County sending 12 Class 2A wrestlers to PIAAs — with 2 regional champions, team title from St. Joseph’s
A year ago, the Class 2A Southwest Regional Tournament wasn’t very friendly to Centre County’s teams with just six local qualifiers out of the region.
With the addition of two teams, in Bald Eagle Area and Philipsburg-Osceola, this year was a different story.
The county’s four Class 2A teams — St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy, Philipsburg-Osceola, Penns Valley and Bald Eagle Area — combined Saturday to send 12 wrestlers to the PIAA championships from March 7-9 in Hershey.
The Wolves crowned two Class 2A Southwest Regional champions in Caleb Dowling and Kolby Franklin, like they did last year.
But, unlike last year, St. Joseph’s didn’t just miss the team title by 1.5 points to Chestnut Ridge. Instead, St. Joseph’s had the team title locked up over the defending champs before the finals even began.
“The team has jelled real well. We’ve got some leaders and some young talent that is tough,” Wolves coach Pat Flynn said. “They worked real hard this year. This is one of their goals.”
Here’s a more in-depth look at the county teams and their qualifiers:
St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy
Champions: Caleb Dowling (145) and Kolby Franklin (195)
Other finishers: Amonn Ohl (2nd, 120), Zack Witmer (3rd, 132), Keegan Rothrock (3rd, 152) and Tyler Stoltzfus (2nd, 160)
Eliminated: Zach Rosenberger (2-2, 170)
Team score: 140.5 points, 1st overall
Recap: When anyone gets to the finals of any tournament, it’s usually the best against the best.
It just depends whose best is better in that moment.
For Dowling and Franklin, they were on the winning end of things. Ohl and Stoltzfus just ran into some opponents that were a little bit better.
“Caleb looked really good tonight; that Tristin kid is really good and strong,” Flynn said, referring to Berlin-Brothersvalley’s Tristin Pugh. “Caleb was on fire. He loves this tournament. Kolby, he rose to the occasion. He likes the spotlight. His future is really bright. He handles it well.”
Dowling racked up six takedowns in his 145-pound final against Pugh. In the end, Dowling’s other two points in a 14-6 major decision came on an escape and a penalty point. It wasn’t the same result Dowling had in last year’s final, a 16-1 technical fall, but his approach on this season is different.
“My outlook this year is I want to be a state champ,” the junior said. “Last year, I wasn’t fixed on being a champ, I just wanted to beat my goal. I wrestled good that match (Saturday). I felt good all tournament. I’m excited for states now.”
Franklin has a dream board in his bedroom at home. It has a picture of the Giant Center, home of the PIAA championships.
He is technically able to put a check mark beside that picture now. The freshman led 7-1 to start the second period against Tussey Mountain’s Damon Lemin. He hit a Kamikaze roll for a reversal and pinned Lemin 14 seconds into the period.
“It feels great. It’s just another wrestling tournament,” Franklin said, when asked about his first regional tournament. “I get nervous before every match, but that one there, I felt confident and did what I needed to do.”
Ohl and Stoltzfus ran into current PIAA placewinners in their finals. Ohl suffered a 17-3 defeat to Burrell’s Ian Oswalt, who finished fourth last year. Stoltzfus took on reigning 152-pound champion Thayne Lawrence of Frazier, with Lawrence grabbing an 8-2 win.
Witmer and Rothrock each turned semifinals disappointments into third-place finishes.
“These guys hang out all the time. They work out together, hang out together, they do everything together,” Flynn said. “It’s really neat to see the guys growing up and maturing on and off the mat. They help each other out in the classroom. In my opinion, those six guys are Division-I athletes. Those six are a pretty special six.”
Philipsburg-Osceola
Champions: None
Other finishers: Chase Chapman (2nd, 132) and Hunter Weitoish (5th, 152)
Eliminated: None
Team score: 31 points, tied for 21st overall
Recap: Chapman had such an outstanding tournament that had he won his weight class, he would’ve likely won the Outstanding Wrestler award.
A day after pinning the No. 6 wrestler in the state, the junior used a takedown in sudden victory to top Everett’s Garret Cornell, 8-6. Cornell finished third in the state last year and is No. 4 in the state currently.
