Tracking the area’s high school wrestling stat leaders through Feb. 4

As the end of the regular season draws closer, so does the amount of work Centre County wrestlers get on the mat.

Bellefonte was the busiest team this past week, wrestling four duals in six days. Bald Eagle Area suffered its first dual loss of the season, in the District 6 Class 3A finals to Mifflin County on Saturday. State College, which only had one win two weeks ago, now has five — three this week alone. The Little Lions are on a four-match winning streak heading into Tuesday’s matchup with the Eagles.

There wasn’t much movement on the top-10 lists, but here is where they occurred:

Pins

The Red Raiders’ Cole Stewart went from a tie for eighth to third on the list. Stewart’s 15 falls are behind St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy’s Ammon Ohl (27) and BEA’s Seth Koleno (18). Stewart was a perfect 4-0 this week with three pins and a forfeit.

His first pin came in Monday’s dual with Central Mountain, wrapping up the victory in 20 seconds. His others came on back-to-back nights. Stewart pinned Philipsburg-Osceola’s Noah Twoey in 2:34 on Wednesday night and stuck State College’s Issac Sublett in 2:55 in Lock Haven the next day.

The Little Lions’ Cole Urbas made it onto the top-10 list this week with two falls. He is tied for fifth with 13 — the minimum a wrestler needs to make it into the top-10. There were five wrestlers tied with 12 pins on the outside of the top 10.

Urbas pinned Bellefonte’s Max Mondy on the campus of Lock Haven University on Thursday. During the Little Lions’ dual on Saturday against Central Dauphin East, Urbas took care of his opponent in 2:58.

Major decisions

There is still a logjam at the top of the list with four wrestlers tied with six major decision wins each. The Red Raiders’ Ethan Richner, the Wolves’ Malachi DuVall and Zach Witmer, and State College’s Owen Woolcott lead the pack.

The Eagles’ Dylan Bisel earned a 10-0 shutout of Bellefonte’s Andrew Howe in the District 6 Class 3A semifinals to sit in fifth by himself with five majors. Bisel’s teammate, Gage McClenahan, St. Joseph’s Caleb Dowling and the Little Lions’ Lance Urbas are all tied for sixth with four.

The Red Raiders’ Ethan Rossman joined the top-10 list in a tie for ninth. He collected his third major decision by topping the Mounties’ Kyle Taylor 10-1.

Wins

There wasn’t too much of a change here other than a pair of BEA wrestlers breaking up the pack of Wolves that led the category. Koleno and Garrett Rigg won both of their matches this week in identical fashion — a pin and forfeit. They lead the Eagles with 27 wins apiece and are tied for fourth on the list. BEA has two others in McClenahan (No. 8, 25 wins) and Cooper Gilham (tied for 10th, 23 wins) in the top 10.

Witmer still leads the way with 32 wins, two better than teammates DuVall and Ohl. The Wolves’ Dowling aand Ethan Kauffman are tied for sixth with 26. Penns Valley’s Baylor Shunk and Clayton Royer round out the top 10. Shunk leads the Rams with 24 wins ato rank ninth, with Royer one behind at 23 wins.

There are eight other Centre County wrestlers with 20-plus wins: Richner (22), Keegan Rothrock (St. Joseph’s, 22), Stewart (21), Dillon Covalt (Penns Valley, 21), Brandon Anderson (Philipsburg-Osceola, 21), Jacob Powers (St. Joseph’s, 21), Woolcott (21) and Mondy (20).

Fastest pin & technical falls

Only one change occurred in either category this week. It came with Woolcott collecting his third technical fall of the year.

Woolcott jumped into a tie for sixth with Gilham. Woolcott used five takedowns and two sets of near-fall points in a 19-4 technical fall of his Central Dauphin East opponent on Saturday.

This story was originally published February 4, 2018 at 6:43 PM with the headline "Tracking the area’s high school wrestling stat leaders through Feb. 4."