Friday 3/14/08 was a night to celebrate All-Stars
in the Wyoming Valley. The youth wrestlers from the Penn Elementary League wrestled in front of the same crowd at Wyoming
Area high school as part of the Wilkes-Barre Rotary’s D2 High School, All-Star contest. The Tunkhannock Youth Wrestling
Club (TYWC) had 3 grapplers invited to the event. David Gavek was paired up with Mason Moravinski from WVW. This would be
the third meeting for these two tough kids. Gavek has been unable to solve Moravinski’s style and dropped a heart breaking
defeat. Next up would be Tommy Traver squaring off against Berwick’s Matt Maczuga. Traver dominated the match early
before clamping Maczuga with a first period fall. Ben Siegel filled in for 2 different weight classes. Siegel was taken into
Overtime against Pittston’s Kevin Wesolowski before securing the victory with a classy takedown. Next Siegel took on
Tyler Robinson from Wilkes-Barre’s YMCA. Siegel outlasted Robinson by a narrow 1-0 margin. A happy, but tired Ben Siegel
left the gym with 2 gold medals.
Saturday sent our little Tiger’s to Lackawanna
Trail high school for an East Region MAWA qualifier. Only the top 3 place winners are invited to the Regional championships
in Shamokin in April. Tommy Traver kicked things off with a 1st place showing. Elliott Hammersley and Chris Packer
competed but were unable to place high enough to punch their ticket to the next level.
On Sunday 3/16/08, eight of Tunkhannock’s
wrestlers traveled to Montoursville high school for the Pennsylvania Junior Wrestling Area X Championship. These boys had
to place in the top 4 of a qualifying tournament to be invited this far. Now for the 10 & Under, 11 & 12, and 13 &
14 age divisions, a 1st or 2nd place finish in their brackets would be required to move on to the State
Championships, held in Erie, Pa later this month. Tommy Traver and Brian Rosiak made it to the finals of their 8 & Under
brackets before being handed their first losses. After a great day of wrestling they were awarded silver medals. Ben Siegel
fought hard on his way to a 3rd place finish. Dalton Ray and Josh Richards finished in fourth place and Jake Richards,
Shane Edmondson, and Chris Packer all participated in the day’s event.
