WRESTLING

Bellefonte to host college wrestling

Guy Cipriano

The number of Division I dual meets planned for Centre County this season recently increased from five to six.

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Sorry Penn State fans.

Oklahoma State, Iowa State or Cornell didn’t plop onto the Nittany Lions’ skimpy home schedule as a late addition.

Enjoy Bloomsburg because the Huskies are the only non-Big Ten wrestling team headed to Rec Hall during 2009-10. The Huskies, by the way, are enjoying a renaissance thanks to crafty recruiting, which means Cael Sanderson’s first home dual meet Nov. 15 could be tougher than expected.

Five days later, Division I wrestling returns to the county with a Friday night dual meet between Lock Haven and Rider at Bellefonte High School.

Mmmmm....

Bellefonte’s three-year-old gym, which can fit around 1,000 bodies, is hosting a college meet. Believe it.

The process of bringing college wrestling to Bellefonte started last month when Lock Haven associate head coach Robbie Waller contacted Red Raider coach Mike Maney to gauge whether the school had interest in hosting a meet. Maney and athletic director Don Amoriello, who are both Lock Haven alumni, passed the idea along to the Bellefonte Area School Board. The board approved the event earlier this month.

Waller said Bellefonte fit all the criteria Lock Haven sought: Geographic proximity to Lock Haven, established tradition, ties to the university and a modern venue. A potential facility conflict looms for Lock Haven on Nov. 20 because the NCAA Division II women’s volleyball regionals might be held in the university’s gym. The date also marks the start of high school wrestling practice in Pennsylvania.

“It’s kind of a neat thing,” Waller said. “It’s the first day of wrestling practice, so high school teams can go to practice and then watch a dual.”

This is believed to be the first time two Division I programs have agreed to wrestle at a Centre County high school. The reverse scenario occurred in the 1980s when Bald Eagle Area wrestled Shikellamy before a Penn State match at Rec Hall.

“I think it will generate some excitement,” said Maney, a two-time NCAA All-American at Lock Haven. “Coach Waller contacted me and he wants to do a lot of different things. Hopefully our kids realize being a Division I athlete is a possibility when they see this.”

Staging college meets at high school venues is a common practice. This year’s Division I schedule includes a Clarion-Penn match at District 7 North Allegheny High School and an Edinboro-Ohio State meet at Perrysburg (Ohio) High School.

It’s no coincidence the meets are staged at high schools with solid wrestling programs. The off-campus exposure can provide boons to smaller Division I schools such as Lock Haven, Clarion and Edinboro, which tangle with Penn State and Ohio State for recruits.

During Maney’s college career, Lock Haven faced Iowa State at Manheim Central High School. The Bald Eagles defeated the Cyclones, giving current Lock Haven coach Rocky Bonomo his first career victory.

“You sometimes get a different crowd of people who don’t want to necessarily drive that far to see college wrestling,” Maney said. “It’s pretty neat to wrestle in a different gym.”

Waller, a former PIAA champion who arrived at Lock Haven this past summer, participated in similar duals while serving on Jack Spates’ staff at Oklahoma. He envisions wrestling one match per year at a wrestling-crazed high school located within Lock Haven’s recruiting base. Lock Haven should have multiple options, considering Bellefonte, BEA, State College, Shikellamy, Jersey Shore, Milton and

Williamsport are among the tradition-rich schools with spacious gyms near Lock Haven.

“We want to get Division I wrestling into different schools and different regions,” Waller said.

Rankings time

Some might dismiss preseason rankings, including Penn State men’s basketball coach Ed DeChellis, who slammed low opinions of his returning team earlier this week. But in a sport often struggling for attention such as wrestling, rankings hold intrigue because they spark preseason chatter.

Two major wrestling publications — Amateur Wrestling News and WIN Magazine — hold similar opinions of the Nittany Lions. Junior Brad Pataky (8th AWN, 9th WIN at 125 pounds), sophomore Frank Molinaro (7th in both at 141), senior Bubba Jenkins (6th WIN at 149), senior Cyler Sanderson (5th AWN, 6th WIN at 157), senior Dan Vallimont (11th AWN, 9th WIN at 165) and senior David Erwin (20th AWN at 174) enter this season ranked.

State College graduate and Edinboro senior Kyle Fluke is ranked 20th at 133 by AWN while former Indian Valley standout and Kent State junior Nic Bedelyon is ranked 6th at 125 in both polls.

Neither publication has released its dual meet team rankings. Here’s guessing Penn State will be ranked between 10th and 20th.

InterMat has not released its individual or team rankings.

Good reading

Lock Haven resident Tom Elling’s 2009-10 Pennsylvania Wrestling Handbook includes a list illustrating the state’s current depth.

The first five names among the Top 100 returning Class AAA wrestlers includes Central Dauphin’s Marshall Peppelman, Central Mountain’s Andrew Alton and Dylan Alton, Abington Heights’ Evan Craig and Franklin Regional’s Nico Megaludis. The group went a combined 226-0 last season, an unfathomable number considering the state’s depth. They are among the nine returning Class AAA champions.

Kocher to Pitt

Former State College star and assistant coach Matt Kocher recently joined Pitt coach Rande Stottlemyer’s staff as an assistant. Kocher rejoined the Panthers after spending one year on the Little Lions’ staff.

He compiled 148 victories and earned NCAA All-America honors while wrestling for the Panthers from 2003-08. Kocher graduated from Pitt with a history and communications degree in 2008.

Guy Cipriano can be reached at 231-4643.