AAA notebook 

By David Ackley 

BY THE NUMBERS -- Today's first AAA technical fall did not come until the 25^th match of the tournament when Blue Mountain's Cortland Choate scored a 16-1 win. ... In the 112 preliminary matches there were just four technical falls compared with 22 true falls. Speaking of numbers, one in particular was quite popular -- one. There were 14 one-point decisions. There are 16 undefeated wrestlers, 26 1-loss wrestlers and just 17 2-loss grapplers in the AAA tournament. ... Of the 70 regional champions, just seven bowed out of the championship side of the brackets on Thursday. 

ANY GIVEN DAY -- Just four weeks ago at the State Dual Meet Championships, Central Dauphin upended Central Mountain in the semifinal 44-21. The Rams' Kenny Stank overwhelmed Jonathan Quiggle 12-4 in the 130 pound bout. That all changed Thursday at the State Individual Championships when Quiggle outscored Stank 8-3 to move into Friday's quarterfinal round. The Wildcat senior improved to 38-9 on the season. He will face the Southwest Regional champion Zack Zummo of Plum.

Joining Quiggle from Central Mountain in the quarters will be Dylan Alton. The 135-lb. phenom needed just one minute 12 seconds to advance. Alton (42-1) decked Easton senior Tevin Gibson. Friday, he faces Spring-Ford junior and SE Regional champ, Ryan Kemmerer. However, bringing down the house was Alton's twin Andrew, who needed just 12 seconds to cement Northern's Eddie Stephenson. Andrew, now 44-0, just missed setting a PIAA record for the quickest pin. Danville's Ross Walker scored a 7-second pin back in 1988. 

MIFFLIN MILESTONES -- For Lewistown, it has been a 30-year drought since the last time a Panther grappler was at the top of the medal stand. The man who last was there -- Lewistown coach Ken Whitsel -- admits he is a bit tired of hearing about Lewistown's last state champion.

"Yeah, to tell you the truth, I am," he said. "It would be exciting to have another kid from Lewistown win a state title. We've definitely had kids come up through the program in the past 30 years that have been here that were capable of winning a state title, and it just didn't pan out.

"Before I won it, Lewistown had the most runners up in the state."

It's been 20 years since the county had a champion, and he's now coaching Mifflin County's younger mat program."

"It doesn't seem like it was 20 years ago," Indian Valley coach Joe Daubert said. "But every time I tie my wrestling shoes on and wrestle with some of these kids, it feels like 20 years," he added, laughing.

Daubert, who won his title at Chief Logan as a junior, then dropped his last match as a senior at the merged school, looks forward to seeing the Warriors get state gold for the first time.

East Juniata's milestone is just a decade -- that's how long it's been since the Tigers managed to qualify a wrestler for states. Oddly enough, it was a heavyweight then as this year -- but it's the first time the school has put a grappler through since moving from District 3 to District 4, and he'll be the first to take the mat at this facility instead of the old Hersheypark Arena.

"Two years ago we had two kids in the district semis and they didn't even qualify for regionals. It's tough up there," Tigers coach Ray Barrick lamented.

He said his entrant, senior Zeke Pyle, is not really paying attention to the fact that he was in grade school when Beau Truitt made it here.

"I don't think he's looking at it that way. He's glad to be here and he's ready to wrestle," Barrick said.

Pyle made his state debut an affair to remember with an 8-1 decision over Will Fletcher of Palisades in the 285-pound preliminaries. He next faces undefeated Phillip Catrucco of Sharpsville in Friday morning's Class AA quarterfinals. 

FINALLY -- Defending state champion Quentin Wright of Bald Eagle Area came close to Andrew Alton's quick pin with one of his own. Wright, a senior, needed 16 seconds to move into the quarters. 

GONE -- I'm gone until tomorrow and gone from the championship side of the bracket is state champion Nate Eachus of Hazleton. Eachus dropped a 7-1 decision to Chartiers Valley's Matt Wilps at 189 pounds. 

--  The Lewistown Sentinel's Jeff Fishbein contributed to this article.