16 Centre County wrestlers secure Southwest Regional spots by reaching District 6 Class 2A semifinals
As the dust settled on the first day of the District 6 Class 2A wrestling championships on Friday, 16 Centre County wrestlers had already qualified for next week’s PIAA Southwest Regional tournament.
Bald Eagle Area had four semifinalists, Penns Valley three, Philipsburg-Osceola four and St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy five who will be making the trip to Indiana University of Pennsylvania next weekend.
The Eagles, Rams and Mounties all sit in the top five of the team race. BEA is in second with 95 points, which is one behind the leader in Westmont Hilltop.
Philipsburg-Osceola is fourth with 89 points. Penns Valley is fifth with 85.5 points. Glendale’s 91.5 points is good for third to round out the top five.
The Wolves sit just outside the top 10 in 11th with 57 points. However, their five semifinalists is tied for second most with Glendale and Forest Hills. The Hilltoppers have the most with six semifinalists.
Here’s a look at how each of Centre County’s teams sit after day one:
Bald Eagle Area
Semifinalists: Coen Bainey (106 pounds), Cooper Gilham (120), Gage McClenahan (145) and David Close (220)
Others alive: Jeffre Pifer (113), Grace Stem (126), Zander Ballock (138), Drew Koleno (152), Noah Foltz (160), Brady Proctor (182), Chandler Burns (195)
Eliminated: Isaac Packer (2-2, 132), Matthew Knepp (0-2, 170)
Team score: 2nd, 95 points
Recap: Of the four semifinalists for the Eagles, Bainey had the easiest route. Bainey, who is 10 wins away from tying the freshman win mark set by Quentin Wright with 39, had to compete in just one match.
The worst part about it, his match didn’t come until about 6 p.m. Friday, after having been at the Altoona Fieldhouse since 9 a.m.
“We were joking with him, Are you going to wrestle today? Maybe you should’ve just stayed home,” BEA coach Ron Guenot said with a laugh. “It’s out of our control. A kid scratched yesterday, but he did what he had do with his one match he wrestled today.”
Bainey wasn’t on the mat long either. He pinned West Branch’s Kaleb Sallurday in 59 seconds.
Close and McClenahan each recorded bonus points in their victories. Close pinned both of his two opponents in a combined time of 1:35. McClenahan opened with a fall in 47 seconds, and reached the semifinals with a 21-6 technical fall in 4:43.
Gilham, like McClenahan, opened with a fall in 1:06. In the quarterfinals against Richland’s Austin Syfert, Gilham got frustrated by not being able to open up his offense, but still came away with a 7-1 win.
“It’s a good feeling. We know that’s not our goal,” Guenot said of having four regional qualifiers already. “Our goal is to have a few more than that. We can do that. It’s nice for those guys to already have their trip locked in. They have higher expectations other than being in the top six right now.”
The seven consolation wrestlers the Eagles have is the second-highest in the tournament, behind P-O’s eight. Proctor, Ballock and Burns have had the most action in the consolations with each picking up two wins.
It’s those seven wrestlers that Guenot knows play a key role in trying to claim a team crown.
“We told the kids that this tournament is going to be won in the consolations,” he said. “Tomorrow is just another day. We preached the importance of winning in the consolations. For the most part, that’s what we did today.”
Stem was one of two female wrestlers competing in the championships, along with Penn Cambria’s Alayna Gil, who competed at 113 pounds. Gil was eliminated after a controversial call sent her match to sudden victory, where she ultimately fell.
Stem was able to stay alive after dropping her Round of 16 match. She opened the consolations with a 7-2 defeat of Claysburg-Kimmel’s Hunter Knisely.
“It’s exciting every time she wins. It gets the crowd into it,” Guenot said. “It’s a lot of fun. That’s not going to be the last match she wins, with her only being a sophomore.”
