On Saturday 12/5, the Downingtown East Cougars opened their ’15-’16 campaign with a perfect day at the Ephrata duals in District III. The team went 5-0 and reclaimed the championship from PIAA 9th ranked Mifflin County in the finals. The Cougars defeated Ephrata 68-6, Biglerville 50-20, Reading 46-15, Garden Spot 45-32, and Mifflin County 49-29. Lukas Richie (106), James Strommer (113), Wade Cummings (132), Nik Zimmerman (138), Alec Horne (170), Owen Morris (195), and Brendan McGinley (285) all went undefeated at the event. Carter Regitz (220) and Connor Birzes (126) finished the day with just one loss. D-East managed to put together strong team performances despite injuries and an array of new wrestlers in the line-up. When 14 stand tall together, the team score works itself out. Congrats to the Cougars for a fine season opener and good luck next weekend at the ferocious “King of the Mountain!”
Congratulations to D-East wrestling captain Wade Cummings for his 5th place finish at the nation’s illustrious SUPER 32 tournament held in Greensboro, NC! With 131 competitors loaded into the 132 lb. weight class, Wade wrestled 9 matches over two days to capture a 5th place medal with an overall record of 7-2. In the hectic field, Wade defeated Darius Wiles (Lake Braddock HS) Fall 3:39, Taner Day (Mounds View) 8-1, Evan Drill (Somerville) 3-2, Kizhan Clarke (Riverview) 5-4, Jake Spiess (Delta HS) 3-2, Jake Wasser (Palisades) 3-1 SV, and Durbin Lloren (Buchanan) 2-1. He fell to finalist Colby Smith (Holt, MO) and Sam Sasso (Nazareth, PA) for his only losses of the event. It was truly a great run for Wade and once again he’s put himself and Downingtown East wrestling among the stars of wrestling! Nice Job Wade!
The District 1 Regional tournament plays host to wrestlers from 63 of the represented schools in the four-county area, Chester, Delaware, Bucks, and Montgomery. Some consider it a “meat grinder,” where the best of SEPA come to fulfill their destiny, or meet their fate. Downingtown East wrestling attended with 10 charged hearts, but only 3 remain. The team finished in 6th place with 51pts, and placed 3 athletes in the top five of their respective weight classes to qualify for the PIAA State tournament this coming week at Hershey. Wade Cummings won the 126 lb. class with a 3-2 victory over highly-ranked Zach Trampe from CR South. Their match was held till last as the premier event of the night. James Meyer took 2nd at 152 falling in the 2nd tie-breaker with a score of 2-1 to another CR South foe, Dylan Schwartz. Lastly, Billy McGinley took 4th place at 220 losing to Pennridge’s Ezra Outlaw 3-1. Congratulations must also go out to the other regional qualifiers who put forth hard efforts, but came up short: Nik Zimmerman (120, 0-2), Jude McDowell (132, 0-2), Austin Lillis (138, 0-2), Alec Horne (170, 0-2), Jason Gibson (182, 2-2), Brent Czajkowski (195, 0-2), and James Strommer (113, injury withdrawal). The weekend definitely drew some tears, but also shed light on future possibilities for the DE wrestling program, especially for those who have gotten a taste of the regional. Good luck to the state qualifiers as they brave the toughest high school championship in the nation! Bring home some hardware gentlemen!!!
Downingtown East Wrestling 