Here are Centre County’s high school wrestling leaders through Jan. 12

The high school wrestling season has just about a month left in the regular season.

Action was rather light for most teams Centre County this past week. Bellefonte took part in the illustrious Virginia Duals and St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy competed in the Juniata Duals. With those tournaments, each school had five duals this week, so it was no surprise to see Red Raiders’ and Wolves’ wrestlers making moves.

Some of the county’s schools only had one dual this week.

Here’s a look at what changes occurred this week.

Wins

A week ago, the county had just one 20-plus win wrestler. This week, there are 10 with a few others just outside of that 20-plus win mark.

There is also a new leader, well, a quintet of leaders. Three from Bellefonte and two from St. Joseph’s.

The Red Raiders’ Ethan Richner and the Wolves’ Caleb Dowling and Tyler Stoltzfus each had a perfect week going 5-0 and are up to 23 victories on the season.

They are tied with Richner’s teammates in Alex Coppolo and Jude Swisher, who each were 4-1 on the week.

Bellefonte’s Ethan Rossman and Aidan O’Shea were also undefeated for the week. Rossman has 22 wins on the season to sit one behind the leaders. O’Shea is one behind Rossman.

However, O’Shea isn’t alone at seventh with 21 victories, joining him is last week’s leader in State College’s Hayden Cunningham.

Bald Eagle Area’s Coen Bainey and the Little Lions’ Lance Urbas round out the top 10 as each picked up win No. 20 this week.

Here’s how Bainey, Urbas and the others in the top 10 earned their 20th wins:

Bald Eagle Area: Bainey bumped up to 113 pounds during the Eagles’ win over Philipsburg-Osceola on Thursday. He topped the Mounties’ Nick Coudriet 5-0.

Bellefonte: Coppolo, Richner, Swisher and Rossman all pinned their opponents. Coppolo and Swisher were first earning their 20th on Tuesday against Penns Valley. Richner’s came in the first round of the Virginia Duals against First Colonial (Va.). Rossman’s was in the quarterfinals against Chantilly (Va.). O’Shea had a major decision in the semifinals over St. Mary’s Ryken (Md.)

St. Joseph’s: Dowling and Stoltzfus received forfeits against Glendale.

State College: Urbas had a technical fall against Central Dauphin on Thursday.

Here’s who collected win No. 10 this week:

Bald Eagle Area: Zander Ballock had a decision against P-O.

Bellefonte: Nate Smith had a major decision over Chantilly (Va.).

Philipsburg-Osceola: Gabe Dunkelberger had a fall against BEA on Thursday.

Falls

Remember how Richner was 5-0 this week? Well, all five wins were pins. Those five pins helped propel him to the lead with 17 on the year. Only six of his 23 wins haven’t been pins.

Richner’s quickest of the five came on Tuesday over the Rams’ Charles Martin in 41 seconds. Richner holds a comfortable three-pin lead over Swisher and Penns Valley’s Malachi DuVall.

Swisher had three falls in his four victories this week. He had two in the Virginia Duals to go along with the one he had against Penns Valley on Tuesday.

DuVall only had one opportunity to wrestle this week, and it was a fall over Bellefonte’s Alec Bossert.

O’Shea had four pins in his five victories this week to jump onto the leaderboard with 12 total. He is tied with Bald Eagle Area’s Gage McClenahan and Rossman for fourth. O’Shea had three in the Virginia Duals alone. Meanwhile, McClenahan and Rossman each only had one pin this week.

A pair of St. Joseph’s wrestlers in Amonn Ohl and Keegan Rothrock appeared in the top 10 for the first time this year. Ohl has led the county in this category for the past two years. Each collected pin No. 10 this past week and are tied with Bainey and State College’s Owen Woolcott.

Those earning their 10th fall of season include:

Bellefonte: Coppolo and O’Shea got their pins in the same dual against First Colonial (Va.) Coppolo was just quicker getting his in 3:44 compared to O’Shea’s 4:00.

St. Joseph’s: Ohl and Rothrock got their pins against West Branch on Saturday in the Juniata Duals. Ohl earned his win in 14 seconds as Rothrock took 21 seconds.

Fastest falls

There were three new times added this week thanks to Wolves’ wrestlers. Also, in order to get into the top 10 of this one, county wrestlers will have to end their match quicker than 18 seconds.

Dowling has been an animal this year. He has the quickest time (seven seconds), now he holds the two fastest fall times. He topped Hughesville’s Simon Bennage in eight seconds on Saturday.

Dowling has four of the top 10 fastest falls this season.

Ohl as previously mentioned had a 14-seconds fall against West Branch, which is seventh fastest. Ohl added a second time this week too. He topped his Juniata opponent in 11 seconds.

Ohl is tied with Bellefonte’s Stephen Ivicic for fourth quickest.

Technical falls & Major decisions

Penns Valley’s Clayton Royer was able to pull ahead of Dowling by earning his technical fall victory of the season. The pair shared the lead last week.

Royer topped Bellefonte’s Brady Martin 16-0 on Tuesday in 3:55.

Urbas and St. Joseph’s Zack Witmer went from a tie for sixth to a tie for third by collecting their third technical falls of the year. Urbas had a 16-1 victory over Central Dauphin on Thursday. Witmer earned a 15-0 win against Hughesville on Saturday in 3:05.

The Mounties’ Chase Chapman broke from the pack of wrestlers with one technical fall into a group of wrestlers that has two. He had a 15-0 win against Trinity on Saturday in the Husky Duals.

Chapman reclaimed the top spot in major decisions after sharing it a week ago with Urbas. Chapman’s 16-4 win against Conestoga Valley gave him his fifth major decision of the season.

Bellefonte’s Nate Smith had two major decisions this week to leapfrog into the top 10. He outscored his opponents 32-11 in the first two rounds of the Virginia Duals. He is tied with a pile of wrestlers who have two on the season, including O’Shea, who picked up his second major decision in the Virginia Duals.

Wins

Falls

Fastest Fall

Technical Falls

Major Decisions

This story was originally published January 12, 2020 at 3:39 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.