Penns Valley
Semifinalists: Clayton Royer (138), Malachi DuVall (152), Andrew Sharer (182)
Others alive: Chase Fleshman (106), Justin Darlington (113), Nate Long (126), Micah Fetterolf (145), Cole Felker (160), Dristen Wolfe (170), Rylee Brungart (220)
Eliminated: Malachi Thompson (2-2, 132), Caelob Packer (2-2, 195)
Team score: 5th, 85.5 points
Recap: Rams coach Joel Brinker loved the way his team came into the district championships by winning four of their last five duals. It showed on Friday.
Penns Valley had six wrestlers make the quarterfinals in Royer, DuVall, Sharer, Long, Brungart and Wolfe. They nearly had a seventh in Felker, who came up just shy from knocking off the No. 3 seed at his weight class.
Yes, only three pushed through to the semifinals, but Brinker was still happy with the performance.
“It was a very good day. It’s a tough tournament,” he said. “These guys wrestled hard. They want to keep doing the best they can. Those three guys in the semis have been consistent all year. I’m excited to see what they do next round.”
Royer, DuVall and Sharer all scored bonus points. DuVall and Sharer each had two pins as Royer had a pin and technical fall.
Royer is set up for an all-county semifinal with the Mounties’ Chase Chapman, who Royer just beat two weeks ago in their dual. For Brinker, he knows he doesn’t have to say anything to Royer about the matchup.
“He knows what to do. It’s going to be business to him,” Brinker said.
As much of a surprise that Felker was as a No. 15-seeded wrestler, nearly knocking off the No. 3 seed, Packer and Brungart were equally as stout.
Brungart is the 13-seed at his weight class. He opened his day by pinning the No. 4 seed in Blairsville’s Gabriel Kennedy-Citeroni in 40 seconds to make the quarterfinals. He lost to P-O’s Tyler Anderson in the quarterfinals.
Packer, who was 5-15 entering the tournament, pinned his first round opponent in 3:33. He was faced with taking on the top seed in Westmont Hilltop’s Tanner Dluhos, who pinned Packer. Packer bounced into the consolations, where he won his first match 5-0, but was then eliminated.
However, Packer and Brungart each looked like more confident wrestlers.
“Packer has only been wrestling a couple of years. He has come a long way,” Brinker said. “I know this year was frustrating for him at times, but you seen him improve as the year went on. He would tell you he wishes he would’ve started in first or second grade. He loves it.
“Brungart pinning the fourth seed was exciting. As the year went on, he was always improving too. We get him back. He’ll keep getting better.”
Philipsburg-Osceola
Semifinalists: Chase Chapman (138), Hunter Weitoish (160), Parker Moore (195), Tyler Anderson (220)
Others alive: Nick Coudriet (113), Nick Bryan (120), Scott Frantz (126), Gabe Dunkelberger (132), Austin Foster (145), Alex Dunkelberger (152), Dom Shaw (170), Chase Klinger (285)
Eliminated: None.
Team score: 4th, 89 points
Recap: Mounties’ coach Brad Pataky had a slight sparkle in his eye after watching what his team accomplished on Friday.
P-O entered 12 wrestlers into the District 6 championships. All 12 still remain alive for the second day.
“They came with a fighting spirit today. I’m extremely proud of every single one of them,” Pataky said. “I don’t know when the last time that Philipsburg had everyone that was in the tournament make it to day two. It’s a testament to their effort and belief in themselves.”
All four of the Mounties’ semifinalists scored bonus points. Chapman had back-to-back major decisions. Weitoish, Moore and Anderson pinned their way. Moore spent the least amount of time on the mat, going just under six minutes.
Anderson has been like an assassin. He’s not the flashy wrestler and some may not even know who he is if they aren’t part of the Philipsburg community.
Last year, he had to wrestle his way back through the consolations to reach the regional tournament. This year, it’s like he knew what had to be done and was determined to not go down the same path as last season.