“He’s picked it up these last two or three tournaments by a lot,” Weitoish said about his teammate. “I think he is going to make it high up on the podium down at states.”
Chapman ran into a buzzsaw in the finals in Bedford’s Kaden Cassidy, who was the third straight PIAA placewinner that Chapman faced.
The Bisons’ wrestler controlled from the starting whistle, recording seven first-period points with two tilts collecting near-fall points. Chapman trailed 10-0 after two periods and ultimately lost 15-0 in five minutes of wrestling.
“Chase had a phenomenal tournament,” Mounties coach Brad Pataky said. “He came in as the underdog and turned a lot of heads. We knew what he was capable of. It’s exciting to see a kid understand where he is at and what his potential can be.”
Weitoish will be joining his teammate, giving Pataky his most state qualifiers since becoming the coach three years ago. He did it while fighting through an ankle injury.
“Our team does a lot of mindset training. We talk to a guy and FaceTime him,” Weitoish said. “He tells us, ‘Just focus on your match and nothing else.’ It helps me clear it out.”
The sophomore made the consolation quarterfinals with a 7-1 win to start the day. Weitoish then gutted out a 3-2 win to reach the semifinals, where he dropped a 5-0 loss to Rothrock. He responded by beating Moshannon Valley’s Jon Dale, 5-3 to finish fifth.
“There’s not really words to explain it,” Weitoish said of qualifying for states. “Coming off an injury two weeks before districts was kind of hard. If I was healthier, I’d be a lot higher on the podium right now. I’m just happy that I made it.”
Penns Valley
Champions: None
Other finishers: Baylor Shunk (5th, 120) and Malachi DuVall (4th, 138)
Eliminated: Clayton Royer (2-2, 138), Abraham Allebach (2-2, 160) and Carter Felker (1-2, 195)
Team score: 39.5 points, 11th overall
Recap: The Rams began the day with the hopes of moving five wrestlers to the PIAA championships with three of those wrestlers being seniors.
Shunk was the lone senior to advance, and he did so alongside a sophomore in DuVall.
“Both of them, and the other guys, have put a lot into the sport,” Penns Valley coach Joel Brinker said. “Baylor has been at this for a long time. He is a student of the sport, second to none. The guy studies, lives, breathes and sleeps wrestling. Malachi is a very athletic kid. He is almost like a ninja. He’s dangerous in about any match.”
Shunk and DuVall made the semifinals but suffered losses to the top seeds in their weight classes. They were both on opposite ends of one-point matches in the consolations.
DuVall had a 1-0 win to make the third-place match. He dropped a 6-3 loss to Westmont Hilltop’s Ethan Kelly, whom DuVall pinned in the District 6 semifinals a week ago.
Shunk gave up a reversal at the final buzzer and took on BEA’s Garrett Giedroc for fifth. Shunk rebounded from his two losses with a 16-0 win over Giedroc in 3:51. It was Shunk’s 128th career win, which means he needs four at PIAAs to tie Curt Decker’s school record.
The day didn’t particularly go the way Brinker would’ve liked. After all, he saw one of his senior’s seasons end the night before in Dillon Covalt.
On Saturday, Felker, Allebach and Royer each came up a round shy of making the trip to Hershey. The senior in Allebach had a pin in 2:56 to make the consolation quarterfinals, where he then dropped a 3-1 loss. Felker, who was the other senior, got to wrestle just one match, which he got pinned in 4:01.
Royer, who will be back next season as a senior, was pinned in sudden victory to end his season.
“It was a brutal round. It is razor thin for everybody,” Brinker said. “It’s tough to see those guys lose. It’s not what you want by any means. It’s not lack of effort. What they’ve (four seniors) done for Penns Valley wrestling, there is probably not another group that has done that much.”
Bald Eagle Area
Champions: None
Other finishers: Cooper Gilham (3rd, 113) and Garrett Giedroc (6th, 120)
Eliminated: Dylan Bisel (1-2, 182) and David Close (2-2, 195)
Team score: 29 points, 24th overall
Recap: Gilham and Giedroc may not be brothers by blood, but in the wrestling room, they are inseparable.
