Franklin Regional wrestlers running up medal count in early season tournaments
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Friday, December 20, 2019 | 6:54 PM
Franklin Regional’s Finn Solomon wrestles Liberty’s Tal-Reese Flemming in the 113-pound class AAA first round during the PIAA state wrestling tournament on Thursday, March 7, 2019 at the Giant Center in Hershey.
Franklin Regional’s Carter Dibert wrestles Connellsville’s Mason Prinkey in the Class AAA semifinals during the PIAA state wrestling tournament on Saturday, March 9, 2019 at the Giant Center in Hershey. Dibert won 10-1 by major decision and moves on to face Seneca Valley’s Dylan Chappell in the 106-pound final.
Finn Solomon and Carter Dibert recently won titles at the King of the Mountain Tournament, one of the most competitive regional wrestling events to start the season.
The two Franklin Regional wrestlers, separated by six pounds, competed against each other in the following days as if they were in a finals match. It’s a routine they’ve stuck to for seven years after tournaments and dual meets.
“If two people keep going at each other forever, they’re going to get better,” Solomon said. “It’s important for us to wrestle each other, because we really try to beat each other. If we have a great practice, everyone does, and we feed off of other people, too. It’s contagious.”
Hard work has paid off for Franklin Regional’s wrestling team, which placed seventh out of 32 teams at King of the Mountain and is 2-0 in Section 1-AAA.
“We’ve had a lot of great performances starting with the (Eastern Area Invitational) and then King of the Mountain,” Franklin Regional coach Matt Lebe said. “That’s one of the top tournaments in the state. We did great in each of those.”
Freshman Nathan Stone (138 pounds) and Dibert (120) won in their weight classes at the Eastern Area Invitational. Senior Mason Spears (145) placed in the top three of each tournament. Junior Garrett Thompson (132) made it to the podium twice and freshman Gavyn Beck (160) placed once.
The Panthers will wrestle in the Powerade and WCCA tournaments in the next two weeks.
“We just have to trust our training and each other (to be successful),” Dibert said. “I believe our training is some of the best you can get out there. We don’t have to focus so much on wins and losses. We just have to focus on getting better with every single match.”
With six freshmen in the lineup, Lebe has turned to wrestlers like Spears, Dibert and Solomon to set the tone in practice to prepare them for the Panthers’ challenging schedule.
Stone and Beck have a 17-7 combined record to start their careers, and the freshman class is 29-25.
“The freshmen who came in are great guys,” Dibert said. “I feel really good about this team having a bright future just because of how hard everyone works every day. It’s great to see all the guys you train with get their hand raised, too. It’s a great feeling.”
Lebe has also relied on junior Mario Sarnic, who is out with an injury, to be a mentor to the team’s younger wrestlers.
“We have a lot of wrestlers who lead in different ways, and Mario is one of our great leaders,” Lebe said. “I know he’d rather be a leader on the mat, but he’s at practice every day helping everyone else get better.”
Solomon credited the program’s culture of learning from each other for a promising start to the season.
“Carter and I learned from watching guys like Colton Camacho, Zach McCann and Mason Spears wrestle each other,” Solomon said. “We looked at each other and said we had to work as hard as them to be as successful as them. We want to keep passing that on.”
Tags: Franklin Regional
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