“I think him being at the district tournament last year gave him that experience that you can’t really understand until you’ve been there before,” Pataky said. “I think that gave him something to chew. He knew coming into the tournament what to expect with the environment.”
On paper, Pataky and his staff believed that coming into Friday’s wrestling that his squad could’ve had six semifinalists after wrestling was completed. They only got four, but Pataky feels if his wrestlers continue to believe in themselves, they can get to that six or more mark.
“It goes back to the attitude and the effort that we preach every day,” he said. “The past few matches we had guys understand what it means to trust the process.”
St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy
Semifinalists: Amonn Ohl (132), Zack Witmer (138), Caleb Dowling (152), Keegan Rothrock (160) and Tyler Stoltzfus (170)
Others alive: None
Eliminated: Mike LaVallee (0-2, 145)
Team score: 11th, 57 points
Recap: The Wolves are in an unusual spot when it comes to the district tournament. After all, they are the defending team champions, but in the past several seasons they’ve been in the top five in the team race after the first day.
They sit at 11th after the first day, but their five semifinalists can help them leap up the leaderboard rather quickly.
“Overall, I think we did what we needed to do. The other teams have come to wrestle,” St. Joseph’s coach Pat Flynn said. “I was really impressed with a lot of the other teams today. The semifinals are going to be tough. We’ve got five to regionals, so we want to climb the podium as best we can. We just got to make sure we make weight right tomorrow and wrestle hard.”
Four of the five semifinalists for the Wolves are the top seed in their weight class. Ohl, who isn’t No. 1, is No. 2, so it’s no surprise to see those five where they are at.
Ohl had a historic start to his tournament by earning his 100th career win when he pinned Penn Cambria’s Austin Link in 20 seconds. He made it to the semis with a 12-4 major decision over Ligonier Valley’s Ryan Harbert.
Witmer and Dowling each had a pin and technical fall in that order to reach the semifinals. Rothrock began the day with a fall in 2:46. However, he was slowed down in the quarterfinals coming away with just a 4-0 win over Ligonier Valley’s Kyrie Miller.
“We got a lot of bonus. Keegan dominated the match,” Flynn said. “It was 4-0, but it (felt) more like 14-0 almost. He rode him out one minute and a half each period. Keegan wants to score points, but the guy was holding his arm and stuff, but it is what it is.”
Stoltzfus only had one match, but made the most of it by earning a fall in 5:23.
St. Joseph’s had six guys entered and LaVallee was that sixth wrestler. He came into the tournament with just two wins, but what can one expect for a guy that has only wrestled for 18 months?
LaVallee nearly came up with his third win of the season to remain alive in his senior campaign, but excitement may have gotten the best of him. Again, what can be expected from such a raw wrestler?
“It gives me goosebumps. Mikey started wrestling last September,” Flynn said. “He’s probably in one of the hardest weight classes in the hardest state. He gave us his all from September last year to today. He had a guy tilted and had him going over, but he was so fired up to do it, he just flipped over and ended up on the losing end there. I’ll take 100 Mikeys. He’s a great kid.”
