The Road to Hershey begins

For the Columbia wrestling team, the mythical “Road to Hershey” begins Saturday with their participation in a Class AA sectional tournament at Bermudian Springs High School.

The one-day tournament features not only the Crimson Tide but also Lancaster Catholic from the L-L League, but also eight teams from the York-Adams League including Eastern.

Coach Scott Rupp’s team drew two top seeds for the first link in the “Road to Hershey” in senior Joe Ronca (30-5) at 135 and sophomore Nathan Warner (26-8) at 160. Number two seeds for the Tide are John Markley (130) and Brandon Felus (215). Third seeds are Jordan Halter (140) and Jake Sentz (285), while Johnny Vazquez (152) is a fourth seed.

Wrestlers have to finish in the top four at their respective weight class to make it to next weekend’s District Three Class AA championships at the old (I mean old) Hersheypark Arena.

One of the things to watch this weekend is Ronca’s quest for his 100th career win, which could happen this weekend, or early next weekend, if he gets that far.

Ronca, who dropped a weight class, will meet 4-11 John Vu of York Suburban High School in the first round.

The Tide’s other top seed, Warner, will meet the winner of the Colin Butler (Lancaster Catholic, 7-15)/Derek Dick (Fairfield, 7-8) in the first round.

Here is a weight class by weight class rundown of who each Tide wrestler will face in the first round.

103: Tony Barton (10-21) will face top-seeded Brad Farley (25-0) of Bermudian Springs in the first round.

112: Phillip Stark (9-19) will face fourth-seeded Evan Goshert (9-14) of Eastern York.

119: Derek Zercher (14-18) will face Biglerville’s Nick Leiphart (21-7).

125: Alan Foehlinger (6-18) will face Matt Galetti (2-14) in a pig tail match. Galetti is from York Suburban.

130: Markley, the number two seed will put his 24-11 record on the line in the first round against the winner of a pig tail match between Damon Becker (18-12) of Bermudian and Matt Flick (3-12) of Lancaster Catholic.

140: Halter will move up a weight class with a 26-9 record and a number three seed and battle Fairfield’s Andrew Blinn (8-14).

145: Todd Lingafelt (15-18) will meet Lancaster Catholic’s Aaron Law (15-9).

152: Vazquez (13-13) will meet Kevin Nichols (12-13) of Biglerville.

171: Derrick Brooks (7-12) will meet Robert Aaron Mackley of Eastern (21-3).

189: Despite a 20-win season, Marcus Fischer (20-14) has to wrestle a pig tail match against Troy Hewitt (4-17) of Fairfield. The winner gets Bermudian’s Matt Wolf.

215: Felus (23-4) will face Jordan Brooks (8-11) of Biglerville.

285: Sentz (20-14) will face Jacob Higgins (7-8) of Eastern.

The Tide completed its regular season with a trip to Gettysburg last Monday for an invitational on President’s Day, where they placed second as a team. Ronca, Warner, Fischer and Felus lost in the championship finals, while Stark was second. In round four of the round robin event, Halter and Sentz were winners, while Lingafelt lost in that round.