Here are Centre County’s high school wrestling leaders through Dec. 29

With school out for the Christmas break, there wasn’t a whole lot of opportunity to make movement in the weekly high school wrestling rankings.

Penns Valley was the lone school not to compete during the break. St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy competed in the illustrious Powerade Tournament out in Pittsburgh.

State College finished second as a team — a mere three points from the win — at the Governor Mifflin Holiday Classic. Bald Eagle Area had a sixth-place finish as a team in the Trojan Wars at Chambersburg High School.

Bellefonte and Philipsburg-Osceola each competed in the Conestoga Valley Holiday Classic that finished up on Sunday. The Red Raiders finished third and were six points out of second place. The Mounties also finished in the top 10 at ninth.

Here’s a look at who made movement this week as the Rams’ wrestlers stayed put.

Wins

It didn’t take long for a new Centre County wrestler to take over the top spot in this category. One might not have expected that leader to be a freshman, but it is in State College’s Hayden Cunningham.

Cunningham, who is the son of Penn State wrestling assistant coach Casey Cunningham, pinned his way to the 106-pound title at the Governor Mifflin tournament. He wrestled a total of 3 minutes, 24 seconds to collect four victories and now has 16 on the season.

Cunningham has a pair of teammates in Lance Urbas and Eric Weaver who are one win behind. Urbas and Weaver each amassed four victories with Urbas claiming a 170-pound title. Weaver finished third at 120 pounds.

Bellefonte’s Alex Coppolo and Jude Swisher each have 14 wins a piece this year, which leads the Red Raiders. However, they aren’t alone as the Wolves’ Tyler Stoltzfus and the Little Lions’ Owen Woolcott join them. Stoltzfus and Woolcott also claimed titles this weekend, too.

Stoltzfus earned the 170-pound title at the Powerade Tournament with Woolcott claiming the 132-pound crown at Governor Mifflin.

Another freshman in Bald Eagle Area’s Coen Bainey leaped into the top 10 this week as he now has 13 victories on the season. Bainey finished third at the Trojan Wars at 106 pounds and leads the Eagles. He is joined by Bellefonte’s Ethan Richner and St. Joseph’s Caleb Dowling. Richner suffered his first loss of the season in the 160-pound finals at Conestoga Valley.

Bainey, Coppolo, Dowling and Stoltzfus each collected their 10th win of the season along with seven other county wrestlers. Those other wrestlers include: BEA’s Gage McClenahan and Cooper Gilham; Red Raiders’ trio of Lane Aikey, Aidan O’Shea and Ethan Rossman; and State College duo of Clayton Leidy and Carter Weaverling.

Pins

It came as no surprise that Cunningham made the largest leap in this category after collecting four pins this weekend.

He is now one behind leader in Penns Valley’s Malachi DuVall, who has 11 on the season. Cunningham’s 10th fall was in the finals at Conestoga Valley. It was his second fastest on the day in 44 seconds over Hempfield’s Braden Edwards.

Richner is in third by himself with nine pins on the season. He used two falls to reach the semifinals at Conestoga Valley.

Bald Eagle Area’s Drew Koleno was one of five county wrestlers to collect three pins this weekend. He now has eight on the year and is tied with Bainey and Woolcott for fourth most in the county. Woolcott used his three to make the finals at Governor Mifflin.

Rossman claimed the 182-pound title at Conestoga Valley thanks to a pin. He had three in the tournament along with teammate Stephen Ivicic. The duo has seven on the season along with Urbas and Weaver.

State College’s Harrison Schoen was the last of those five athletes to have three pins this weekend. He sits just outside the top 10 along with four others that have six on the year.

Major decisions

There is a new leader this week in this category, and it is Philipsburg-Osceola’s Chase Chapman.

The state qualifier ended his Conestoga Valley tournament with a fifth-place finish at 138 pounds. Chapman collected two major decisions, one to reach the consolation semifinals and the other claimed him that fifth-place finish. He outscored his opponents 27-6.

Chapman has four on the year now, which is one more than last week’s leader in Gilham. Urbas had a 17-4 win over Conestoga’s Ezra Toll in the quarterfinals to join Gilham with three major decisions on the year.

Chapman’s teammate Parker Moore, along with Coppolo and Rossman were able to break out of the pack of wrestlers who had one major decision as each earned their second this weekend. Moore began his Conestoga Valley tournament with a 13-3 win over Huntingdon’s Zack Peck to make the 195-pound quarterfinals.

Coppolo topped the Mounties’ Gabe Dunkelberger 15-3 to claim third-place at Conestoga Valley. It was the second time the pair faced off in the tournament with Dunkelberger beating Coppolo the first time.

Rossman’s 11-0 win over Northern York’s Eddie Wells helped him reach the semifinals. It was the lone win that wasn’t a pin for the junior.

Fastest Falls & Technical Falls

When it comes to making the top 10 in the fastest falls list, wrestlers will have to beat their opponents in under 26 seconds.

There were three new times added this week with two coming in the top five.

Dowling picked up a 17-seconds victory over Ashby’s (Va.) CJ Haskins in the second round of the Powerade Tournament at 152 pounds. It is the second fastest time on the year

McClenahan got his name on the list for a second time. His 19-seconds pin of Spring Grove’s Brady Pitzer in the quarterfinals is good for fourth on the list. McClenahan also has the fifth fastest time.

Cunningham’s fastest pin of his four on the weekend came in the semifinals. It was a 21-seconds victory over Upper Perkiomen’s Matt Milkowich.

No changes really occurred on the technical falls front other than Lane Aikey collecting his second of the season to break away from a pack that has one on the year. Aikey’s was a 16-0 win over Northern York’s Liam Goodrich in the second round.

Moore earned his first technical fall of the season 21-4 over Owen J. Roberts’ Francis McCoy to make the consolation finals.

Wins

Falls

Fastest Fall

Technical Falls

Major Decisions

This story was originally published December 29, 2019 at 6:14 PM.

Nate Cobler

Centre Daily Times

814-231-4609

Nate Cobler is a part-time reporter covering all things wrestling, either Penn State or Centre County’s high schools, for the Centre Daily Times. He’ll also cover other sports too. When he isn’t writing about sports, he is working for a local mortgage broker, Providence Mortgage Group.