Peter Renda gets gold at PIAA Wrestling Championships

With a 5-2 victory over Tristan Sponseller, Brandywine Heights’ senior Peter Renda became the AA 170 pound weight class state champion at the PIAA State Wrestling Championships held at the Giant Center in Hershey Saturday.

His victory in the championship match came against Sponseller, the same wrestler he defeated in the District 3-AA championship match two weeks ago. He won that one, 11-3.

Rando goes home with a gold medal and a perfect 42-0 senior season.

Meanwhile, teammate Adam Mackie defeated Dylan Reynolds of Saegertown, 7-2 in the third place bouts just minutes later. So Brandywine comes home with a gold and bronze medal at the tournament.

Renda began the tournament with a 1:04 pin of Zach Pinkas of Forrest Hills in their preliminary round bout. Then Renda earned an 8-0 decision over Mike Fetchet of South Fayette in the quarterfinals.

That sent Renda to the Friday semifinals where he defeated Tim Vargo of Union City, 10-0, which sent him to the championship bout on Saturday against a familiar foe.

Mackie opened the tournament with a 14-9 victory over Mike Rogers of Penn Valley. Then in the quarterfinals, Mackie needed just 1:38 to pin Terrell Fields of Valley.

That sent him to the semifinals where he met up with Troy Hembury of Muncie. Hemburg went into the match with an overall record of 41-1.

He showed why when he handed Mackie just his second loss of the season when he decisioned Mackie in a tight one, 2-1.

After the tough loss, Mackie had to get it together later in the day on Friday in the consolation semifinals match. He did so very well as he earned a 5-2 decision over Stephen Loiseau of Lancaster Catholic, sending him to the third place bout on Saturday.

The victory over Reynolds secured the third place medal for Mackie.