Slippery Rock wrestling duo places at state meet

March 08, 2004 Last Updated: June 13, 2005 04:35 PM High School

It wasn't the ending Jeff Becker was hoping for, but placing third in the state of Pennsylvania isn't too bad.

Becker a 135-pound junior wrestler for Slippery Rock High School, still had that gold medal within his grasp when he faced off against Freedom's Damian Rose in the PIAA Class AA semifinal match Friday at the Giant Center in Hershey.

Rose, the eventual champion, defeated Becker 5-3.

"He got the first takedown on me," said Becker. "And my goal was to get the first takedown. But I came back with two escapes to tie it at 2-2.

"In the third period, he was up 5-2 when I got one (point) for another escape. I tried for the takedown to tie things up, but there were only 30 seconds left and I ran out of time.

"It is disappointing," said Becker. "But I've still got next year."

Becker rebounded with victories over Schuylkill Valley's Steve Fehnel (3-1) and Mifflinburg's Scott Stahl (4-1), earning him third place.

"I thought, for the most part, Jeff wrestled well over the three days," said Rockets' coach Fred Powell. "I'm very pleased with his performance this year. He lost just two matches all season. One was at states and one was at regionals.

Ironically, Becker's teammate Trevor Gallo also lost in the semifinals to an eventual champion from Freedom in Kurt Brenner.

"Trevor has improved so much over the last two years," said Powell. "Last year, he came to states and nobody knew anything about him. He didn't have any confidence and lost his first two matches.

"This year, he came in with confidence," added Powell.

Gallo ended up placing sixth, making he and Becker the first Slippery Rock duo to medal at the PIAA championships in the same year.

"The fact that they both made it to the semifinals before losing to eventual champions, that says something," said Powell.

Mars' Adam Smetana (103 pounds) lost his first two bouts and failed to medal in Class AA action.

Following are the complete results from all three wrestlers:

Adam Smetana (103)

Preliminaries -

Brad Kummerer (Hamburg) dec. Smetana, 13-6;

Consolation (Rd. 1) -

T.J. Albright (Tyrone) dec. Smetana, 10-8.

Jeff Becker (135)

Preliminaries -