Heckman into semifinals with shutout win
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WILLIAMSPORT -- For veteran Conner Heckman it was business as usual. For freshman Matthew Smith it was a heartbreaking loss.
In his only bout of the night at the Northeast Class 2A regional wrestling tournament at Williamsport Friday night, Heckman advanced to today's semifinals with a workmanlike, 6-0, win over Montoursville freshman Blaize Vogel at 132 pounds.
Smith, in his first regional tournament, couldn't escape in the ultimate tiebreak period of overtime in his preliminary bout against Line Mountain's Nolan Baumert at 120 pounds. Heckman is one win away from his second trip to the state tournament in Hershey while Smith will need to win three consecutive matches today to extend his season.
Heckman will face Hughesville senior Caiden Puderbach for the first time in this morning's semifinals. Puderbach, 32-7, pinned Drew Howell of Honesdale in the second period of his quarterfinal.
Like Heckman's district final against Southern Columbia's Mason Barvitskie last week, Smith was forced to go through more than eight minutes on the mat but couldn't get off the bottom in the final 30 seconds against Baumert. Smith had beaten Baumert twice earlier in this postseason, 3-1 and 1-0. Smith drops to 30-11 this season and will try to keep his season alive when he battles Shamokin's Wade Alleman. Smith beat Alleman, 8-1, at the South Sectional tournament last month.
With five in the semifinals, Benton leads the team standings, 44-37, over defending champion Southern Columbia. Wyoming Area is in third place with 31 points but it was a tough night for District 2 champions as seven of their grapplers were defeated Friday night.