BOHLING GOES 1-2 IN 114-POUND BRACKET
By TIM BIRNEY
Tioga County Sports Report
ALBANY — SVEC junior Tayah Beach made history Thursday, placing fourth at the first-ever NYSPHSAA Girls Wrestling Championships here at the MVP Arena.
Beach, a student at S-VE, became the first girl for SVEC to place at States, and is the first S-VE wrestler to place since 2004 when Kris Bennett finished fourth.
"She's worked hard, and she is still working hard," said SVEC head coach Jesse Buck. "I'm excited that she could be a three-time Section champ next year, and could come back here and do this again.
"She is the first state place-finisher from our program in 21 years, and the first girl to ever place — absolutely that means a lot," he noted. "It means a lot to the program. I hope it inspires more girls to come out and more guys to come out for our team, too.
"She's a good face for our program," added Buck.
"We've been kicking at the door to try to get a place-finisher here pretty consistently," said SVEC girls coach Nick Petrie. "It's just pretty fun to have her do it."
With a 4-2 mark Thursday, Beach, whose first win was the 50th of her career, finishes up the season at 30-10. She started the season at 11-8, but ripped off 15 straight wins heading into the state tournament.
"If you look at the whole season, (Tayah) kind of struggled toward the beginning," said Petrie. "To see her peak where she needed to ... you know dig really deep and turn it on, kind of find her style and dictate the way matchers were going to go, it was awesome.
"I couldn't be happier for her," added Petrie.
"I'm incredibly proud of Tayah," said Buck. "She outperformed her seed by three places ... she just wrestled a real tough tournament.
"She had a tough loss in the semis and that always hurts, but she came back and put on a good performance, beating some really good girls.
"Top four is awesome," added Buck.
Beach, the seventh seed at 120 pounds, started the day with a dominant 10-0 technical fall win over Alexander's Kennedy Lear in the opening round, but suffered a 12-0 technical fall loss to second-seeded Lily Blenk of Rocky Point, who went on to finish second in the weight class.
Beach bounced back in wrestlebacks with a pin of eighth-seeded Emma Penny of Lockport in 3:30. Beach built a quick 6-0 lead, and led 9-2 at the time of the pin.
In the "blood round," Beach led Horseheads freshman Chloe Owen 2-0 when she hit a trip for a four-point move that she turned into a fall at 1:17.
Beach hit a pair of four-point moves in the first period to build a 10-1 lead over Shaker's fifth-seeded Maia DeLaCruz before finishing off the fall at 2:04.
In the third-place match, fourth-seeded Makenzie Harbour of Shenendehowa put Beach on her back moments after the whistle for a fall in 32 seconds.
Bohling, the 11th seed at 114 pounds, opened against seventh-seeded Gabrielle Severin of Bethpage, who entered the day with a 3-0 record after missing the entire regular season with an elbow injury.
Severin scored a 12-0 technical fall and went on to finish second in the weight class.
Bohling bounced back with a 51-second fall of Minisink Valley's Sophia Franco-Coelho in the first round of wrestlebacks, but lost next bout via first-period fall to fourth-seeded Keira Filip of Minisink Valley.
"Even though she's not going to be on the podium, Dallas Bohling also put on a show today," said Petrie. "She wrestled well.
"She does everything we ask of her," he added. "Today, it just didn't fall her way."
"She had a pretty tough bracket," said Buck.
"She's only a sophomore, so she still has a couple years to go," he noted.
"It's also nice to have her and Tayah pushing each other in the room," added Buck. "It makes them both better."
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PHOTOS 1-16 of SVEC's Tayah Beach. PHOTOS 17-23 of Dallas Bohling. ... PHOTOS BY TIM BIRNEY.
