Valley Sports ReportHERSHEY — Seniors Hanna Rathbun and Leah Nason, who secured the first state medals in Athens program history Friday afternoon, will each wrestle for seventh-place here Saturday at the PIAA Girls Wrestling Championships at the Giant Center.
Rathbun, who lost her opening-round match in the 130-pound bracket Thursday afternoon, won two wrestleback matches to lock up a spot on the podium.
Friday night, Rathbun dropped a 9-3 decision to Plum's Saphia Davis in the consolation quarterfinals to drop into the seventh-place match.
After a scoreless first period, Davis scored a reversal with 45 seconds remaining in the second period to take a 2-0 lead.
Rathbun closed the gap to 2-1 with 22 seconds left in the second period, then tied the bout at 2-2 with 1:23 remaining I the third period.
Just 11 seconds later, Davis won a battle of upper-body strength and took Rathbun to her back for a seven-point move to take a 9-2 lead.
Rathbun (37-7) will square off with Upper St. Clare freshman Sydney Laboon (36-10) in the seventh-place match.
Nason, who won her opening-round match in the 235-pound bracket, dropped into the consolation bracket with a loss in the quarterfinals, then secured her state medal with a win in the blood round.
Late Friday night, Hazelton Area freshman Evelyn Sheer, who had three wins via fall over Nason during the regular season, hit a seven-point move on Nason in the first period and had a 7-0 lead heading into the second period.
Sheer chose top to start the second period, and turned Nason for the fall at 1:54.
Nason (28-6) will face senior Karla Montes (21-8) of Allen Saturday in the seventh-place match.
Placement-round action begins Saturday at 11:30 a.m.
