Becker, Crowther claim first titles for EHS since 2004

In the end, the Mounts provided the kind of firepower that third-year coach Josh Clair had hoped for this year—emerging with six medalists and his first two L-L champions, 135-pound Jared Becker and 171-pounder Blake Crowther.

"I was extremely surprised and pleased with the overall performance with the team at the League tournament,' Clair said. "Last year we placed six guys and were sixth out of 22. Heading into this past weekend I had hoped for five place finishers with the team in the top ten."

This year again the Mounts finished in a solid sixth with 127.5 team points, just eight points away from Manheim Central's fifth place spot.

The titles by Becker and Crowther also marked Ephrata's first crowns since the '04-'05 season when the Mounts pulled a trifecta, earning titles from Nick Berry, Shane Hyman and then freshman James Zimmerman, who is out this year with an injury.

Becker (21-4) got things rolling for Ephrata in the finals when he stepped out against Solanco's Kyle Beane (21-7). Becker, who had defeated Beane in the dual meet, seemed to be in complete control of the match after the first period, rolling out to a 4-1 lead on the strength of two takedowns. But just like that, Beane hit a huge five-point move taking Becker to his back and grabbing the two-point lead before Becker reversed him to knot the score at 6. He later got the winning takedown and secured the 8-6 championship win.

Crowther (23-3) had an unfamiliar finals opponent in Lancaster Catholic's Chase Haberstroh (24-4). Crowther was the early aggressor, gaining an early takedown before Haberstroh reversed with just 18 seconds left in the first period. Haberstroh then escaped to start the second before Crowther scored another takedown to end the second with a 4-3 lead. In the third period, Crowther got off to a great start, reversing off the bottom to take a 6-3 lead, surrendering an escape, before gaining another takedown and an 8-4 lead. But Haberstroh hung tough, getting another escape and a takedown of his own to pull within 8-7 with just 46 seconds remaining, but Crowther escaped to come up with the 9-7 win and his first L-L title.

"Blake Crowther and Jared Becker both wrestled to my expectations and it showed as they both captured their first league titles," Clair said. "They both wrestled solid tournaments and when the matches were close they knew what they had to do to win."

Ephrata actually came through with four other medalists in the tourney, including 189-pounder Jordan Becker who bounced back from a quarterfinal loss to Penn Manor's Ethan Wissler, to then avenge the loss to Wissler for third place with a 3-2 victory. Other medal winners included 285-pounder Zach Zimmerman who finished fifth, 103-pounder Austin Wealand who took sixth; and 145-pounder Jamar Horst, who took sixth.

Crowther actually had to battle furiously in the waning moments of his semifinal match against Manheim Central's tough Travis Ebersole, reversing the Baron wrestler with less than 10 second left for the 4-3 win.

"I thought to myself I had to go all out (at the end) here because it was either win this one or wrestle two or three more matches, so I sucked it up," Crowther said after the match, giving credit to Ebersole. "He kind of took me out of my style a little."

In Becker's semifinal match, he was able to avenge an early season one-point loss to Lampeter-Strasburg's Austin Addis, the number two seed in resounding fashion with a 6-0 win.

"I felt a lot better and more confident (this time)," Becker said, who stated he prefers wrestling on the mat but realizes what it will take to advance farther in the District Three tourney this year.

"Get better on my feet," he said.

Clair summed up his Mounts' performance.

"Austin placing as a freshman was a good start," Clair said. "The fact that Jamar Horst was not only a surprise to me, but to many of the other coaches. Jamar finally showed his true potential and wrestled a great tournament. He works so hard and deserved to place more than anyone else. When Jamar found out that he placed I don't think he stopped smiling until the tournament was over. Zach Zimmerman had three days of practice, knocked off the 6th and 3rd seeds on his way to the semis and placed 5th. For practicing so little he showed very little signs of being out of wrestling all season. Jordan Becker placed the hard way after being beat in the quarters in a slugfest. Jordan showed his true grit wrestling back for 3rd place and defeating the kid who had beaten him earlier. Pat Baker and David Belousov were both one match away from placing and they wrestled solid tournaments. As a team we finished in 6th place (less than)10 points out of 5th so I was extremely pleased."