Wrestling: Owen J. Roberts’ Bechtold brothers, Gautreau lead PAC contingent into state tournament

Owen J. Roberts enters this weekend’s PIAA Wrestling Championships with three returning state medalists from a year ago.

Seniors Dillon Bechtold and Sam Gautreau and sophomore Dean Bechtold naturally have their sights set on moving up the podium in 2024.

They already have a good grasp on elevating themselves.

That’s been evident in a variety of ways this winter, whether it’s their mat skills, record or – in the case of Gautreau and Dean Bechtold – competing weight class.

The Wildcats’ trio leads the Pioneer Athletic Conference’s nine qualifiers to the PIAA Class 3A Championships that run from Thursday through Saturday at the Giant Center in Hershey. The PAC’s contingent also features Boyertown senior Gavin Sheridan, the Perkiomen Valley trio of junior Carter Euker, sophomore Max Tancini and freshman Luke Knox, Spring-Ford sophomore Mason Richards, and Upper Perkiomen senior Branden Rozanski.

Dean Bechtold made the bold move to bump up from 189 pounds, where he placed 6th in Pa. as a freshman, to heavyweight for his sophomore year.

It’s been a learning experience since he first took the mat at 285, but he’s shown to be a quick learner.

“It’s definitely an adventure,” he said. “At the start of the season, I took a pretty bad loss to Pav (State College senior NIck Pavlechko) where I wasn’t very close at all. I think since then, I started adjusting a little better to wrestling against heavyweights.
“I guess I expected to be winning, but definitely, it’s been a good transition.”

It’s required a stylistic change but it has suited the sophomore.

“I think from last year to this year, my style is almost, not completely different, but it’s changed so much,” he said. “I’ve become a lot more dominant on my feet. I definitely have been working on my feet all the time. That’s where I like to be. And I think my motion has really picked up. I’ve just been working to improve.”

At 38-3 and fresh off winning his second Southeast 3A Regional title by topping Quakertown senior Calvin Lachman 3-2 in the final (a reversal of one of his three previous defeats), he’s impressed basically everyone. That includes his accomplished older brother Dillon, who takes an undefeated 38-0 record and No. 1 ranking at 215 pounds into states.

“He’s just been wrestling great,” Dillon said of Dean. “He works super hard. He eats all the right foods; he’s been eating super healthy this whole year, he stretches a lot, he goes to bed early. He does everything he needs to do to give himself a shot to win a state title. You can see it is paying off.”

Gautreau has himself in similar position to vie for a state title, this year competing at 172 pounds. He placed fourth in a stacked 152-pound weight class as a junior and enters the state championships with a 40-5 record after placing second in regionals.

He fell to No. 1 ranked Bekhruz Sadriddinov of Council Rock South 1-0 in the regional final, but was visibly undeterred after the match. Performance rather than result is motivating the Maryland commit.

“I’ve really just been focusing on not worrying about the outcome of the match and more about how I’m wrestling and performing,” Gautreau said. “If you worry about the outcome so much you get tight. It’s easy to say I don’t care about winning and losing, but a lot of kids in reality, they really do when they go out there and they get tight. For me, if I get unlucky or things will go my way and I was happy with my performance, then I’m OK with that.”

Ranked No. 3, Gautreau likes his chances, especially after getting some final preparation in with his OJR teammates and an extra session with his father, John Gautreau, who wrestled at Syracuse.

“It feels good being one of the favorites. I’m just excited to go let it fly,” Gautreau said. “I really think if I put some good matches together, I could be gunning for the state title.”

State title talk isn’t at the forefront of the mind for Dillon Bechtold despite being the area’s top hope for state gold. He was a 7-5 decision to Nazareth’s Sonny Sasso away from winning the 215 title last year and has been a one-man wrecking crew as a senior.

He has 34 pins in his 38 wins and only once has a match gone the distance (16-2 major of Chambersburg’s Aiden Hight on Dec. 30, 2023). He has pins over South Central champ Hight and Northeast champ Caleb Marzolino (34-2) of Abington Heights on his resume.

“I think my confidence is a little bit different this year, knowing that I can put guys on their back and pin them and not being afraid to give everything I have in the first 30-second sprint,” Bechtold said. “I know that my stamina is going to be there later in the match if I need it.”

Bechtold brings remarkable perspective into his third trip to PIAAs before departing for Bucknell University next fall.

“At the end of the day, it’s just wrestling. It’s just a sport and it doesn’t make me who I am,” he said. “Knowing that actually allows me to be able to be more patient and confident at the same time. … I practiced all year and once I get out there, I’m not really thinking it’s just all muscle memory.”

Bechtold said he’s feeling fresher than previous trips to states, and not just because he’s seen the third period just once all year. Overtraining led to knee injuries his sophomore and junior years that he’s limited this winter.

With his body and mind right, Bechtold has set the table for himself in the best way possible.

“I look back at those (previous trips to states) as a lot of fun, a great time,” he said. “I look back at them like, even though I know in the moment it seemed like it was everything, the most important thing, one week later, it’s all over and I’m hanging out with my friends and I’m getting ready for freestyle.

“It takes the pressure off a little bit knowing that like it’s just wrestling. I’ve been there before, I’ve done it before. I’m confident in myself and confident in my abilities.”

Class 3A preliminaries begin at 4 p.m. Thursday and action follows starting at 2:15 p.m. Friday with the quarterfinals. On Saturday, the medal rounds begin at 11:30 a.m. followed by the 4 p.m. finals which will combine boys’ 3A and 2A and the inaugural girls’ finals for the first time.

Sheridan (45-4) and Rozanski (36-4) share a place in the 133-pound field, one of two with two PAC qualifiers. Upper Perk senior Rozanski flipped a 1-0 loss to Sheridan from the District 1 North final at regionals, winning 4-2 in sudden victory.

Rozanski, making his third states appearance, earned a more favorable draw in the process. Navy recruit Sheridan gets South Central runner-up James Garcia (49-4) in the first round with a potential quarterfinal against Nazareth junior and top-ranked Tahir Parkins (37-2) awaiting.

A year after sending six to states, Perk Valley matches OJR with three entrants, including Tancini (38-3), who was sixth at 107 as a freshman. Tancini, ranked No. 3 in Pa. entering regionals, fell to top-ranked freshman Dominick Morrison 2-0 in the final but remains one of the area’s top hopes for a high finish.

The PAC sends a pair into the 189-pound field in regional runner-up Carter Euker (37-7) and Spring-Ford’s Richards (32-8), who finished third at Oxford. Both are in the bottom half of the bracket that features regional champions in Tucker Teats of Selinsgrove (37-7) and Jared Karabinus (33-2) of Freedom. Daniel Boone’s returning state champion Tucker Hogan (45-0) is the heavy favorite to repeat.

The Vikings’ Knox (42-6) is the PAC’s lone freshman to reach states after he took fifth at regionals thanks to a 5-4 win over North Penn’s Jonny O’Brien.