Lots of movement in the weekly high school wrestling leaderboards with postseason in full swing

The best time of the year is upon all of Centre County’s wrestlers — the postseason.

Twelve Class 2A wrestlers from Bald Eagle Area, Penns Valley, Philipsburg-Osceola and St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy can already begin making plans for the PIAA championships in Hershey in two weeks. This weekend, 16 Class 3A athletes from Bellefonte and State College will look to join that dozen.

With so much action for all of the wrestlers, there was once again plenty of movement in this week’s leaders.

Wins

How about this for a crazy stat? There are now 15 county wrestlers who have at least 30 victories this season.

Wolves freshman Kolby Franklin still leads the county with 41. He became the first to surpass that 40 mark with a 3-0 win in the Southwest Regional semifinals at 195 pounds.

His teammates, Caleb Dowling and Tyler Stoltzfus, are close themselves. Dowling now has 39 after collecting four on the way to the 145-pound Southwest Regional crown. Stoltzfus is at 38 after coming up short in the 160-pound finals.

Penns Valley’s Baylor Shunk has 35 victories this season and is up to 128 career wins. His career total is four shy of the Rams’ school mark set by Curt Decker.

There were five athletes to go over 30 wins this week from five different schools. All five remain alive in the postseason.

The Eagles’ Cooper Gilham (31) got No. 30 in the Southwest Regional 113-pound consolation semifinals. Bellefonte’s Ryan Smith (31) got his in the District 6 Class 3A semifinals at 132 pounds. The Rams’ Malachi DuVall (31) earned No. 30 in the 138-pound consolation semifinals of the Southwest Regional tournament. St. Joseph’s Zack Witmer, who led the county last season with 43 wins, used a third-place finish to get to 30 victories exactly. And State College’s Cole Urbas pinned his District 6 Class 3A 195-pound title opponent for win No. 30.

The Little Lions had a pair also get their 20th victories on the season. Clayton Leidy earned his in the District 6 Class 3A quarterfinals at 120 pounds. And Tate McLaughlin finished third at 182 pounds in the District 6 Class 3A championships.

Major decisions

This was the most popular way of winning this week as eight county wrestlers recorded at least one major decision.

But no county athlete did it more than Witmer, who had three on his way to a third-place finish at 120 pounds. He went from being tied for 10th last week to being tied for third with five on the season.

Witmer had a 12-3 win to reach the regional semifinals, where he lost. He then strung together consecutive major decisions for that third-place finish. Witmer outscored his three opponents 30-3 in those three wins.

Bellefonte’s Ethan Rossman is also tied with Witmer after adding another major decision this week. His came in the 182-pound District 6 Class 3A semifinals, 8-0, over McLaughlin.

Dowling and Franklin are again tied at the top with nine major decisions each. Dowling had two this week, outscoring his opponents 29-9. His major decisions came in the semifinals and finals.

BEA’s David Close, along with the Red Raiders’ Aaron Little and Lane Aikey, also each had a major decision this week. They are all behind Witmer and Rossman by one.

Falls

Penns Valley’s Abraham Allebach and the Wolves’ Amonn Ohl entered the week tied. Allebach outpaced Ohl in falls, 2-1, in the Southwest Regional tournament. However, Ohl has another three days of competition in Hershey.

Allebach opened his tournament with a fall in 1:51 and had one in the consolation second round before having his season end. He ended the year with 27 pins.

Ohl used a fall in 4:27 to reach the 120-pound finals. He has 26 pins after finishing with 30-plus falls last season. It’s possible that Ohl will lead the county again once wrestling is completed in two weeks.

Urbas pinned his way to the District 6 Class 3A 195-pound title. He had just two falls and now has 22 for the year. Stoltzfus added two more falls this week, back-to-back, to reach the semifinals. He is just one behind Urbas.

DuVall, Franklin, and Bellefonte’s Cole Stewart and Ethan Richner also had multiple pins this week.

The Red Raiders’ Max Barrier and the Little Lions’ Bailey Weaverling were each able to collect their 10th falls of the season.

Technical falls and fastest falls

Shunk continues to rack up points and technical fall victories.

The senior has 14 tech falls this season after collecting three during the Southwest Regional tournament. He reached the 120-pound semifinals with two consecutive tech falls. Shunk then ended his tournament with 16-0 shutout of the Eagles’ Garrett Giedroc for fifth.

In all, Shunk outscored his three opponents 52-6.

Dowling, who is second on the list, had two technical falls to reach the semifinals. He outscored his opponents by a mark of 33-3.

Witmer is the only other wrestler to have double-digit technical falls. His 10th of the season was a 16-1 win in the preliminary round of the Southwest Regional tournament.

As for the fastest falls board, there were no new times this weeks.

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Wins

Falls

Fastest Falls

Technical Falls

Major Decisions