District 6 Class 2A Championships
Friday at Altoona
Team key: Bald Eagle Area (BEA), Bellwood-Antis (BA), Bishop McCort (BM), Blairsville (B), Cambria Heights (CH), Central Cambria (CC), Central (C), Claysburg-Kimmel (CK), Forest Hills (FH), Glendale (G), Huntingdon (H), Juniata Valley (JV), Ligonier Valley (LV), Marion Center (MC), Moshannon Valley (MV), Mount Union (MU), Penn Cambria (PC), Penns Valley (PV), Philipsburg-Osceola (P-O), Richland (R), St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy (SJ), Southern Huntingdon (SH), Tyrone (T), United (U), West Branch (WB), Westmont Hilltop (WH)
Team scores: 1. Westmont Hilltop 96, 2. Bald Eagle Area 95, 3. Glendale 91.5, 4. Philipsburg-Osceola 89, 5. Penns Valley 85.5, T6. Forest Hills 81, T6. Huntingdon 81, 8. Tyrone 66, 9. Richland 60, 10. Marion Center 58.5, 11. St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy 57
Quarterfinals
106: Coen Bainey, BEA, pinned Kaleb Sallurday, WB, :59; 113: Zeke Dubler, G, tech. fall Jeffre Pifer, BEA, 20-1 (4:50); Easton Toth, FH, major dec. Nick Coudriet, P-O, 8-0; 120: Cooper Gilham, BEA, dec. Austin Syfert, R, 7-1; 126: Suds Dubler, G, major dec. Nate Long, PV, 11-0; 132: Brock McMillen, G, major dec. Gabe Dunkelberger, PV, 14-1; Amonn Ohl, SJ, major dec. Ryan Harbert, LV, 12-4; 138: Zack Witmer, SJ, tech. fall Cade Keithley, CK, 15-0 (5:25); Chase Chapman, P-O, major dec. Dustin Flinn, FH, 11-2; Clayton Royer, PV, tech. fall Adam McCullough, CC, 17-2 (5:46); 145: Cooper Warshel, R, major dec. Austin Foster, P-O, 11-1; Gage McClenahan, BEA, tech. fall Jalen Kovac, CH, 21-6 (4:43); 152: Caleb Dowling, SJ, tech. fall Wyatt Campbell, SH, 16-0 (2:17); Malachi DuVall, PV, pinned Drew Koleno, BEA, 2:58; 160: Keegan Rothrock, SJ, dec. Kyrie Miller, LV, 4-0; Hunter Weitoish, P-O, pinned Noah Foltz, BEA, 5:41; 170: Tyler Stoltzfus, SJ, pinned Gage Peters, H, 5:23; Zach Weakland, CH, dec. Dristen Wolfe, PV, 7-1; 182: Andrew Sharer, PV, pinned Ethan Yingling, WB, 3:05; 195: Parker Moore, P-O, pinned Clayton Arnold, MU, 5:27; 220: Tyler Anderson, P-O, pinned Rylee Brungart, PV, 5:28; David Close, BEA, pinned Nate Jennings, BA, 1:03; 285: Evan Pellegrine, BA, pinned Chase Klinger, P-O, :19.
Consolation Third Round
113: Justin Darlington, PV, dec. Eden Wagner, H, 8-2; 120: Nick Bryan, P-O, pinned Cole Hicks, SH, :49; 126: Grace Stem, BEA, dec. Hunter Knisely, CK, 7-2; Scott Frantz, P-O, pinned Caden Scott, SH, 4:58; 132: Morgan McDivitt, H, dec. Malachi Thompson, PV, 9-5; Mitchell Dishong, U, dec. Isaac Packer, BEA, 5-0; 138: Zander Ballock, BEA, dec. Josh Joseph, U, 7-0; 145: Micah Fetterolf, PV, pinned Dominick Maloney, T, 3:22; 152: Alex Dunkelberger, P-O, pinned Levi Brown, CK, 1:37; 160: Cole Felker, PV, pinned Niko Smeal, MV, 4:14; 170: Isaac Watson, JV, dec. Matthew Knepp, BEA, 10-7; 182: Brady Proctor, BEA, dec. Ben Carolus, JV, 5-1; 195: Chandler Burns, BEA, dec. Luke Hribar, FH, 6-3; Ethan Eicher, C, pinned Caelob Packer, PV, 2:31.
