Here are Centre County’s high school wrestling leaders through Jan. 5

All six county schools got back underway this weekend after the holiday break.

Penns Valley and Bald Eagle Area got things started with a dual on Thursday that was an instant classic. Then, the Rams headed to Meadville for the Tool City Tournament, with the Eagles hosting their annual BEA Duals.

Bellefonte and State College stayed close to home and went to Wingate to square off with BEA, Altoona, Hollidaysburg and Fauquier (Va.).

Philipsburg-Osceola hosted its 13th annual Mountaineer Classic on Saturday. St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy participated in the Line Mountain Dual Tournament on Saturday.

So much opportunity for county wrestlers meant plenty of movement in this week’s leaders — here’s a look.

Wins

Centre County has its first 20-win wrestler and it is leader Hayden Cunningham of State College.

The freshman claimed the overall lead last week and added four more victories during the Little Lions’ 4-0 day at the BEA Duals this week to keep it. Although his 20th win probably wasn’t the way Cunningham would’ve liked to get it — a forfeit against Fauquier (Va.) at the BEA Duals — he doesn’t have too large of a lead on the county.

Cunningham’s teammate Lance Urbas, Bellefonte’s Jude Swisher and Alex Coppolo are each one behind with 19. The trio had a perfect day at the BEA Duals for their respective teams with Swisher and Coppolo claiming five victories to Urbas’ four.

There are a pack of wrestlers who are two wins shy of getting 20 on the season. They are all tied for fourth in the county.

They include an Eagles’ pair of Coen Bainey and Gage McClenahan; the Red Raiders’ Ethan Richner, a Wolves’ duo of Caleb Dowling and Tyler Stoltzfus and State College’s Owen Woolcott.

Penns Valley’s Clayton Royer, who has 16 wins so far, recorded an historic victory over BEA’s Kevin Taylor on Thursday. Royer pinned Taylor for his 100th career victory. Accidentally missed in last week’s leaders, St. Joseph’s Keegan Rothrock, who has 12 wins, also earned career victory 100 during the Powerade Tournament two weeks ago.

There were a total of 18 county wrestlers from across all six schools to collect their 10th win this season over the weekend. They included:

BEA: David Close (14 wins, No. 10 was 8-0 win over Jersey Shore’s Lee Springman), Jeffre Pifer (11, No. 10 over State College’s Bailey Weaverling 7-6) and Noah Foltz (11, No. 10 over State College’s Harrison Hoopes 6-0)

Bellefonte: Stephen Ivicic (11, No. 10 pin of Altoona’s Connor Reimer in 5:17), Max Barrier (10, No. 10 over Springman 8-1) and Tyler Benner (10, No. 10 pin of Jersey Shore’s Colby McKibben in 1:23)

Penns Valley: Dristen Wolfe (11, No. 10 in consolation quarterfinals, 5-2, over Titusville’s Devin Patterson) and Justin Darlington (11, No. 10 in consolation semifinals, 5-2, over Williamsport’s Luke Segraves)

Philipsburg-Osceola: Chase Chapman (12, No. 10 pin of Johnsonburg’s Dalton Stahli in 2:14), Parker Moore (12, No. 10 a 6-4 ultimate tie breaker 2 win over Johnsonburg’s Cameron Marciniak), Hunter Weitoish (11, No. 10 pin of Danville’s Tyler Artley in 2:27) and Nick Coudriet (10, No. 10 pin of Danville’s Kyle Vandin Huevel in 29 seconds)

St. Joseph’s: Rothrock (12, No. 10 pin of Mount Union’s Jayce Reck in 1:40), Amonn Ohl (11, No. 10 pin of Line Mountain’s Mason Leshock in 29 seconds) and Zack Witmer (11, No. 10 pin of Line Mountain’s Max Bingaman in 24 seconds)

State College: Harrison Schoen (13, No. 10 pin of Bellefonte’s Tyler Putnam in 3:22), Tate McLaughlin (12, No. 10 pin of Jersey Shore’s Ryan Kershner in 3:23) and Harrison Hoopes (11, No. 10 pin of Bellefonte’s Alec Bossert in 2:36)

Falls

DuVall still has yet to relinquish the lead of this one after going on a tear to begin the season. He continued his pinning ways this weekend on way to the 152-pound Tool City title.

