Here are Centre County’s season-ending wrestling leaders in pins, wins, and more
It is hard to believe that the high school wrestling season is finished.
Centre County wrestlers amassed nine PIAA medals with six of those medals coming in the top five in the state.
Here’s a look at who finished at the top:
Wins
It is no surprise that St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy’s Kolby Franklin didn’t get caught by the rest of the pack.
The freshman phenom finished with 44 wins on the year. He was also the highest finisher from the county with a silver medal in the 195-pound weight class.
However, Franklin didn’t have a big gap from two of his teammates in Caleb Dowling and Tyler Stoltzfus, who finished second and third, respectively, in wins. Dowling ended the season with 43 wins with Stoltzfus at 42. Those three were the lone wrestlers to reach the 40-win mark, but a couple of others came close.
Penns Valley’s Baylor Shunk and the Wolves’ Keegan Rothrock each came up a win shy of getting No. 40.
Shunk collected four in the PIAA championships on the way to finishing seventh at 120 pounds and collecting his second state medal. He also tied the Rams’ all-time wins mark with 132, matching Curtis Decker.
Rothrock picked up five wins to finish third in the state at 152 pounds. He improved upon last year’s mark of 27 wins. The junior will look to add to his career victories next season.
Another interesting stat about the wins leaderboard, the top seven all medaled. State College’s Cole Urbas and Bellefonte’s Ethan Richner each finished their years with 37 wins apiece, and they were the lone Class 3A wrestlers to medal.
Philipsburg-Osceola’s Hunter Weitoish was one of two Mounties in the PIAA championships. The sophomore collected his 30th win of the season with a 10-8 win in the 152-pound consolations third round, his final win of the year. He finished just outside the top 10 in season wins, but it was still an important milestone nonetheless.
Major decisions
Franklin not only led the county with the most wins, but he also had the most major decisions, breaking up a previous tie with Dowling. It was a mark the pair shared for most of the season.
Franklin began his run to the 195-pound finals with one major decision. He later used another one to reach the finals. In those two matches, Franklin outscored his opponents 39-17. Dowling remained second on the leaderboard with nine major decisions.
Witmer had a 10-2 major decision in the consolation semifinals for his sixth of the season. He went from a tie with two wrestlers to a tie with one, Bellefonte’s Ethan Rossman, for third in the county.
Shunk had just one major decision win on the season coming into the PIAAs. He dropped into the consolation bracket with a second-round loss, but opened his consolation run with consecutive major decisions. He held a scoring advantage of 21-2 in those wins.
Shunk finished the year with three along with eight other wrestlers, which included his teammate Malachi DuVall, who also got his third in the PIAA championships. DuVall used a 10-2 victory to reach the consolation quarterfinals at 138 pounds.
Falls
Penns Valley’s Abraham Allebach was able to hang on to the title of pin king of Centre County, but he has to share the throne.
St. Joseph’s Amonn Ohl, who led the county last season, picked up just one fall in the PIAA championships to tie Allebach with 27 pins on the season.
Urbas came up one pin shy of having a three-way tie at the top, but he sure made it close. He pinned his second-round opponent and then opened up his run to the third-place match with a fall in the consolations. The senior finished with 26 falls in 37 victories.
Stoltzfus finished fourth in the county with 22 falls as he was the only other county wrestler to pass the 20-pin mark. Richner joined a trio of other wrestlers that came up one fall shy of getting to 20.
Technical falls and fastest falls
A pair of Penns Valley wrestlers combined to lead the final two categories.
Shunk was just one of two county wrestlers to secure a technical fall during the PIAA championships. His was an 18-1 rout in a preliminary bout. It was his 15th of the year and the county’s highest mark.
Stoltzfus was the other wrestler to secure a 15-plus point victory. His was a 15-0 shutout to reach the third-place match at 160 pounds. Stoltzfus finished with four, which was a tie for seventh with Rothrock.
The Rams’ Andrew Sharer had an eight-second pin in the early stages of the season that ended up holding up throughout.
Wins
| Name | School | Total |
| 1. Kolby Franklin | St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy | 44 |
| 2. Caleb Dowling | St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy | 43 |
| 3. Tyler Stoltzfus | St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy | 42 |
| T4. Baylor Shunk | Penns Valley | 39 |
| T4. Keegan Rothrock | St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy | 39 |
| T6. Ethan Richner | Bellefonte | 37 |
| T6. Cole Urbas | State College | 37 |
| T8. Ethan Rossman | Bellefonte | 35 |
| T8. Amonn Ohl | St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy | 35 |
| T10. Abraham Allebach | Penns Valley | 34 |
| T10. Malachi DuVall | Penns Valley | 34 |
Falls
| Name | School | Total |
| T1. Abraham Allebach | Penns Valley | 27 |
| T1. Amonn Ohl | St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy | 27 |
| 3. Cole Urbas | State College | 26 |
| 4. Tyler Stoltzfus | St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy | 22 |
| T5. Cole Stewart | Bellefonte | 19 |
| T5. Ethan Richner | Bellefonte | 19 |
| T5. Dillon Covalt | Penns Valley | 19 |
| T5. Malachi DuVall | Penns Valley | 19 |
| T9. Keegan Rothrock | St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy | 18 |
| T9. Kolby Franklin | St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy | 18 |
| T10. 4 wrestlers | 16 |
Fastest Falls
| Name | School | Time |
| 1. Andrew Sharer | Penns Valley | :08 |
| T2. Drake Holderman | Bald Eagle Area | :09 |
| T2. Caleb Dowling | St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy | :09 |
| T2. Zach Rosenberger | St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy | :09 |
| 5. Kolby Franklin | St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy | :11 |
| T6. Drew Koleno | Bald Eagle Area | :13 |
| T6. Andrew Sharer | Penns Valley | :13 |
| 8. Zach Rosenberger | St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy | :14 |
| T9. Clayton Upcraft | Penns Valley | :16 |
| T9. Tyler Stoltzfus | St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy | :16 |
Technical Falls
| Name | School | Total |
| 1. Baylor Shunk | Penns Valley | 15 |
| 2. Caleb Dowling | St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy | 11 |
| 3. Zack Witmer | St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy | 10 |
| T4. Ethan Richner | Bellefonte | 9 |
| T4. Owen Woolcott | State College | 9 |
| 6. Lane Aikey | Bellefonte | 5 |
| T7. Keegan Rothrock | St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy | 4 |
| T7. Tyler Stoltzfus | St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy | 4 |
| 9. Clayton Royer | Penns Valley | 3 |
| T10. 11 wrestlers | 2 |
Major Decisions
| Name | School | Total |
| T1. Kolby Franklin | St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy | 11 |
| 2. Caleb Dowling | St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy | 9 |
| T3. Ethan Rossman | Bellefonte | 6 |
| T3. Zack Witmer | St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy | 6 |
| T5. Garrett Giedroc | Bald Eagle Area | 5 |
| T5. Aaron Little | Bellefonte | 5 |
| T7. David Close | Bald Eagle Area | 4 |
| T7. Lane Aikey | Bellefonte | 4 |
| T7. Clayton Royer | Penns Valley | 4 |
| T10. 9 wrestlers | 3 |
This story was originally published March 10, 2019 at 11:26 AM.
