Rosenberry heading to states

(photo by Chris Bradley)
Shane Rosenberry's phenomenal season will continue. Rosenberry had a great weekend at the District Three tourney at Hersheypark Arena, losing only to eventual district champ Antonio Giorgio, and taking third place at 189 pounds to qualify for the upcoming PIAA State Tournament.

States will begin on Thursday, March 6 at the Giant Center in Hershey. Here's a look at Shane's road to the Giant Center.

1st Round: Shane pretty much dominated every match he wrestled in with the exception of the Giorgio bout in the semis. He got things started in the first round with a 12-0 major over Manheim Central's Josh Pavlik.

Quarterfinals: Ephrata's Jordan Becker hung around, but Rosenberry was ultimately too much, hanging a 10-5 decision on Becker to advance to the semis.

Semifinals: It seems like Rosenberry has had real trouble with two wrestlers this season – Keith Dickey of Cedar Cliff and Giorgio, who is still has yet to taste defeat this season. Giorgio didn't pin Rosenberry, but he earned a 16-8 major decision to send him to the consolation bracket. This Giorgio kid is only a sophomore and I think may win one or two state championships before he graduates. he's the real deal.

Consolation semis: Rosenberry earned another major, this one on Hempfield's Evan Marin, 16-7.

Consolation finals: In the second period, Rosenberry flipped Reading's Gary Estella on his back and pinned him in 2:07 to clinch his spot in states.

Here's how the other eight E-town district qualifiers fared:
103: Matt Hoover lost in the first round to eventual district champ Cameron Throckmorton, sending him to the consolation bracket. In consys, Hoover earned a 14-2 major in the first round before losing his next bout to Jacob Verheyen 6-1.

112: Calvin Anderton lost a heartbreaker to the No. 2 seed in the bracket 2-1 in the first round. And in his first consolation match, Anderton was pinned by Zach Terefenko to end his season.

130: Just Lewis lost to 2 seed Nathan Warner in the first round and lost by tech fall to Conestoga Valley's Justin Lapp in the first round of consolations.

135: Oliver Thayer was pinned by top seeded Zach Grove in the first round. He won his first consolation match by a 4-3 decision over Ephrata's Jared Becker, but was on the short end of a 4-3 decision in his next bout, falling to Andrew Eshleman.

140: This one was a bit surprising to me. This was a good bracket, but I thought Blake Rosenberger had a good shot of getting through and making it to states. Things started well for Blake as he earned a 7-3 decision in the first round over Mechanicsburg's Evan Baer. He then beat Muhlenberg's Bo Cadelaria (who entered the match with just one loss this year) in the quarterfinals, 8-5, to advance to the semifinals. In the semis, Rosenberger lost a close 6-4 decision to eventual champ Bryce Busler (who beat Marshall Peppelman in the finals). And then, in the consolation semis, Eddie Stephenson ended Rosenberger's season with a 6-5 decision.

160: Adam Zellman was pinned by Dallastown's Clay Gable in the first round and pinned again in the first round of consolations, losing to Governor Mifflin's Dave Gurtowski.

171: Travis Leber made some noise before being eliminated. He won his first round bout over Bryce Shaffer, 8-6, before losing a 5-4 decision to Jarvis Cummings in the quarterfinals. In the consolation round, he majored Alex Swartz 11-2 but lost to Cory Baker 5-3 in the consolation quarterfinals.

285: Alex Kirchner lost his opener to Danny Estricher by fall. In the consolations, he won his first match 5-3, and won his second 7-4 before losing to Brandon Kline in the third round of consolations.

Some other notes:
• Of the 42 state berths awarded for Class AAA, 18 of those came from Section Two (which E-town is in), for an astonshing 42 percent of the berths. Wow. Now you see why people say that E-town's sectional tournament is among the best in the state.

• Jordan Enck lost in the 215 finals. Didn't see that one coming.