Consolation Second Round
132: Thompson, PV, pinned Sebastian Blauser, B, 1:14; Packer, BEA, pinned Luke Knisely, C, 2:03; 138: Ballock, BEA, pinned Michael Miller, JV, :43; 145: Khorter Drury, LV, pinned Mike LaVallee, SJ, 1:59; Fetterolf, PV, pinned Samuel Wagner, JV, 1:56; 152: Dunkelberger, P-O, pinned Jermaine Myers, T, 3:43; 182: Proctor, BEA, pinned Kalvin Pringle, R, :31; 195: Burns, BEA, pinned Billy Gaston, MC, 2:12; Packer, PV, dec. Nick Lewis, T, 5-0
Round of 16
106: Kaleb Sallurday, WB, dec. Chase Fleshman, PV, 8-3; 113: Pifer, BEA, pinned Tyler Biesinger, C, 1:30; Coudriet, P-O, pinned James Brown, LV, 1;24; Zach Brandis, CC, dec. Darlington, PV, 3-2; 120: Gilham, BEA, pinned Mason St. Clair, G, 1:04; Ashton Sipes, T, major dec. Bryan, P-O, 14-4; 126: Caden Reamer, H, dec. Frantz, P-O, 7-1; Gavin Stewart, MC, pinned Stem, BEA, :40; Long, PV, pinned Brandt Patterson, PC, 2:45; 132: G. Dunkelberger, P-O, major dec. Alex Richner, MV, 10-2; Hunter Armstrong, MC, pinned Packer, BEA, 1:40; Noah Teeter, FH, pinned Thompson, PV, :36; Ohl, SJ, pinned Austin Link, PC, :20; 138: Witmer, SJ, pinned Tyler Hess, C, :24; Chapman, P-O, major dec. John Myers, WB, 11-3; Adam McCullough, CC, major dec. Ballock, BEA, 11-2; Royer, PV, pinned Joseph, U, 1:11; 145: Tristan Rutter, G, pinned Fetterolf, PV, 1:54; Foster, P-O, pinned Aaron Myers, WB, 4:56; McClenahan, BEA, pinned Calvin Rombaugh, MC, :47; 152: Dowling, SJ, pinned Ty Stockley, CC, :45; Aiden Taylor, BA, pinned A. Dunkelberger, P-O, 4:32; Koleno, BEA, pinned Baine Seilhamer, G, 3:51; DuVall, PV, pinned Aiden Cattau, MC, 1:09; 160: Rothrock, SJ, pinned Hayes Jones, WB, 2:48; Ethan Marcozzi, BM, dec. Felker, PV, 6-4; Foltz, BEA, pinned Michael Vasbinder, FH, 2:30; Weitoish, P-O, pinned Brayden DiPaola, R, 3:58; 170: Gage Peters, H, tech. fall Shaw, P-O, 21-3 (5:40); Alex Weaver, T, pinned Knepp, BEA, 2:37; Wolfe, PV, major dec. Felice Panebianco, WH, 15-1; 182: Sharer, PV, pinned Zach Cunningham, BA, 1:57; Ian Eckenrode, CH, pinned Proctor, BEA, 3:45; 195: Tanner Dluhos, WH, pinned Packer, PV, 1:09; Zack Peck, H, dec. Burns, BEA, 7-1; Moore, P-O, pinned Killian McWhorter, LV, :32; 220: Anderson, P-O, pinned Dalton Gable, FH, 1:30; Brungart, PV, pinned Gabriel Kennedy-Citeroni, B, :40; Close, BEA, pinned Talon Wilson, JV, :31; 285: Klinger, P-O, pinned Mike Dawson, CC, 3:37
Round of 32
132: Packer, BEA, pinned Blauser, B, :57; Thompson, PV, pinned Luke Knisely, C, 1:30; 145: Ballock, BEA, pinned Gavin Frazell, T, 1:05; Dominick Maloney, T, pinned LaVallee, 3:09; 152: A. Dunkelberger, P-O, pinned Darius Shaw, BM, 5:17; Koleno, BEA, pinned Aaron Domanick, MV, 1:11; 160: Felker, PV, pinned Jordan Snyder, T, 2:55; 182: Proctor, BEA, tech. fall Mason Bell, B, 17-2 (4:07); 195: Packer, PV, pinned Kaileb Ghezzy, R, 3:33
This story was originally published February 15, 2020 at 12:09 AM.
