Zach Sintobin Wins D-9 Wrestling Crown As Bobcats Finish 5th, Five Headed To Regionals (02/22/15)

After finishing fourth the last two years, junior Zach Sintobin won the 195LB Title in the District Nine Class-AA Wrestling Championships, held Friday and Saturday (February 2th and 21st), to lead the Clarion Area Bobcats to a fifth place finish.

Zach on top of the Medals Platform with the other placewinners

Zach on top of the Medals Platform with the other placewinners

Sintobin will now move on to the Northwest AA Regional Tournament, at Sharon High School, this Friday and Saturday (February 27th-28th). He will be joined by four other Bobcats, 2nd Place winners, junior Alex Struble (106), freshman Colton Rapp (145) and senior Jacob Troutman (170) and junior Alexander Burkhart (182) who finished 4th.

This will be Sintobin’s third straight trip to Regionals (he finished 4th at Districts the last two years). Sintobin opened with a fall at 1:43 over Dalton Green of Oswayo Valley, in the Quarter-Finals. He recorded a 7-0 win over Austin Gregorson of Sheffield, in the Semis. He captured the Championship with a fall at 3:31, over Tyler Cook of Brookville.

(L-R) Bobcat Head Coach and proud father Rob Sintobin, Zach, Bobcat Assistant Coach Dillon Reinsel

(L-R) Bobcat Head Coach and proud father Rob Sintobin, Zach, Bobcat Assistant Coach Dillon Reinsel

Struble began with a 13-2 major decision over Scott Cokely of Cameron County, in the Quarter-Finals. Struble then defeated Cranberry’s Harrison Keenan, 3-1, in the Semis before falling 9-3 to Gavin Park in the Finals.

Rapp opened with a fall, in 2:52 of the Preliminary Round, over Shae Garrison of Cameron County. He followed with a 1-0 win over Coudersport’s Julian Smith, in the Quarter-Finals. Rapp defeated Chad Rodgers 5-4 in the Semis before losing by fall, at 3:47, to Smethport’s James Duffy in the Championship match.

Troutman pinned Keystone’s Evan Redding, in 1:33 of their Quarter-Final bout, then followed with another fall in the Semis, defeating Noah Celeski of Brookville, in 2:31, before falling to Brockway’s Anthony Benson in their Finals bout.

Burkhart downed Dalton Feldbauer of Ridgway, 7-5, in the Prelims. After losing a one-point, 8-7 decision in the Quarter-Finals, Burkhart rebounded with two straight wins. He defeated Mike DiVito from Sheffield, 5-3 in the Second Round Consolations and followed that with an 11-3 Major Decision, in Third Round Consolations, over Redbank Valley’s Logan Minich. With his ticket to Regionals already punched, he lost a one-point, 6-5 decision to Curwensville’s Ben Junod, in the Consolation finals.

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Other Bobcats, registering victories were: Adrian Weber (132), Prince Brooks (152) and Mike LeFay (160) with two wins each and Caleb Bailey (126) and Heavyweight Zack Huet with a victory each.

There were 16 teams in the AA Championships. The top five were:

1. Brookville

2. Redbank Valley

3. Brockway

4. Port Allegany

5. Clarion

Advancing from other area schools are:

Redbank Valley: Tanner Altobelli (126) 1st; Keshon Truitt (160) 1st; Kolbin Altobelli (113) 2nd; Luke Gallo (138) 3rd; Cal Haines (220) 3rd; Brylee Shumaker (HWT) 3rd.

Keystone: Zach Stiglitz (182) 2nd; Tyler Beal (HWT) 2nd; Austin Hulings (195) 4th.

Brookville: Gavin Park (106) 1st; Tyler Ortz (120) 1st; Jimmy Miller (152) 1st; Cole Aaron (126) 2nd; Tyler Cook (195) 2nd; Bryce Town (220) 2nd; Kai Sorbin (113) 4th; Cole Clever (138) 4th; Devin Joiner (145) 4th; Caleb Hetrick (160) 4th.

Cranberry: Paul Zacherl (152) 2nd; Josh Hancock (120) 3rd; Harrison Keenan (106) 4th.

Clearfield won the five team, Class-AAA Championship, followed by St. Marys, Punxsutawney, Dubois and Bradford.

CAT QUOTES:

I caught up with Zach and his Coach and Father Rob Sintobin after Zach’s Championship victory:

Coach Sintobin: “First of all, I’m pretty excited. I don’t know what the final team score is yet, but we were in the top four the whole tournament.” (The Cats ended up in 5th, 3 points behind Port Allegany.) “It was exciting seeing us be that highly capable in the District this year. I think that’s what the guys need to be proud of first and foremost.

“To have four guys in the finals was big for us. It’s been a lot of time since that’s happened. And taking five to Regions is big. It’s just an exciting year. And of course, to cap it off for me, not just as his coach but his dad, to have Zach win that District Nine title and looking on to next week and moving on and following that road to Hershey, hopefully.

“We’re excited and super proud of the the boys. Even the ones who didn’t make it wrestled hard; they wrestled well. And a lot of them one won at least two matches and put team points on the board to give us a strong position here at this tournament.

“So I’m excited.”

Zach on winning the Championship: “It feels great. I’m the first guy since 2009 to do it. So it feels really good. It’s what I’ve been wanting for a while and I want to just keep going on, going to Regionals, going to States and hopefully winning it all.”

(CONGRATULATIONS TO THE CATS ON THEIR FIFTH PLACE FINISH!!!! CONGRATULATIONS TO ZACH, ALEX, COLTON, JACOB AND ALEXANDER!!!! ALL THE BEST TO YOU AND THE OTHER AREA AND DISTRICT WRESTLERS AT REGIONALS!!!!)