Wrestling is family affair for Makels
Nate Jones or Waynesburg has his leg trapped by Parker Kearns of Mifflin County during their 152-pound bout in the PIAA Class 3A Championships at the Giant Center in Hershey Thursday. Jones lost by decision.
Jake Conroy of Ringgold ges backpoints on Jeremy McKinney during their 189-pound bout in the PIAA Class 3A Championships at the Giant Center in Hershey Thursday. Conroy won by decision.
Joe Tuscano/Observer-Reporter
Andrew Binni, left, of Canon-McMillan works on Luke Mentzer of Chambersburg during their 127-pound bout in the PIAA Class 3A Championships Thursday at the Giant Center in Hershey. Binni won by decsion.
HERSHEY – When Eli Makel won the WPIAL title last week at Canon-McMillan, he knew there was more meaning to it.
Makel had become the third generation of the family to become a WPIAL champion. His father, Travis, did while at Jefferson-Morgan and his grandfather, Duane, did it while wrestling for Waynesburg.
Now Eli Makel is trying to match dad’s two state titles with one of his own at the PIAA Class 3A Championships this weekend at the Giant Center. He took the first step Thursday be winning his first-round match, 5-0, over Diesel Kosar of Shippensburg at 215 pound.
“After I won WPIALs, I heard people talking about when there were three generations of champions,” Eli Makel said. “My grandpap was, my dad and uncle both were and now I am. There were six total championships out of our family, which is pretty cool.”
Travis Makel was indirectly involved in one of the greatest upsets in PIAA history. After winning the 130-pound title in 1994, Travis Makel wanted to wrestle Jason Betz of Warrior Run and went on a diet to reach Betz’s weight class of 125. The two wrestlers were in opposite brackets and both made the semifinals.
But Jeremy Lingle of Pine-Richland caught Betz in a spladle and pinned him in the semifinals. Travis Makel came down with the flu that night and wrestled one of his worst matches but still edged Lingle. On the awards stand, Travis Makel, in a sportsmanlike gesture not seen in this tournament before or after, offered the gold medal to Lingle, who politely refused.
“Travis was a very smart wrestler,” said Scott Rhodes, who was an assistant coach at Jefferson-Morgan when Travis wrestled. “I would never bet against Travis no matter who he had. He just constantly knew what you needed to do to win a match.”
Travis Makel took injury time during the match at the Hersheypark Arena to the unhappiness of the large crowd.
“That was a smart decision, regroup, come back and score I think it was seven straight points to win the match,” Rhodes said.
Makel wrestles John Pardo of Kennet in the quarterfinals. Two of Makel’s teammates, Mac Church and Rocco Welsh, looked well on the way to repeating as state champions. Church, the top seed in the 145-pound weight class, pinned Dalton Monger of Pottsville in 2:44.
The plan was to just wrestle,” Church said. “I feel pretty good with it being the first match.”
Welsh pinned Tasso Whipple in the first round in 1:10 and gets Macon Myers of Central York in the quarterfinals.
Trinity’s Blake Reihner had quite a day in the 139-pound bracket. He opened with a 5-0 decision over Mason Karkoska of Owen J. Roberts, then knocked off the fourth seed, Elias Long of Central York, 4-3. He gets Oliver Fairchild of Easton in today’s quarterfinals.
I’ve just got to get better in the next round, keep the momentum going,” said Reihner. “My heart was pounding during the match. I have an opportunity (Friday) to win a couple and place.”
Heavyweight Ty Banco was impressive in pinning Zach Gallagher of Dubois in 57 seconds. He gets the aptly named Michael Hershey of Spring Grove in the quarters.
Canon-McMillan has three in the quarterfinals: Tanner Mizenko at 107, Andrew Binni at 127 and Matthew Furman at 172.
I saw the bracket and see a path to the finals,” said Binni after 7-0 shutout of Luke Mentzer of Chambersburg.