Bellefonte’s Ethan Richner making moves on weekly high school wrestling leaderboards

It is every wrestler’s favorite time of the year — the postseason.

However, it only begins for Centre County’s Class 2A squads in Bald Eagle Area, Philipsburg-Osceola, Penns Valley and St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy. The Class 3A guys have to wait one more week, but Bellefonte and State College have a dual apiece this week.

This past week saw county teams participate in seven duals. The Red Raiders had three duals and won all of them.

The Red Raiders’ Ethan Richner had an especially productive week by recording several different victories. Those wins now have him appearing on four of the five different categories on our leaderboards.

Here’s a look at this week’s leaders:

Falls

The top three remained the same in the Rams’ Abraham Allebach, Wolves’ Amonn Ohl and Little Lions’ Cole Urbas.

Allebach’s teammate Dillon Covalt was able to collect his 17th fall of the year to get into fourth. Covalt was tied with SJCA’s Keegan Rothrock and Tyler Stoltzfus last week. (Rothrock and Stoltzfus are now tied for fifth.) Covalt took care of the Mounties’ Tyler Anderson in 4 minutes, 51 seconds on Tuesday.

Bellefonte’s Cole Stewart and Penns Valley’s Carter Felker each collected their 15th falls of the season and climbed into a tie for seventh with the Wolves’ Kolby Franklin. Stewart beat Clearfield’s Justin Hand in 1:12 and Felker topped P-O’s Dylan Yastro in 2:45, each coming on Tuesday.

Richner had his 14th pin of the year over Ligonier Valley’s Klaidon Drury in 31 seconds on Wednesday. He is tied with the Rams’ Clayton Royer and Malachi DuVall, who also got his 14th pin this week, and State College’s Jude Swisher. They all are 10th.

There were four county athletes who were able to collect their 10th fall of the year, each coming from a different team — BEA’s Cooper Gilham, Bellefonte’s Kenneth Simpson, Penns Valley’s Baylor Shunk and P-O’s Chase Chapman.

Wins

Richner was the big mover this week, as he won in all of Bellefonte’s duals. The sophomore now has 27 victories on the season, which sent him up the leaderboards. He was unranked last week but is now tied for seventh with teammate Ethan Rossman, Rothrock and Urbas.

Richner started the week with a major decision Tuesday. He added the previously mentioned pin and received a forfeit Saturday against North Penn-Liberty.

Rossman also won during all of the Red Raiders’ duals this past week. He began with a pin over Clearfield’s Oliver Billotte in 1:03. The sophomore then received forfeits in the other two duals.

The top-six wrestlers remained the same with three Wolves leading three Rams. Penns Valley’s Allebach, Shunk and Royer each collected their 28th wins, and are three behind St. Joseph’s Caleb Dowling and Stotlzfus, who have 31 wins a piece. Franklin leads the county with 32 wins.

There were a quartet of wrestler that earned their 20th-plus victory this week — Stewart, Bellefonte’s Lane Aikey, BEA’s Garrett Giedroc and P-O’s Nick Bryan. Seven other wrestlers also get to double-digit wins: the Red Raiders’ trio of Andrew Howe, Aaron Little and Aidan O’Shea; a pair of Eagles in Drake Holderman and Drew Koleno; and a pair of P-O wrestlers in Matt Shimmel and Yastro.

Major decisions

This is the third leaderboard that Richner appears on this week.

He topped Clearfield’s Caleb Freeland 9-0 on Tuesday. It was his third major decision of the year, which ties him for sixth with his teammates in Aikey and Little .

Aikey and Little also earned their third major decision victory this week. Aikey’s came against Clearfield in a 15-2 win. Little used a 10-0 shutout to top Ligonier Valley’s James Brown.

Aikey, Little and Richner are tied with State College’s Evan Courts, just outside of the top five.

Dowling and Franklin are in the county lead with six major decisions apiece.

P-O’s Bryan and teammate Tristan Beauseigneur were each able to get their second major decision win to put them into a tie with 11 other county wrestlers for ninth. Their victories came Tuesday against the Rams.

Bryan earned a 9-1 victory over Hadden Yearick. Beauseigneur topped Charles Martin 18-7.

State College’s Owen Woolcott was the only county wrestler to pick up his first major decision this year. He topped Carlisle’s Nathan Bernheimer on Monday with a score of 17-3.

Technical falls and fastest falls

County wrestlers are still chasing Shunk and Dowling, who have nine technical falls this season.

Aikey is five behind the leaders and is alone in sixth. Aikey earned his fourth technical fall against North Penn-Liberty on Saturday. He had a 17-0 shutout.

Aikey is two behind St. Joseph’s Zack Witmer, who is in fifth.

P-O’s Gabe Dunkelberger picked up his second technical fall with an 18-2 defeat of the Rams’ Nate Long. Dunkelberger is tied with 11 wrestlers who have two technical falls.

Swisher picked up his first technical fall of the year in a 15-0 shutout of Carlisle’s Clayton Shughart in 5:42.

The Mounties’ Nick Coudriet added the only new time to the fastest falls list this week. He had a 17-second pin of Penns Valley’s Justin Darlington to tie with BEA’s Dylan Bisel and Ohl for the ninth-quickest time.

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 February 10, 2019 at 2:38 PM.