Chris Rossetti
CLARION, Pa. – Sheffield’s Danah Campbell had an outstanding District 9 championship Saturday taking second at 285 pounds.
See full story on the District 9 tournament at D9and10Sports.com
“Dannah wrestled some tough matches,” Sheffield head coach Tom Holden said. “The heavyweight bracket down here was a tough bracket. A lot of the matches went into overtime, sudden death. It was a pretty good tournament for him.”
Campbell’s only loss on the day came in the championship match when Brockway’s Gavin Thomas was able to get leverage on the Sheffield grappler and pin him 42 seconds into the match.
“Dannah walked right into what Thompson does,” Holden said. “He wasn’t expecting him to be so strong.”
Campbell came into the tournament as the second seed but almost had his championship hopes dashed before they got started before pulling out a 3-1 sudden victory win in the quarterfinals over Redbank Valley’s Gabe Carroll.
Carroll took a 1-0 lead with an escape in the second period before Campbell was able to even things up with an escape 14 seconds into the third period.
Regulation time ended at 1-1, and then Campbell got a takedown with just 22 seconds left in the first 60-second overtime to secure the win.
The semifinal match was actually tighter with Campbell picking up a 3-2 in the tiebreaker period over Cooper Rossman of Coudersport when he came away with an escape with 18 seconds left.
The two titans each had escapes in regulation time with Campbell’s coming early in the second and Rossman’s early in the third period.
Then in overtime, Rossman got an escape in the fifth period at 25 seconds before Campbell got an escape in the sixth period at 25 seconds forcing the seventh-period tiebreaker.
“He has been in tight matches all season,” Holden said.
With the second-place finish, Campbell qualified for the Northwest Regionals being held Friday and Saturday at Sharon High School.
“If he wrestles well, and it’s a tough weight class, he can get his way through (to PIAAs),” Holden said. “He had to wrestle his kind of wrestling.”
Campbell was the lone Sheffield wrestler to advance to regionals with three other Wolverines taking fifth and two taking sixth.
Chase Kyler was fifth at 113 pounds, Shelby Lobdell was fifth at 120 pounds, and Collin Brown was fifth at 126 pounds.
Bryce Taylor was sixth at 132 pounds and Landon Mead was sixth at 152 pounds.
