The Salisbury wrestling program produced two second-pace finishers and three regional qualifiers at last weekend’s District 11 Class 2A championships.

John Samy, wrestling at 132 pounds, and 285-pounder Ben Krauss both made the finals thanks to superlative wrestling throughout the tournament. Another Falcon, Carver Moyer at 120, made the championship’s semifinal round and finished fourth in his weight class.

The top four grapplers in 2A advance to the district regional tournament.

“I thought all of our guys wrestled really well this weekend,” said Salisbury head coach Eric Snyder.

Salisbury, which went 0-8 in dual meets this season, sent nine wrestlers to districts and finished in seventh place as a team in the event, which was fourth-best among Class 2A Colonial League teams and better than six other teams from that league finished in the team standings.

Krauss, a senior, capped his District 11 career with a second-place finish. He finished fourth last season but because covid precautions limited the field, he did not advance to regionals as a junior.

“That made it more satisfying this year to finally make it,” he said. “It feels great after the past three years of battling in the preseason, offseason, postseason and all finally coming together this year.”

Krauss was the top seed in his weight class and pinned his first two opponents in under a minute before meeting Saucon Valley’s Tyler Pfizenmayer in the title bout. The Panther handed Krauss a 5-3 loss.

“Biggest thing for me is to control the match and know in these big matches I don’t have to force anything,” said Krauss. “The biggest mistake I made in the final, which cost me the match, was I tried to force moves and tried to score when I didn’t need to.”

Krauss wrestled at 189 last season and at 215 most of this year. He’s competing against much heavier opponents in most district matches and will surely see some bigger wrestlers this weekend in the PIAA Southeast Regional at Freedom High School.

“There’s some big guys I’ve been wrestling lately,” he said. “Sometimes it’s easier and sometimes it’s harder. Sometimes I’m stronger and sometimes I’m not so I can’t rely on that. Working on my gas tank and keep attacking when they get tired, that’s the biggest thing for me to win some of these close matches with bigger guys.”

Krauss and his teammates are all hoping for a top-six finish at the regional, which would earn them a trip to the state championship tournament in Hershey March 10-12.

A longtime Falcon wrestler and two-sport athlete at Salisbury, Krauss, who is now 25-9 this season, would like nothing more than to finish his high school career at the Giant Center.

“I’ve been wrestling since five years old [in Salisbury],” said Krauss, who will continue his career at Muhlenberg College. “My parents have been involved and I’ve been helping out. Wrestling for Salisbury has been my life and pretty much all I know, so the last time I put the singlet on I want to look back and know that I did it right.”

Samy makes his return to regionals after competing there last year and finishing in second place. Last season the PIAA held super-regional tournaments that took the place of the first two days of states, so Samy didn’t make it to Hershey despite being a regional runner-up.

This year he just needs a top-six finish and he’ll punch his ticket to the Giant Center.

“Just got to keep the same mindset, put in the hard work in the room and keep my mind right,” said Samy.

The junior was the second seed in his weight class and dispatched of his first two opponents by fall and then handed Saucon Valley’s Connor Nicholas a 7-3 decision in the semifinals.

Snyder said the quarterfinal and semifinal were two of the best he’s seen Samy wrestle.

Samy met up with Brandon Chletsos in the finals and fell 13-0. Chletsos knocked off Samy last year in the district final and again a week later in the regional title bout. He also pinned Samy in a dual meet this season.

That hasn’t deterred Samy from wanting another shot at Chletsos, a senior who is committed to Rutgers

“I love it. I love the competition,” said Samy. “This year I went the whole distance with him so I definitely made major improvement. In the regular season I got pinned in the third period. I’m getting closer and closer every time. I want to get him back.”

Samy improved to 27-8 this season with his performance at districts.

Moyer made his first trip to districts since his freshman year, which was the last time he wrestled on the varsity team. The past two seasons he competed on Salisbury’s swim team in winter, but this year he returned to the mat and had a great season that will continue at regionals.

“I’m stoked,” he said. “I’m just trying to have fun out there. That’s my biggest thing, just enjoy what you’re doing. I didn’t think I’d come this far.”

Moyer pinned his first opponent before falling in the semifinals to Saucon Valley’s Jackson Albert by an 11-4 decision. He won his first consolation match by fall to advance to the third-place match. Palisades’ John Haubert beat Moyer in the third-place match, 3-2.

Moyer is now 21-11 this season. The senior has earned letters in five different sports at Salisbury, including cross country, soccer, track and his two winter sports.

“I didn’t want to be a one-sport athlete,” he said. “I wanted to be well-rounded. I thought swimming would push me at that time. This year I missed my [wrestling] teammates. It was great coming back. I love the team. I love swimming too. It was hard to choose.”

Moyer has been wrestling since he was four years old and will continue his career at Norwich University in Vermont. While he did some summer workouts while he was away from the program those two years, his performance this year was still impressive considering his lack of recent experience.

“For him to take two years off and have the success that he had is really difficult,” said Snyder.

Of the nine Falcons that went to districts, two others won matches as Mason Holva and Toby Linn each went 1-2 at the event. Snyder said all his wrestlers competed well and wrestled to their best at districts.

This year’s team has set a good example for the young wrestlers in the program and helped set a foundation for the future.

“This program has grown in the past couple years,” said Moyer. “We try to set and example and try to get more kids to come here. The junior high has so many kids. If they all stay with it we’ll have a good high school team in a couple years.”

Carver Moyer (120)

Moyer pinned Gavin Wade (Schuylkill Haven) in 4:36

Jackson Albert (Saucon Valley) dec. Moyer 11-4

Moyer pinned Tyler Slotterback (North Schuylkill) in 4:58

Third-place match: John Haubert (Palisades) dec. Moyer, 3-2

Chloe Sandeen (126)

Ryan Fisher (Mahanoy Area) pinned Sandeen in 2:44

Dillon Lombardi (Palmerton) pinned Sandeen in :19

John Samy (132)

Samy pinned Ashton Gonder (Williams Valley) in :33

Samy pinned Rider Heckman (Wilson) in 5:09

Samy dec. Connor Nicholas (Saucon Valley), 7-3

Championship match: Brandon Chletsos (Notre Dame GP) dec. Samy, 13-0

Mason Holva (145)

Aden Celani (Schuylkill Haven) pinned Holva in 1:14

Holva pinned Fabian Galan (Executive Education) in :51

Michael Steigerwalt (Tamaqua) pinned Holva in :55

Nathaniel Tone (152)

Skylor Green (Williams Valley) pinned Tone in 2:19

Toby Linn (172)

Linn pinned Wyatt Allgeier (Tri Valley) in :51

Garrett Tettemer (Notre Dame GP) pinned Linn in 1:41

Linn pinned Luis Del Rosario (Catasauqua) in 2:25

Cole Eberts (Tamaqua) pinned Linn in 3:00

Ifrahim Ansari (189)

Joseph Lapenna (Notre Dame GP) pinned Ansari in 1:18

Gian Greggo (Pen Argyl) pinned Ansari in 2:15

Ethan Sandford (215)

Braxton Schwartz (Tri Valley) pinned Sandford in 1:30

Noah Scholofer pinned Sandford in 1:17

Ben Krauss (285)

Krauss pinned Richard Houser (Lehighton) in :53

Krauss pinned Jeremiah Lott (Williams Valley) in :15

Championship match: Tyler Pfizenmayer (Saucon Valley) dec. Krauss, 5-3