SJCA’s Caleb Dowling collects 100th win, Amonn Ohl climbing pins board in this week’s wrestling leaders

The regular season is slowly coming to an end.

In less than a month, Centre County’s wrestlers will be looking to earn their spots to Hershey for the PIAA championships. But that doesn’t mean there’s no time for milestones.

This week, St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy’s Caleb Dowling joined the 100-win club. Teammate Amonn Ohl has also worked his way up the falls leaderboard, which shouldn’t be surprising considering he led the county last season. We will get to them shortly, but first let’s look at the overall highlights from the week.

Bellefonte handed Huntington its first loss of the year Tuesday. Bald Eagle Area claimed the program’s 700th and 701st dual wins over Tyrone and Juniata. And State College had its first home dual of the year, coming up five points shy of upsetting state-ranked Cumberland Valley on Thursday.

The Wolves had the most action this week with the WSAZ tournament in Huntington, W.Va. They finished second overall in the team standings but won the small school standings with 213 points, so it was no surprise St. Joseph’s wrestlers made the most moves this week.

Let’s take a look.

Wins

As mentioned, Dowling claimed his 100th win of his career. He is the fourth wrestler to do so this season with teammate Tyler Stoltzfus, State College’s Cole Urbas and Bellefonte’s Cole Stewart.

Dowling did it with a flair too. He pinned Ravenswood’s (W.Va.) Xavier Rodriguez in nine seconds of their 145-pound second-round match. Dowling went 5-0 en route to the crown with two pins and two technical falls — in the quarterfinals and semifinals.

Dowling’s 27 wins this year are third on the list behind two teammates. Kolby Franklin is one win away from 30, and Stoltzfus is just one ahead of Dowling. Franklin and Stoltzfus each went 5-0 and won titles at 195 and 160 pounds, respectively.

The Wolves’ Keegan Rothrock, who won a 152-pound title, and Cole Urbas round out the top five with 24 wins a piece. Rothrock’s teammate, Amonn Ohl, made a big leap by adding four more wins this week to get to 22 on the year. He is seventh overall.

There were nine wrestlers that were able to collect their 20th win in this past week’s action. They included Bellefonte’s Ethan Richner, Ethan Rossman and Ryan Smith; Penns Valley’s Abraham Allebach, Baylor Shunk, Clayton Royer and Malachi DuVall; and Rothrock and Ohl.

Penns Valley’s Dillon Covalt and St. Joseph’s Zack Witmer each are one victory away from No. 20.

There were five wrestlers that were able to get their 10th win this week. They were Bald Eagle Area’s Richard Taylor, Philipsburg-Osceola’s Austin Foster, Gabe Dunkelberger and Nick Coudriet; and the Wolves’ Zach Rosenberger.

Falls

Ohl has been on a tear lately, pinning just about everyone he faces.

In the past two weeks, he has tallied nine falls, which has him at 18 now for the year. He’s still far away from last year’s county-leading 34, but look for him to get near 30 again this season.

He pinned his way to the 120-pound title match in West Virginia, which he lost after being pinned. Ohl now sits one behind the leader in Urbas.

Urbas added another pin this week in 2:47 over Central Mountain’s Nikolas Miller. All but one of Urbas’ victories have come with bonus points. He has 19 pins, two forfeits, a medical forfeit and an injury default. His other win was a 14-8 decision over Fauquier’s (Va.) Sam Fisher, a Virginia Tech commit who is the son of Doug Fisher, a Bald Eagle Area alum.

Allebach remains in third with 17 pins as Stoltzfus added three this week to get to 15 on the year and fourth on the list. Rothrock, Franklin and State College’s Jude Swisher all are tied for fifth with 13 falls. They each added one from the week before.

Stewart, Royer and Covalt all round out the top 10 with 12 pins apiece. Royer and Covalt each had one this week in the Rams’ wins over Mifflinburg and Clearfield. Royer’s came in 1:47 over Clearfield’s Peyton Smay as Covalt topped Mifflinburg’s Graham Wiand.

Richner, Smith and Bald Eagle Area’s David Close were all able to get their 10th pins of the year.

Technical Falls

Witmer missed the early part of the season after getting injured in the Walsh Ironman Tournament. But, since returning, he has done nothing but win — and win big.

During the WSAZ Tournament, he collected three technical falls to reach the semifinals of the 132-pound weight class. He went on to win the crown with two more victories.

Witmer outscored all five of his opponents 65-6. He didn’t have a single point scored against him until the semifinals on the way to a 46-0 shutout of his first three opponents. He opened with a 16-0 technical fall and back-to-back 15-0 wins.

Witmer now has six technical fall victories, which is tied for fourth. State College’s Owen Woolcott still holds the lead at eight but has Shunk and Dowling one behind him.

Shunk earned his seventh with a 21-6 defeat of Clearfield’s Karson Kline in 3:53. Dowling’s came in the quarterfinals and semifinals of his tournament run, outscoring his foes 36-4.

Fastest falls and major decisions

There were three new times added this week. All three were set by St. Joseph’s wrestlers.

As previously mentioned, Dowling had a nine-second fall for his 100th victory. His teammate, Zach Rosenberger, added the other two quickest times.

Rosenberger’s quickest win was also nine seconds. It came in the sixth round of consolations, after falling down with a 170-pound semifinals loss. He topped Point Pleasant’s (W.Va.) Steven Trent.

Rosenberger’s other winning time came before the third-fastest time. His 14-second win over Skyline’s (W.Va.) Alex Sotelo was in the second round. The time is good for fifth.

If another county wrestler plans to get into the top 10, he is going to have to do it in fewer than 19 seconds.

There is now a tie at the top of the major decision category with Dowling and Franklin. Dowling has had five for quite some time, but Franklin added his fifth this weekend.

Franklin, who is a freshman, earned a 14-3 win over Spring Valley’s (W. Va.) Chase Stevens, a senior, to reach the 195-pound finals.

Bald Eagle Area’s Garrett Giedroc jumped into a tie for second with Rossman. Giedroc’s fourth major decision came in an 11-3 win over Juniata’s Cameron Swigart on Wednesday.

Royer was the only other movement on this board as he is tied with State College’s Evan Courts with three major decisions. His most recent was a 10-1 win over Mifflinburg’s Malik Valencia.

Bellefonte’s Kyle Myers and Lane Aikey each collected their first major decision wins in the victory over Huntingdon.

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

Wins

Falls

Fastest Falls

Technical Falls

Major Decisions

This story was originally published January 20, 2019 at 11:48 AM.