Dorn, PV teammates fail to advance
BETHLEHEM - It came down to the little things for Pleasant Valley's Trevor Dorn on day two of the District 11 3A wrestling tournament, and unfortunately for Dorn and the Bears' program, they got the short end of the stick when wrestling concluded Saturday evening at Liberty's Memorial Gymnasium.
Dorn lost to Cole Painter of Pottsville 5-4 in the fifth-place bout at 170 pounds to end his season without a shot at making a run to Hershey. Dorn's loss means that no Pleasant Valley wrestler will move on to next week's Northeast Regional tournament as only the top five finishers from each class moved on from districts.For Dorn, Saturday will go down as a tournament day he'd like to forget, as he started in the semifinals and proceeded to lose all three of his bouts to end his career at Pleasant Valley prematurely."He had a rough day," said PV head coach Justin Micklos. "He wrestled well all year, and today wasn't his day, and this just wasn't his tournament. I think it was hard for him to bounce back after losing in the semifinals. It was tough for him. He kind of slid down the ropes after losing to Moisey."Dorn battled Northampton's Cade Moisey in the morning semifinals, but came up short in a 6-4 defeat to set up how the rest of the day would unfold for him.He then had to face a scrappy Gunner Anglovich from Liberty in his first consolation bout, and fell by a 3-2 decision.That, in turn, led to a win or go home scenario against Painter, who accomplished what each of Dorn's opponents on Saturday were able to do to start their respective matches - score the first takedown.Painter used a shrug late in the first period as a catalyst to his victory, and Dorn just didn't have enough gas in the tank to rally for a comeback."He [Dorn] never wrestled him before, and unfortunately, he got shrugged early on and couldn't recover from that," said Micklos. "It was a similar tale all day long where his opponents were able to get out to quick starts and getting leads, and Trevor wasn't able to comeback."The Bears finished 19th out of 22 teams in the standings, coming home with only 14 points.With eight wrestlers competing in the tournament, the odds were against PV of having much success to begin with, as only Dorn, James Gehr (126) and Colby Frey (182) survived Friday's opening day.Gehr and Frey then both lost their second-round consolation bouts on Saturday, leaving Dorn as the only Bear still wrestling heading into the afternoon.Not qualifying any wrestlers for regionals is a rarity for the program, one that Micklos acknowledged was disappointing."It's tough knowing that it's over already," Micklos said. "Trevor wrestled well all season, and I can't take that away from him. I know he's upset, but I'm still proud of him as a coach."