By Brad Wilson
Associate Sports Editor
After storming through the 171-pound weight class at this weekend's William Tennent Tournament like Sherman through Georgia, Central Bucks East senior Kraig Feldman walked off with the Outstanding Wrestler award, a very large trophy.
"This is really cool," said Feldman, looking at the trophy and speaking in the tone of a boy who found a Sony Playstation under the Christmas tree. "This is the first time I have ever won one of these, even when I was wrestling as a kid. I am surprised I won this; I was impressed by (Frankford 275-pounder) Shawn Williams."
But the majority of the coaches voting were most impressed with Feldman. Feldman posted two pins &emdash;in 1:44 over Draton Smith of St. Joseph's Prep and 2:30 over Haverford High's Phil Kurylowski &emdash;before roaring to an 18-2 technical fall in 2:44 over Tennent's Ricky Green in the final.
Feldman and fellow champion Josh Riddle (160) led East to a second-place finish with 1891/2 points to Neshaminy's 255. Haverford High took third with 127; Frankford, was fourth with 121.
The hosts had two second-place finishers, Green, a junior, and freshman David Schreiner (145), and finished eighth as a team with 84 points. New Hope-Solebury was 14th with 33 points and Archbishop Wood was 15th with 24 points and had one placer, Joe Weygand, fourth at 103 pounds.
Feldman scored back points in bunches against Green, leading 13-1 after one period, but still wasn't satisfied with his effort.
"I still need work on top," he said. "I didn't feel 100 percent comfortable on top. I need to keep my hips on top and stay in good position. I wanted to come out today and work on basic things like outside shots and doubles, and I think I did that well."
The Patriots had four other finalists, but just one champion, Riddle at 160, who beat up Frankford's Jason McGettigan, 8-2, in the final. Riddle, a senior, came out of the pigtail round to win, edging Neshaminy's Bill Hunt, 2-1, in the quarterfinals before pinning Pottstown's Barry Witzel in 4:32 in the semifinals.
Riddle's memories of the Tennent tournament are definitely brighter than last year's.
"I quit at this tournament last year; the same kid (Hunt) from Neshaminy beat me in the JV tournament; I'd wrestled varsity ninth and 10th grade, and then last year, I quit.
"I am really trying to make up for lost time. It was nice to beat the same kid this year.
"I think I could have wrestled better. I have to get better at scoring on the top, which is why I let him up. What I had hoped to accomplish today was to work on my confidence. I have good shots, and they've been there in practice, but I need to be able to have the confidence to use them on the mat in meets."
East lost three finals, two to SOL National rival Neshaminy: Rich Palmer's pin of Ben Shull in 3:54 at 140 and Jack Fleming's pin of Lee Crawford in 1:05 at 189. The other was Kyle Weinberger's heartbreaking, 1-0 rideout loss to Haverford High's Bob Byers in a match during which stalling could have been called multiple times on Byers, but was not.
William Tennent, a non-factor in last year's event, took the two seconds &emdash;Schreiner was pinned in 1:24 by Neshaminy's Pat Warusz &emdash;and freshman Curtis Beardsell's impressive third place with a 2-1 decision over Jim Thorpe's Carl Storms.
"We are so much better than we were last year," Tennent coach John Stay said. "It would have been nice to beat Hatboro-Horsham, who we beat at the New Hope tournament last week.
"The maturity that David and Curtis is terrific; they have done a fabulous job. This was David's seventh varsity match, and he's in the final; he won his first tournament. When David's not getting pinned, he just will not ever stop out there; he's either getting pinned or going all out."
Wood is still in the process of sorting out a lineup and was in no way helped by the absence of returning National Prep placer John Spinosa (171), who aggravated a football back injury this week and missed the tournament. Weygand, a freshman, reached the 103-pound third-place bout and was pinned in 22 seconds by St. Joseph's Prep's Drew DeGueriro.
"Joe came to us as an undefeated Bux-Mont champ from the Warminster Spartans," Mullin said. "He's a really hard worker, and his skill level is high, but he's still a little behind in size and strength; he's a light 103-pounder. He's going to be a high-caliber wrestler. Overall, we didn't wrestle badly."
New Hope did not have a wrestler reach the semifinals.
Sunday, December 10, 2000