MILTON – For Gia Silva, Saturday was like a redemption tour.
The Wallenpaupack sophomore was one spot away from Hershey last year, finishing fifth at the PIAA Girls’ Wrestling Central Regional.
This year, she made sure her ticket to the Giant Center wouldn’t hinge on a run through the consolation round.
She rolled through the championship bracket to earn second place as one of nine District 2 wrestlers who are headed to the Giant Center next weekend. Joining Silva are Honesdale’s Saige Olver (118), Maddison Miller (142) and Jaidyn Mikulak (285), Nanticoke Area’s Emily Kivler (112) and Sierra Ripka (170), Wyoming Valley West’s Bella Seip (118), Delaware Valley’s Kate Prior (155) and Crestwood’s Samara Bailey (285).
Sometimes, emotions play a big part in wrestling. For Silva, it was falling one spot short in last year’s regional, and bouncing back from a tough loss to Kivler in last week’s District 2 112-pound Championship.
She went back to work this week with one thought on her mind: Don’t fall one spot short this year.
“It’s pretty exciting because I have been waiting for this since last season,” Silva said. “This was like a comeback for me. Last week’s loss, you just have to leave it in the past. You can’t focus on it because you aren’t going to get anywhere if you do that. You just have to wrestle hard.”
She opened up with a 15-6 win over Milton’s Louise Cromley, and followed it up by pinning Bald Eagle Area’s Addison Tice in the quarters. She punched her ticket in a heart-pounding semifinal where she led Punxsutawney’s Evelynn Neale, 7-0, before giving up a late, seven-point move to tie the match at 7-7.
In overtime, she scored the bout-clinching takedown with 22 seconds left.
“I got kind of caught in that one move where she got some back points on me,”…
