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LEHIGH VALLEY WEATHER

Kids take second

Three Northampton grapplers entered Saturday’s championship round at Liberty High School. And all three left Bethlehem with individual titles.

Julian Chlebove, Devon Britton and Jagger Condomitti picked up first-place finishes on Saturday at the Bethlehem Holiday Wrestling Classic. Northampton finished second as a team with 175.5 points, only behind host Liberty (179 points).

What’s even more ironic about the Konkrete Kids’ three champions is that they occurred back-to-back-to-back.

“It’s pretty unique to do it with all my training partners, which is cool,” Condomitti said.

Northampton’s championship-round rally began with a familiar face at 132 pounds. Chlebove, the Arizona State University commit, went a perfect 5-0 over the two-day event and capped it with a 6-3 decision over Phillipsburg’s Travis Jones in the championship.

“It was a tough bout; the kid is a competitor,” Chlebove said. “I’m nowhere where I want to be. I just have to keep improving. This is probably the second tournament that has been two days that I’ve been at for maybe a year.”

Chlebove’s most impressive match came in the semifinals when he edged Saucon Valley’s Josh Jones with a 3-0 decision. Jones placed second at states last year in the Class 2A field.

“He’s ranked in the county and nationally known,” Chlebove said. “It was a good match. He’s tough to score on and tough in all positions. I just went out there with the game plan of trying to get that first takedown, and controlling the match and controlling the tie-ups.”

Chlebove picked up tech falls over Hazleton’s Chrstian Kislan (20-2) and Upper Dauphin’s Zach Rupp (20-5) in the first two rounds. He then pinned Spring Ford’s Alex Johns in 4:29 in the quarterfinals round before taking on Jones in the semifinals.

Britton was impressive over the two-day event as well. After a bye to open the tournament, he pinned Parkland’s Joe Dolak in 5:46 in the second round. He followed that up with a major decision against Garnet Valley’s Gavin Hollingsworth in the quarterfinals. He advanced to the finals with a pin in 2:21 against Drew Clearie of Nazareth.

“I got a good pace going and kept it going the whole time,” Britton said. “I just wanted to come in here and try to wrestle every match as hard as I could and score as many points as I could.”

Condomitti’s championship match at 152 pounds was a bit tighter than his teammates’. But a late takedown with 15 seconds remaining in the third period handed Condomitti a 3-2 decision over Shenendehowa’s Brock Delsignore.

“It kind of set in that I was actually going to win,” Condomitti said. “Going in I thought I was going to win, but it was a little more closer than I was hoping. The late takedown felt good and assured me, ‘OK, I got this.’

“I didn’t want to go into overtime, but if I had to I was going to. I felt comfortable either way, but I didn’t want to leave it up to a chance.”

Condomitti pinned Easton’s Bryan Pensyl in 1:35 in the first round, followed by a major decision over Northwestern’s Harrison Bernhard. He then pinned Phillipsburg’s Kyle Tino in 5:19 and earned a 10-5 decision over Nazareth’s Dashawn Farber in the semifinals.

Five other Konkrete Kids earned medals on Saturday. Ryan Stilgenbauer (106 pounds), Alexander Hanley (113) and Jayden Bortz (195) all came in fourth place; Michael Kistler (160) placed fifth; and Blake Lambert (220) placed seventh for Northampton.

Press photo by Don HerbSamuel Hanley wrestles at 126 for the Kids during the Liberty tournament. Copyright - Don Herb 2017_