Northwestern’s Buck Miller advanced to the semifinals Friday night at the Southeast Regional wrestling tournament.

The senior posted two decision victories to move closer to a spot in the 189-pound finals. Miller also clinched a spot at next week’s state tournament with a guaranteed top six finish by reaching the semis.

Miller opened the tournament with a 3-1 win over Northern Lebanon’s Clyton Erb. Miller broke a scoreless tie early in the third period with an escape to take a 1-0 lead, but Erb tied it when Miller was called for stalling with 1:01 left in the match.

A takedown with 0:47 remaining put Miller ahead and he was able to hold on for the win.

In his 7-3 quarterfinal win over Eastern York’s Cole Staker, Miller struck first with a takedown in the first period and increased his lead to 5-0 with an escape and a takedown in the second period.

Another takedown early in the third period made it 7-0 before Staker got an escape with 0:38 remaining and a takedown in the final seconds.

Miller, who placed fourth last week at districts and also qualified for states a year ago, will wrestle Saucon Valley’s Jacob Jones in the semifinals. Jones is a back-to-back district champion was a state runner-up last year.

Quarterfinal losses

Northwestern’s Luke Fugazzotto and Dalton Clymer advanced to the quarterfinals before both suffered setbacks.

After pinning Camp Hill’s Quin DeCavalcante in his 160-pound first round match, Fugazzotto lost a 7-6 decision to West Perry’s Justice Hockenberry-Folk.

Hockenberry-Folk led 7-1 before Fugazzotto got a reversal with 0:42 left in the second period. Fugazzotto got a takedown to cut the deficit to 7-5 with 1:18 left in the third period, but couldn’t overcome the deficit, getting another point when Hockenberry-Folk was called for stalling with 0:09 left.

Fugazzotto will wrestle a second round consolation match against Susquenita’s Josh Kauffman.

Clymer posted a 12-4 major decision over Big Spring’s Clayton Hetrick in his 172-pound first round match before getting pinned by Faith Christian Academy’s Adam Waters in 4:44 in the quarterfinals after Waters built a 17-5 lead.

Clymer will wrestle a second round consolation match against Blue Mountain’s Bradley Renninger.

Palmerton’s Daniel Lucykanish pinned Biglerville’s Seth Lady in 3:37 to reach the 152-pound quarterfinals. West Perry’s Nolen Zeigler posted a 6-2 decision over Lucykanish in the quarters.

Lucykanish will wrestle a second round consolation match against Springfield Township’s Kenneth Cordon-Acevedo.

Early setbacks

Lehighton’s Aidan Gruber and Jacob Ferguson, Palmerton’s Derek King and Northwestern’s Dartanyon DeLillo all suffered first round losses.

Gruber, who is looking to advance to states for the second year in a row, was pinned by Trinity’s Major Lewis in 1:56 in his 114-pound match, while Ferguson suffered a 7-3 loss to Berks Catholic’s Carmine Lenzi in his 152-pound bout.

Gruber was leading Lewis 2-1 before he was pinned by Lewis, who placed seventh at states last year.

“Aidan came out and kind of dominated the whole first period basically and then he just got caught in a spladle,” said Indians head coach Floyd Brown. “There were seven seconds left on the clock, and it was over with four seconds left. He was controlling the whole first period. I felt really good about it, he just got caught. He just needs to come back tomorrow and wrestle hard, bounce back and get back on the right track.”

Gruber will wrestle a second round consolation match against Berks Catholic’s Brayden Hartranft.

Ferguson kept his tournament alive with a 12-7 decision over East Pennsboro’s Paul Sanderson in his first round consolation match. Ferguson went ahead 6-1 after two periods. Sanderson got a reversal early in the third period before Ferguson came up with an escape and increased his lead to 11-3 with a takedown and two back points late in the period. Sanderson rallied, getting a reversal with 0:18 left before securing a takedown in the final 0:10 after a Ferguson escape.

Ferguson will wrestle Notre Dame Green Pond’s Keegan Ramsay in his second round consolation match.

“He wrestled really well. Even in his first match, he had a tough opponent in the first one and he went out and he wrestled really well,” Brown said of Ferguson. “He hung in there. The tough part about these tournaments is that you need to have a short memory and bounce back and he came back with a really nice win in the first round consi, a solid win. He’s back tomorrow and he just needs to get two more (wins to advance to states).”

DeLillo tied the match at 1-1 with an escape with 1:01 left in the third period to ultimately send the match to overtime before Reber got a takedown and finished the match with a pin.

DeLillo stayed alive by pinning Archbishop Carroll’s Cleveland Woodson in 2:24 in his first round consolation match. He will wrestle Salisbury’s Mitchell Miller in the second round of consolations.

King dropped a 7-1 decision to Biglerville’s Devon Ponce in his 139-pound first round match. DeLillo was pinned by Berks Catholic’s Owen Reber in sudden victory overtime (6:36).

King’s tournament came to an end with a 7-5 loss to Lancaster Catholic’s Gavin Badger in the first round of consolation matches. King took a 4-2 lead with a reversal and two back points early in the second period before Badger tied it with a reversal of his own.

Badger went ahead 7-4 with an escape and a takedown early in the third period. King got an escape with 1:20 remaining but was unable to complete the comeback.

Stepping in

DeLillo was added to the tournament as an alternate after placing fifth at districts last week. He replaced Lehighton junior Reese Balk, who placed fourth at districts, but was unable to compete due to an injury suffered last week at districts.

“I think he really had a decent shot to get out (of regionals),” Brown said of Balk. “Hopefully he’ll be able to come back next year.”

Balk won a Schuylkill League title this year and surpassed the 30-win total in what was a breakout campaign for the junior.

Looking ahead

Action resumes Saturday with second round consolations at 9:30 a.m., followed by semifinals and third round consolations at 11. The fourth round consolations and seventh-place matches for the alternate position will take place at 12:30 p.m., followed by the parade of champions at 3:30.

The championship and consolation finals (first-, third- and fifth-place) will be held at 4 p.m. on three mats.

The top six wrestlers in each weight class in Class 2A will advance to next week’s state tournament in Hershey.