More action for Centre County wrestlers means plenty of changes to county leaders

With the holiday break fast approaching, there isn’t much time left in 2018 for Centre County wrestlers to make moves on the leaderboards.

Five of the county’s six schools took part in tournaments this past weekend after most opened their dual seasons earlier in the week.

With all the action, there was plenty of movement in this week’s categories.

Falls

Penns Valley finished third in the Panther Holiday Classic on Saturday. The Rams are proving they are tough as nails.

They have amassed 64 pins as a team, which is just absurd for this early in the year. Penns Valley had 22 pins alone in the tournament, so it was no surprise to see several Rams wrestlers still in the top 10.

The Rams’ Abraham “Hammer” Allebach took over the lead from State College’s Clayton Leidy and Cole Urbas. Allebach dropped the hammer to the tune of six pins Saturday to give him 11 on the season.

Urbas took over second after tying with Leidy last week. Urbas has 10 total wins, and nine of them have been pins. The other win was a medical forfeit in the 195-pound finals of the King of the Mountain Tournament on Saturday.

Leidy is in third all alone with eight pins, after recording just two in the King of the Mountain.

Penns Valley had six other wrestlers in Clayton Royer, Dillon Covalt, Malachi DuVall, Baylor Shunk, Carter Felker and Clayton Upcraft in the top 10.

St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy’s Amonn Ohl, who led the county last year with 34 pins, and Tyler Stoltzfus also joined the top 10 with five pins a piece along with the Little Lions’ Jude Swisher. Stoltzfus had all five of his pins in the Panther Holiday Classic. He pinned his way to the finals. Ohl meanwhile added four from a week ago.

Wins

There are six county athletes that have double-digit victories already this season.

As previously mentioned, Allebach collected seven total wins during the week with them all being pins. Those wins kept the Penns Valley wrestler at the top of this list, just one ahead of teammates Royer and DuVall. DuVall and Royer added six wins this week as DuVall picked up five alone in the tournament.

Shunk and Covalt helped the Rams sweep the top-five spots with 11 and 10 wins, respectively. However, Covalt shared the No. 5 spot with the previously mentioned Urbas at State College.

The top 10 is rounded out with a quartet of wrestlers tied at nine wins. Three of those four wrestlers are appearing on the list for the first time this year.

Stoltzfus also collected six wins in the Panther Holiday Classic. A week ago, Stoltzfus earned only three wins in the prestigous Walsh Jesuit Ironman Tournament in Cayuga Falls, Ohio.

The Wolves’ Caleb Dowling had five wins with all five earning bonus points on the way to his first-place finish in the Panther Holiday Classic. The Little Lions’ Owen Woolcott earned five wins this week with four of them coming in the King of the Mountain Tournament.

Fastest Falls

Penns Valley holds nine of the top-10 times with Andrew Sharer holding the top-two times.

Sharer had the top spot after recording a 13-second pin a week ago in the Blairsville Duals. This week, Sharer dispatched Central’s Ben Detwiler in 8 seconds in the Rams’ dual Tuesday for the top spot.

Upcraft and Allebach also had pins in that dual that put them at the third- and sixth-fastest times, respectively. Upcraft had a 16-second fall with Allebach recording a 21-second pin.

Allebach has two other top times too. He opened his Panther Holiday Classic with a 19-second fall, which is good for No. 4. His pin in the consolation third round is the 10th-quickest time at 29 seconds.

Covalt has his name in the top 10 for the second time with a 27-second pin that came in his tournament opener. He is tied with St. Joseph’s Zach Rosenberger, who earned his pin in the fifth round of the consolation bracket.

Technical falls and major decisions

There wasn’t too much movement in these two categories.

There were just more wrestlers who were able to at least pick up either a technical fall or major decision. Dowling was able to pick up multiples in each category.

Dowling had two back-to-back technical falls to reach the semifinals of the 145-pound bracket of the Panther Holiday Classic. He topped Central’s Tanner Hall in 1:58 before blanking North Catholic’s Matthew Ferraro 16-0 in the quarterfinals.

Dowling is tied with former teammate Evan Courts, who is wrestling for State College, for third. The Little Lions’ Woolcott added another technical fall to hold the top spot at five.

Penns Valley’s Shunk separates Woolcott from Dowling and Courts with three on the year.

Dowling added three major decisions on the way to his title with one coming in the finals. He beat Father Judge’s Caesar Fountain 17-3.

Dowling has four on the year to outpace teammate Kolby Franklin and Bellefonte’s Ethan Rossman by one. Rossman got all of his in the King of the Mountain Tournament. Franklin used back-to-back major decisions to reach the 195-pound finals, which he ended up falling in.

The Red Raiders’ Ethan Richner is the only other wrestler to have multiple major decisions. He had one in Bellefonte’s win over Tyrone on Tuesday. His second came in the second round of the King of the Mountain over the No. 8 seed. Richner wasn’t seeded and followed that win up with pinning the No. 1 seed.

Follow Nate Cobler on Twitter for season long updates on Centre County wrestling

Wins

Falls

Fastest Fall

Technical Falls

Major Decisions