Bowen Places 4th At District Wrestling Tournmanet, Advances To Next Weekend's Regional Competition

By: Ed Weaver  /  February 23, 2025  /  Photo: Lance Larcom/ntwsportsreport.com

Senior Ryder Bowen became the first Hornet wrestler to qualify for the Northeast Regional tournament since Chad Daugherty in 2013 following this weekend's District IV Class 2A tournament at Williamsport.

Bowen placed 4th overall in his 189 lb. weight class.

"I'm proud of Ryder's effort and being our first regional qualifier in a long time," head coach Bryce Bitner said. "He wrestled some great competition and showed why District IV is one of the toughest districts around."

Bowen defeated Line Mountain's Max Johnson 7-2 in the quarterfinal Friday evening. Trailing 1-0 after the second period, Bowen got an escape to start the 3rd followed by a takedown to go up 4-1. He recorded another takedown with 11 seconds remaining to secure his win.

On Saturday Bowen faced off against Montgomery's Coy Bryson (43-10, 2024 4th Place NE Regional finisher) in the semi-finals where he was tech falled 19-3 in 3:48. Now in the consolation round, Bowen defeated Mifflinburg's Landon Moser in the semi-finals to wrestle for 3rd. After a scoreless 1st period Bowen scored a reversal early in the 2nd period which led to his pin in 1:29. Bowen then dropped his 3rd place match to Montoursville's Owen Kleinman. Kleinman won a close 15-11 decision.

"Coy and Owen are great athletes, well coached, and are some of the toughest around, so it was a good gauge of where Ryder stands and what we need to work on," commented Bitner. "He made some mistakes and fell short of 3rd place, but hopefully this week we can fix those mistakes and make a run next week."

Senior Silas Mickey went 1-2 on the weekend. He dropped his 1st round match Friday evening to Line Mountain's Ethan Lenker in 2:55, then won his 1st round consolation match with a 2:04 pin against Central Columbia's Crue Chipeleski. He later fell to Northeast Bradford's Kale Howland by 14-6 major decision in the 2nd round of consolation matches.

Junior Mason Nowak was pinned in 1:06 in his opening match to Warrior Run's Caden Snyder then dropped a 17-1 tech fall in 2:38 to Line Mountain's Bradyn Schadel in his consolation match.

Senior Evan Ingerick dropped a 12-3 major decision to Central Columbia's Hunter Dietterick in the first round and was pinned by Line Mountain's Kohen Shingara in 40 seconds in his consolation round match.

Junior Hayden Stevens suffered a 1:23 pin against Central Columbia's Clayton Whitenight in his opening match. He was later pinned in 2:08 by Southern Columbia's Braylin Smith in his consolation match.

"I'm proud of all of our wrestlers this weekend down here," continued Bitner. "Hayden, Evan, Silas, Mason, and Ryder all made us proud representing a program that's rebuilding. Our seniors have contributed so much to the program and will be missed, and our underclassmen will continue to contribute and improve the wrestling environment in our school."

Bowen will be back at Williamsport next weekend for the Class 2A Northeast Regional tournament with the hope of advancing to the PIAA Tournament the following week. Wrestling begins at 5:00 p.m. on Friday evening and picks back up at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. The top four (4) place winners from each weight class will qualify for the state tournament.