WRESTLING: Boyertown repeats as District 1-3A champion; OJR finishes 4th, qualifies for PIAA Duals

FORT WASHINGTON — It’s a numbers game when it comes to toppling Boyertown.

Finding that seventh or eighth win in a dual meet against Boyertown’s depth is the challenge, and Saturday at Upper Dublin High, the Bears proved they were too much.

From one to 13, No. 1 Boyertown showed for the second straight year it’s the top team in the district after defeating No. 2 Council Rock South, 33-31, in the finals of the District 1-3A Duals.

Eighth-seeded Owen J. Roberts fell to No. 4 Pennridge in the consolation final, but both Pioneer Athletic Conference teams qualified for the PIAA Duals next week.

It was the fifth time Boyertown faced the Golden Hawks in the finals and fourth time the Bears came out on top. The Bears are now just one championship behind South for most District 1 titles all time, with six.

“We have 13 solid kids and all of them have double digit wins and they’re quality kids,” Boyertown coach Chris Lloyd said. “We think the other team’s just going to run out of bullets. As long as we can save points and when we get through 152 and up, they can score big points for us. They go out and do their job.”

South found four wins in the first six bouts and led, 21-11, before Boyertown’s middle weights started chipping away.

Carter Stouch (152 pounds) started the run with a major decision, followed by Logan Oakes (160), who used a third-period comeback to score a 5-4 win over Zach Andrews.

J.D. Heiser (172) gave the Bears their second lead with a technical fall, and Josh Larrimore (189) and Kaleb Dumin (215) made sure that lead would stand with tech falls of their own.

“We just keep supporting each other every way,” Heiser said. “After each match there’s always an opportunity to score points and get wins. Oakes gave us the most hype and excitement to push forward and keep going and get as many points as we could. It went through the whole team the rest of the match.”

The Bears (22-1) started the day discarding OJR, 46-19, in the quarterfinals. Pennridge was the next victim, in the semifinals, 37-16.

In the finals, Boyertown gave up four tech falls, but even saving that one potential bonus point in each proved pivotal. When Dumin won with two bouts to go, Boyertown had the match all but wrapped up, even if South had tied it, due to the matches won criteria.

“From how we did last year, we see ourselves with a target on our back,” Heiser said. “We don’t take that lightly. Every team coming after us, we’re going to war with them. No matter what, we’re scoring as many points as we can. Even though we won last year doesn’t mean we’re stopping.”

Boyertown will wrestle Wilson (West Lawn) on Tuesday at home. A win there would send the Bears to the quarterfinals, which will be wrestled at the 1st Summit Arena in Johnstown, along with the rest of the state duals tournament.

The Bears have now won 37 straight duals against District 1 teams, with their last defeat in February of 2024 to Sun Valley.

Despite the losses to graduation, as well as Lloyd taking over for former coach Tony Haley, Boyertown believed it would be right back here a second straight year.

“We took up that challenge to win back-to-back,” Lloyd said. “After states last year we knew we were losing five quality seniors, but we had eight returning regional qualifiers, so we went with the mentality this season, that started in the spring, that we preached that we’re a good team. We work together and we work hard every day in practice. No one outworks us and it just carries through.”

As for the Wildcats, they didn’t necessarily see themselves at this spot the way Boyertown did. Owen J. started the season going 2-3 at the Brian Bealer Memorial Bear Duals and the Wildcats had to do some growing to get where they did.

“We lost some dual meets that first weekend and I just didn’t think we were the kind of team that was going to be able to do this,” OJR coach Steve DeRafelo said. “I give the kids credit, they kept battling and they got better.”

After the loss to Boyertown in quarters, OJR knocked off its next two opponents in the final bout for both. Against No. 12 North Penn, Decker Bechtold (215) pinned to give OJR the win. Then versus No. 6 Garnet Valley, DeRafelo held Bechtold out against state qualifier Paxton Hunt and forfeited to give the Jaguars a five-point lead with one to go. Dean Bechtold (285) quickly erased that with a pin to send the Wildcats to states.

The Wildcats will have to win two duals on Tuesday to advance to Johnstown, starting with the District 11 runner-up, Bethlehem Catholic, at Abington Heights High. Decker Bechtold’s availability will be a game-time decision.

“We’ll do what we can do to win, but the bottom line is, we’re not going to jeopardize (Decker’s) postseason to do that,” DeRafelo said. “He’s a great kid and he’s worked hard and he deserves us protecting him. He’d wrestle every match if it were up to him.”

Boyertown 33, Council Rock South 31

114- Segata (CRS) tech. fall Vance, 20-4 (0-5)

121- Worth (CRS) tech. fall Ca. Fogle, 18-3 (0-10)

127- Waite (BT) tech. Fall Kiker, 20-5 (5-10)

133- Tobias (BT) pinned Riccardi, 5:27 (11-10)

139- Woloshyn (CRS) tech. fall Co. Fogle, 18-2 (11-15)

145- Kornev (CRS) pinned Diamond, 4:11 (11-21)

152- Stouch (BT) maj. dec. Ortman, 14-3 (15-21)

160- Oakes (BT) dec. Andrews, 5-4 (18-21)

172- Heiser (BT) tech. fall Sharifov, 16-0 (23-21)

189- Larrimore (BT) tech. fall Pitula, 18-2 (28-21)

215- Dumin (BT) tech. fall Persofsky, 18-2 (33-21)

285- Scott (CRS) tech. fall Ayres, 19-4 (33-26)

107- Bagnell (CRS) tech. fall Stanchak, 17-2 (33-31)