Which Centre County wrestler leads the area in wins, pins and more?

Last season, the Centre Daily Times ran a weekly county stats leaders story, and it is back again this year.

With the 2018-2019 high school wrestling regular season officially underway, all of Centre County’s teams except for Bald Eagle Area and Bellefonte hit the mats this weekend.

Penns Valley wrestled the first dual for county teams but it was also the first dual in its new gym. The Rams topped Southern Huntingdon 59-21 on Friday and then traveled to the Blairsville Duals the next day.

State College and St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy also traveled for tournaments. The Little Lions went north to Athens High School as the Wolves headed west for the prestigious Walsh Jesuit Ironman in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

Philipsburg-Osceola stayed home for its annual Mountaineer Tournament, which was a dual tournament this year for the first time in the tournament’s history.

Let’s take a look at how the first days of action shaped things this week.

Wins

There were several county wrestlers who had perfect starts to the year.

Penns Valley has five athletes who are tied at the top with six wins a piece. They are Abraham Allebach, Baylor Shunk, Clayton Royer, Clayton Upcraft and Malachi DuVall. Royer was the only one not to score bonus points in all his wins.

Allebach, Royer, Upcraft and DuVall all have four pins in their six wins.

There are nine wrestlers all one win behind the five leaders with Rams, Mounties, Wolves and Little Lions sprinkled in. Chase Chapman and Hunter Weitoish make up the P-O contingent. Clayton Leidy and Cole Urbas are representing State College with freshman Kolby Franklin hanging in there for St. Joseph’s.

Falls

It was no surprise to see so many Rams’ wrestlers in the top 10 of this category.

As a team, Penns Valley has 35 pins already this season. Seven of those came in its win over Southern Huntingdon. The Rams had six in a row at one point during the dual.

However, it was two State College wrestlers holding down the top two spots. Leidy and Urbas each pinned their way to a title. They each had five pins.

Outside of the Little Lions’ Jude Swisher and Ty Price, and Philipsburg-Osceola’s Chase Chapman, the rest of the top 10 were Rams’ wrestlers.

Fastest Falls

Last season, State College’s Jackson Healy earned a six-second pin at the beginning of the year. Healy held that spot the entire year.

This year, there is some wiggle room at the top as Penns Valley’s Andrew Sharer has the quickest time when he pinned Johnstown’s Tyson Williams in 13 seconds. However, if an athlete looks to get into the top 10, they will have to do it under 46 seconds.

Sharer, who missed all of last season with a shoulder injury, has three of the top five times. To go along with his quickest time, he added 22- and 33-second falls on Saturday. Teammate Dillon Covalt split Sharer’s top time and third-fastest time with a 20-second win.

Philipsburg-Osecola’s Gabe Dunkelberger rounds out the top five with a 30-second fall good for fourth.

It was no surprise to see more Penns Valley wrestlers in the top-10 with all those pins. Carter Felker, Upcraft, Cole Felker, DuVall and Allebach finish out the top 10 in that order.

Technical falls & major decisions

There were just eight wrestlers who recorded technical falls.

State College’s Owen Woolcott is 4-for-4 with wins and technical falls. He finished second in the Athens Tournament.

Woolcott holds a lead of two over his teammate Evan Courts and Penns Valley’s Shunk.

Shunk began his year with a 17-2 win over Southern Huntingdon’s Cole Hicks. He did it in the first period, which is just two minutes long.

Four wrestlers collected a major decision. Two compete for P-O and two compete for St. Joseph’s.

Chapman and Dunkelberger represent the Mounties with Franklin and Caleb Dowling on this list for the Wolves.

Follow Nate Cobler on Twitter for season long updates for high school wrestling

Wins

Falls

Fastest Fall

Technical Falls

Major Decisions