He began his tournament as the No. 1 seed with a fall and then stuck Olean’s Gavin Kulp in 56 seconds to reach the finals. DuVall has 13 on the year, which is one ahead of Richner.

The Bellefonte junior collected three falls during the Red Raiders’ 4-1 day at the BEA Duals. Part of those three falls was his 10th, which was a win over State College’s Noah Prewitt in 3:50.

McClenahan and Swisher each have 11 this year and each went 5-for-5 in the BEA Duals to make it onto the leaderboard. McClenahan had the fastest pin of the two for their 10th falls of the year. His came in 33 seconds over State College’s Ben Stroschein. Swisher’s 10th pin came over Hollidaysburg’s Dan Turiano in 2:20.

Bainey, Rossman and Woolcott were also able to earn their 10th pins of the season this week too. Bainey topped Altoona’s Eli Winsor in 26 seconds. Rossman stuck Hollidaysburg’s Jesse Weir in 29 seconds. Woolcott took 36 seconds to pin Fauquier’s (Va.) Hunter Brown.

Fastest Falls

Four new times were added this week, with Dowling taking over the top spot.

Dowling got a 7-seconds pin of Bloomsburg’s Jesse James to dethrone Bellefonte’s Tyler Benner from the top. Dowling has his name on the the list three times after adding a 15-seconds pin of Northern Lehigh’s Dylan Smoyer. He holds the first, fifth and sixth fastest times.

Benner’s teammate in Ivicic added his second fastest-fall time to the board. His 11-seconds win over Hollidaysburg’s Devon Datres is the third quickest on the year.

Stoltzfus added his name to this list for the first time this season. His 12-seconds pin of Northern Lehigh’s Dustin Greene is good for fourth.

Major decisions

Chapman’s lead at the top with four such victories lasted just one week as Urbas added his fourth major decision this week.

The State College junior topped Fauquier’s David DeWald 12-1 for that win.

The Eagles’ Zander Ballock and David Close and State College’s Carter Weaverling each earned their first two major decisions this week to climb onto the leaderboard.

Ballock topped Penns Valley’s Micah Fetterolf in the dual 9-0 and beat Hollidaysburg’s Nicklas Eppiheimer 15-3 in the BEA Duals. Close had an 8-0 win over Springman and a 13-4 over Fauquier’s (Va.) Casey Burr. Weaverling beat Ballock’s teammate Grace Stem 19-5 and Jersey Shore’s Gabe Andrus 12-0 during the BEA Duals.

There were five wrestlers in the Eagles’ Noah Foltz, the Rams’ Royer, and State College’s trio of Clayton Leidy, Eric Weaver and Cunningham that broke away from a pack of wrestlers with one major decision to a pack of wrestlers with two major decisions.

Technical Falls

The top two remained the same in Royer and Dowling. They each earned 16-0 victories to claim their fifth technical falls of the season.

Royer’s came in the second round of the Tool City tournament over Cochranton’s Willis Morrell in 3:08. Dowling’s came over Line Mountain’s Bryce Carl in 2:31.

Richner collected his second and third technical falls during the BEA Duals. He outscored his two opponents with identical 17-2 marks over Altoona’s Adam Zerbee and Hollidaysburg’s Campbell Walls.

Urbas earned his first two technical falls of the season this week by outscoring Ivicic and Jersey Shore’s Jonathan Smith 36-5.

Wins

Falls

Fastest Fall

Technical Falls

Major Decisions

This story was originally published January 5, 2020 at 4:13 PM.

Nate Cobler

Centre Daily Times

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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.