Curry captures silver, Bright also earns All-State honors at PJW's

SUN, Mar 22, 2009 - North Hills youth wrestlers Gage Curry (10U-60 pounds, 2nd place) and Sean Bright (10U-150 pounds, 6th place) both earned All-State honors yesterday at the Pennsylvania Junior Wrestling state championship tournament held at the Louis J. Tullio Arena in Erie.

Curry started the weekend with a dominating Friday, recording a technical fall and a major decision in the first two rounds of the tournament. A second period fall in the quarterfinals over Brookville's Keelan Kunselman, the Area V champion, landed Curry in Saturday morning's semifinals.

Bright, who qualified for the PJW Finals by winning his first Area VII championship on March 14th at South Fayette HS, also had an impressive opening day in Erie. After tallying a major decision preliminary round victory, Bright then worked for his own second period pin in the quarterfinals over Northwestern's Blaine Yinger, the Area IX champ, to join his teammate in the tournament's semifinal round.

Curry kicked off Saturday's action with a 2-0 nail-biter decision in the semis over Area IX champion Austin DeSanto of Exeter. In the championship final, Curry dropped a hard-fought 4-2 decision to the weight class' prohibitive favorite, Area XI champion Dan Moran of long-time wrestling power Northampton.

The second place result was Curry's best-ever finish at the PJW Finals and the fourth straight year he has earned All-State honors. It was also the best finish by a North Hills' wrestler since 1998 when the Indians' Jordan LeViere captured the 10U-105 pound title.

Bright lost by fall in the semifinals to the eventual champion of his bracket, Area XI titleist Jordan Wood of Boyertown. He then lost two more successive matches to finish in sixth place. It was Bright's second successive trip to the state finals and his first time on the podium.

Congratulations to both Gage and Sean on a fantastic 2008-09 season!

- by Rick Smith