Lion's Den Mat Club

02/20/2023

At PJW's, in the youth divisions, all three Beacom boys punched their tickets Sunday, all 3 finishing in 3rd. Colten went 4-1, Dakota finished 3-1 and Noah had 3 wins with only one loss. It was great to see their level of wrestling improve throughout the season and now they are going toe to toe with the best in the state. Not quite making it through was Jake McConville, who dropped his first match to the eventually champion, then battled all the way back through to the consolation finals before suffering his second loss of the day to finish 4th, and only the top 3 move on. It was still a great day as he picked up 3 wins and learned a few new things. Also qualifying in the youth division was Lainee Worthington, who finished second in the girls division. In her match, she wrestled well, but her inexperience cost her against her more seasoned opponent.
At the Jr high level, we only had two wrestlers competing Max McConville and Conner Riffer, with both of the girls, Ella and Addie, not having opponents so while they qualified for states they didn't get to wrestle at the Area tournament. On the boys side, both wrestlers had tough brackets with multiple state medalists. Conner finished the day 2-2, failing to advance but looked really good, trading moves he's never used before and doing things we worked on this past week in his matches. Love where he's at mentally right now. Max started off on fire with two wins to get to the semis, once there he wrestled a great match, controlling all the actions and doing all the work, but allowed his opponent to do most of the scoring, which isn't how you win the match, but I like that he controlled the mat just gotta find a way to put points in the board. In the consolations he needed one win to secure a trip to states, as they take the top 4 in Jr high, which he got, before a tough opponent and a reinjury of his shoulder have him a loss to finish 4th. Great day but the young lions, advancing 7/9.

02/20/2023

This weekend the boys and girls from the Den were all competing with the varsity wrestling trying to qualify for regionals and elementary and Jr high looking to make it to PJW states. In varsity, Jake Sombronski and Jojo Garshnick both pinched their tickets Friday but advancing yo the district 6 semi finals. Jake, the defending champion at 107 dropped a tough 4-2 decision but bounced back in the consolation semis with a win before falling in the 3rd and 4th place match. At 114, Jojo picked up a fall in the semis, his third in a row before found a 2-1 decision in the finals to the top ranked wrestler in the state, but made it interesting, getting a takedown at the buzzer but it was ruled that time was out. Congratulations to both wrestlers as they prepare for the southwest regional in 2 weeks.

05/02/2022

Great weekend in Salisbury for the MAWA Eastern Nationals. Made the trip with 5 qualified and a sixth had to turn down his alternate selection sure to an injury. Of those, three brought back hardware, with a fourth, Max McConville, defaulting out after putting a hole through his chin and needing stitches in a match in which he was beating the eventual third place finisher. Our youngest qualifier, Dakota Beacom won his first match but dropped two close decisions in the first day of competition to end his tournament but I see big things on the horizon for all three of the Beacom boys.

Now, the three that ended up placing, all impressed me with the strides they have taken. The youngest of them, Landon Ault, won his first match before dropping into the consolations with a 2 point loss. A win in the blood round and consey quarters put him in the top six but two low scoring decisions didn't go our way to land him at sixth. Next up was Connor Riffer, who followed a very similar pattern in day 1, getting if to a nice start with a fall before dropping into the blood round, where a win there sent him on to day two and into the top 8. His first match Sunday was low scoring but did not finish with us in the lead so he battled for 7th in the medal round winning a 3-2 decision.

Lastly, Jojo, who has been continuing to improve throughout the post-season, stayed on a roll, getting a bye in the first round before earning a fall in the quarterfinals, getting what he needed done to move into the semis. In the semis, he got perhaps his biggest test, facing off with a Delaware state champion, and a kid we've battled a couple times at this tournament. In the first period, JoJo's opponent used his speed advantage to take a 4-1 lead, but we just keep pushing, getting a reversal, 6 back points and a takedown to win 11-4. In the finals, we got to wrestle another Pa medalist, but Jojo kept the pressure on, getting a 14-0 major decision to earn his second eastern national title.

03/22/2022

Jojo 1st 102 lb. Keystone State Championship

Dylan 6th 147 lb. Keystone State Championship

02/21/2022

01/23/2022

Don't forget, clothing sale ends tonight at midnight.

01/13/2022

This Sunday we are wrestling at Cambria Heights, they have open and novice divisions.

01/07/2022

Can anyone who hasn't paid for their singlet please make arrangements with Drew McConville to square up on those as soon as possible

07/26/2021

Congrats to Lion’s Den wrestler Josef Garshnick on earning all-American status by finishing 6th at Cadet Greco-Roman Nationals in Fargo, North Dakota.

05/28/2021

Two boys place at freestyle states. Jojo 1st and Cade 5th.

05/28/2021

Three lions den wrestlers medal at Greco states. Jake and Cade finished 3rd and Josef 1st

05/09/2021

Pa national team