It came as no surprise that the duo were also the Eagles’ state qualifiers.
“They practice together every day. They scrap together every day,” BEA coach Ron Guenot said. “They get mean with each other, sometimes. I think they are tired of wrestling each other all the time. They are two great partners. They made each other better, and it shows. It’s why they are going to Hershey.”
Gilham secured his spot Friday by reaching the semifinals. He finished third with a 5-1 win over Tyrone’s Hunter Walk.
For Giedroc, he had to battle to lock up his PIAA spot. Actually, “battle” might be an understatement.
Giedroc opened the day with a 6-4 sudden-victory over Chestnut Ridge’s Ross Dull. Then, in the consolation quarterfinals, he put extra work in again. He snapped off a takedown 17 seconds into sudden victory to top Huntingdon’s Roland Mills, 7-5, for the third time in their careers.
So is Giedroc just born for tight matches?
“Yeah, I guess you could say that,” Giedroc said. “It feels really good right now. I just knew and believed in my training, and I got it done in the end.”
That win over Mills locked up Giedroc’s first trip to Hershey, and the first for his family, which was full of wrestlers. In the end, Giedroc finished sixth after the loss to Shunk.
“Happy that Giedroc made it in; what an accomplishment,” Guenot said. “The kid has worked all year long for this. I know it has been a huge goal of him and his family. There is a whole bunch of brothers and nobody has ever qualified before. He is the first Giedroc brother to qualify, so what a feat for him and proud of him.”
Bisel suffered a 3-2 loss to Penn Cambria’s JC Smychynsky in the only match of the day for the senior. Close, who suffered a heartbreaking one-point loss Friday night in sudden victory, had his season come to an end with another one-point loss.
“Dylan is a great kid and hard worker. I know it wasn’t the result he wanted,” Guenot said. “I’m just thankful I had a chance to coach him. David, he came up short again. You can’t put your fate in the referee’s hands.”
Class 2A Southwest Regional Championships
Saturday at Indiana
Team key: Avonworth (A), Bald Eagle Area (BEA), Beaver (B), Bedford (Bed.), Bellwood-Antis (BA), Bentworth (BW), Berlin-Brothersvalley (BB), Beth-Center (BC), Bishop McCort (BM), Blairsville (B), Burgettstown (BT), Burrell (Bu.), Cambria Heights (CH), Carlynton (CY), Central Cambria (CC), Central (C), Central Valley (CV), Chartiers-Houston (C-H), Chestnut Ridge (CR), Claysburg-Kimmel (CK), Derry (D), Elizabeth Forward (EF), Ellwood City (EC), Everett (E), Forest Hills (FH), Fort Cherry (FC), Frazier (F), Freedom (FD), Glendale (G), Highlands (HD), Hopewell (HW), Huntingdon (H), Keystone Oaks (K), Laurel (L), Ligonier Valley (LV), Marion Center (MC), McGuffey (M), Meyersdale (MY), Moshannon Valley (MV), Mount Pleasant (MP), Mount Union (MU), North Star (NS), Northern Bedford (NB), Penn Cambria (PC), Penns Valley (PV), Philipsburg-Osceola (P-O), Portage (P), Quaker Valley (QV), Richland (R), Somerset (S), South Park (SP), South Side Beaver (SSB), Southmoreland (SM), Southern Huntingdon (SH), St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy (SJ), Tussey Mountain (TM), Tyrone (T), Valley (V), Washington (W), West Branch (WB), West Greene (WG), Westmont Hilltop (WH), Yough (Y)
