending teams- that being a landslide victory, with the Buckhorns scoring leagues away from the competition. The ending gap between the top two placers amounted to a grand 40 points. For context, Abington Heights took 2nd, scoring only 160.5 points compared to Wallenpaupack’s staggering 200.0 point score for a 1st place finish.
The individual side mirrored the team’s performance, with two 5th place finishes from Manny Caufield and George Rafferty and one 4th place finish from Kyle Scartelli, all going from hard losses into even harder battles to the top spots. The streak continues into the team’s four bronze medalists, consisting of Ayden Blaut, Nicholas Skokos, Thomas Toth, and Xaiden Schock- all having decisive final wins except for Toth, who won his match in a tense 6-6 overtime. Looking to the top of the bracket, Tristan Braxton, Gabriel Caufield, and Conan Kier all took hard losses but still placed at a very respectable 2nd. Standing at the top of his competition was Giovanni Lomonaco, ending his final match in an effortless 19-2 tech-fall to take the top spot.
The Buckhorn wrestlers now look towards greater goals, as the top three placers from each districts bracket now move to the regional competition this weekend. If any wrestler places 4th or higher in the regional competition, they are then entered into the state competition the following week. The team carries an amazing quantity of eight out of 13 wrestlers into the regional competition and is very optimistic about continuing to the state level
