HERSHEY – North Penn's Matt Prestifilippo earned a fifth-place medal at 112 pounds with a 17-5 win over State College's Erik Galloway in the consolation round Saturday night at the Giant Center in Hershey. The win capped a stellar season for the Knights' first state medal-winner in five years.

Prestifilippo was leading comfortably, 14-0, in the third period, when Galloway flipped Prestifilippo to his back. But Prestifilippo was able to fight off his back and score one final takedown to pick up his fifth-place medal. It was certainly a day of ups and downs for the junior.

In the morning's semifinals, he was matched up with Emmaus's Taylor Brown, a returning state medalist. Both wrestlers earned an escape in regulation, and the match went to sudden victory tied, 1-1. After a scoreless minute in sudden victory, the match went to tiebreak, where each wrestler earned another escape, forcing the ultimate tiebreaker with the score knotted at 2-2. Brown had choice in the tiebreak and chose the bottom position. With 12 seconds left in the match, Prestifilippo was whistled for his third caution by the referee, which resulted in the decisive point being awarded to Brown. Brown would finish second to two-time champion Shane Young.

After dropping to the consolation bracket, Prestifilippo was pinned in the third period of the consolation semifinals by Central Mountain's Jordan Rich, who would earn fourth place.

Prestifilippo ends his season with a 35-4 record to go with his PIAA medal. He was also the Section II, District I, and Southeast Regional champion. He is the second 112-pounder in North Penn history to win a state medal, joining Dan Finacchio, who won the state title in 1987. Prestifilippo is the 21st North Penn wrestler to win a medal at the state tournament in the history of the program.

Matt Prestifilippo (3-2, 5th Place @ 112)
Championship Round 1 – Dec over Jordan Glykas (Northampton), 3-1
Championship Quarterfinals – Dec over Shane Miller (Middletown), 2-0
Championship Semifinals – Dec by Taylor Brown (Emmaus), 3-2 OT TB
Consolation Semifinals – Pinned by Jordan Rich (Central Mountain), 2:56
Fifth Place – Maj. Dec over Erik Galloway (State College), 17-5

North Penn wrestlers in bold.

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