Team scores: 1. St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy 140.5, 2. Chestnut Ridge 93.5, 3. Forest Hills 79, 4. Freedom 77.5, 5. Glendale 66, 6. Mount Pleasant 60, T7. Burrell 56, T7. Derry 56, 9. Quaker Valley 52.5, 10. Westmont Hilltop 44, 11. Penns Valley 39.5, T21. Philipsburg-Osceola 31, 24. Bald Eagle Area 29
Finals
106: Joey Fischer, SP, dec. Kai Burkett, CR, 4-3; 113: Ryan Michaels, EF, dec. Jackson Arrington, FH, 6-1; 120: Ian Oswalt, Bu., major dec. Amonn Ohl, SJ, 17-3; 126: Brock McMillen, G, dec. Ty Cymmerman, D, 6-4; 132: Kaden Cassidy, B, tech. fall Chase Chapman, P-O, 15-0 (5:00); 138: Jacob Ealy, HW, dec. Erik Gibson, FH, 11-5; 145: Caleb Dowling, SJ, major dec. Tristan Pugh, BB, 14-6; 152: Trent Schultheis, FD, dec. Hudson Holbay, WH, 5-0; 160: Thayne Lawrence, F, dec. Tyler Stoltzfus, SJ, 8-2; 170: Jared McGill, CR, dec. Christian Clutter, M, 8-2; 182: Dayton Pitzer, MP, dec. Austin Walley, EC, 9-6; 195: Kolby Franklin, SJ, pinned Damon Lemin, TM, 2:14; 220: Dominic DeLuca, D, dec. Duane Knisely, CR, 3-2; 285: Jake Ryan, MU, dec. Kole Winfield, SH, 4-2
Third-Place Match
113: Cooper Gilham, BEA, dec. Hunter Walk, T, 5-1; 132: Zack Witmer, SJ, major dec. Donavin Chambers, EC, 8-0; 138: Ethan Kelly, WH, dec. Malachi DuVall, PV, 6-3; 152: Keegan Rothrock, SJ, dec. Alec Supanick, NS, 4-3
Fifth-Place Match
120: Baylor Shunk, PV, tech. fall Garrett Giedroc, BEA, 16-0 (3:51); 152: Hunter Weitoish, P-O, dec. Jon Dale, MV, 5-3
Semifinals
113: Ryan Michaels, EF, dec. Gillham, BEA, 3-1; 120: Ian Oswalt, Bu., dec. Shunk, PV, 7-2; Ohl, SJ, pinned Jimmy Gwyer, BC, 4:27; 132: Chapman, P-O, dec. Garret Cornell, E, 8-6 (SV); Kaden Cassidy, B, dec. Witmer, SJ, 3-2; 138: Jacob Ealy, HW, tech. fall DuVall, PV, 15-0 (4:13); 145: Dowling, SJ, major dec. Shane Kemper, BT, 15-3; 152: Trent Schultheis, F, dec. Rothrock, SJ, 5-0; 160: Stoltzfus, SJ, major dec. Jacob Sabol, R, 9-1; 195: Franklin, SJ, dec. Hunter Tremain, NS, 3-0
Consolation Semifinals
113: Gilham, BEA, dec. Nate Yagle, M, 4-2; 120: Noah Teeter, MP, dec. Shunk, PV, 6-5; Jimmy Gwyer, BC, dec. Giedroc, BEA, 7-0; 132: Witmer, SJ, major dec. Conner Redinger, 10-0; 138: DuVall, PV, dec. Kenny Dushek, F, 1-0; 152: Rothrock, SJ, dec. Weitoish, P-O, 5-0
Consolation Quarterfinals
120: Giedroc, BEA, dec. Roland Mills, H, 7-5 (SV); 132: Donavin Chambers, EC, pinned Clayton Royer, PV, 5:40 (SV); 152: Weitoish, P-O, dec. Chris Bruce, EF, 3-2; 160: Cole Sossong, P, dec. Abraham Allebach, PV, 3-1; 170: Austin Mowry, NB, dec. Zach Rosenberger, SJ, 8-1; 195: Trentin Whaley, BA, dec. David Close, BEA, 1-0
Consolation Second Round
120: Giedroc, BEA, dec. Ross Dull, CR, 6-4; 132: Royer, PV, dec. Jason Baker, D, 4-2 (SV); 152: Weitoish, P-O, dec. Aaron McIntyre, FC, 7-1; 160: Allebach, PV, pinned DJ Slovick, BT, 2:56; 170: Rosenberger, SJ, pinned Ian Eckenrode, CH, 2:53; 182: JC Smychynsky, PC, dec. Dylan Bisel, BEA, 3-2; 195: Close, BEA, dec. Zach Rupert, Bu., 7-1; Trentin Whaley, BA, pinned Cole Felker, PV, 4:01
