Bellefonte, State College wrestlers ready to get postseason underway
As some of Centre County’s wrestling programs got to start their postseason a week ago, Bellefonte and State College had to patiently wait their turns.
They’ll get their turns Saturday at the District 6 Class 3A Championships at Altoona’s Fieldhouse.
With Bellefonte and State College both coming off successful regular seasons, six county wrestlers received the top seeds in their respective weight classes when the brackets were released Tuesday. Those wrestlers were Bellefonte’s Lane Aikey (120 pounds), Jude Swisher (126), Ethan Richner (160) and Ethan Rossman (182), and State College’s Clayton Leidy (138) and Ty Price (195).
In all, Centre County has 12 wrestlers in the top two of their weight class. If the seeds hold true, there will be just one weight class where it could be an all-county final, at 120 pounds.
Here’s how the Red Raiders and Little Lions are set up for the district portion of the postseason:
Bellefonte
Seeds: Garrett Choates (7th, 106 pounds), Aidan O’Shea (2nd, 113), Lane Aikey (1st, 120), Jude Swisher (1st, 126), Alex Coppolo (3rd, 132), Brady Martin (5th, 138), Alec Bossert (5th, 145), Andrew McChesney (6th, 152), Ethan Richner (1st, 160), Stephen Ivicic (4th, 170), Ethan Rossman (1st, 182), Tyler Benner (4th, 195), Max Barrier (2nd, 220) and Tyler Putnam (6th, 285)
Outlook: It’s been more than 60 years since the Red Raiders have won a District 6 Class 3A individual team tournament title.
Coach Mike Maney knows it’s going to take a full team effort in order to change that this year. Ideally, he said, all 14 of his wrestlers will advance to the PIAA Northwest Regional tournament.
“It seems like every year it’s a little thing,” he said. “Last year, we peaked really well and wrestled well, but a few things here and there were the difference. Really, it’s going to be all 14 guys believing they can compete and score points.”
For a moment, there was fear that Bellefonte wouldn’t be at full strength for districts, when Richner suffered a knee injury in the district team duals three weeks ago. However, it appears that the long layoff has helped the junior returning PIAA placewinner, as he plans to wrestle the full tournament.
“He’s going to go for it. I think he is as healthy as he is going to be at this point in the season,” Maney said. “He’s been practicing well. I think he is excited to get back on the mat. Hopefully, he will get back on the podium at states, but we are excited to see him compete this weekend.”
While the plan is for Richner to wrestle the whole way through, Maney is hoping to get him on and off the mat as soon as possible, to limit the possibility of aggravating the injury.
Injuries aside, Maney has one clear message for his team heading into the tournament.
“Be excited,” he said. “I think we have a good group here that is ready to compete, and wrestle with a lot of enthusiasm and excitement. I think if we do that, it will be a pretty exciting team race with the four top teams that were at the duals a few weeks ago.”
The Red Raiders are returning an experienced group to districts. In addition to Richner, Bellefonte has three other returning state qualifiers in Rossman and Aikey, as well as Swisher, who made states for State College last season.
Maney is confident those four can make it back to Hershey, along with some new additions.
“The guys that have been through it before, they are excited to get out there and demonstrate that they belong on the podium,” Maney said. “There are some other guys that are certainly capable of being there. They got to go out and let it fly.”
Seeding comes down to the most points accumulated in the regular season based off each wrestler’s wins. There are three criteria where some wins are weighted more than others.
So it came as no surprise to see the Red Raiders have so many No. 1 seeds with the season they wrestled. However, Maney knows that a wrestler’s seed doesn’t matter once the tournament begins.
“When that first whistle blows on Saturday, that number next to your name doesn’t mean a whole lot,” Maney said. “It’s obviously a gauge. Yeah, we wrestled some high-caliber competition. You got to go out and perform at that level. If you’re the No. 1 seed, you know you are going to get every guy’s best effort. If you are a lower seed, the best chance to upset guys is getting a good warmup in and coming out firing on all cylinders.”
State College
Seeds: Hayden Cunningham (2nd, 106), Bailey Weaverling (4th, 113), Eric Weaver (2nd, 120), Carter Weaverling (4th, 126), Owen Woolcott (2nd, 132), Clayton Leidy (1st, 138), Kyle Martin (4th, 145), Jason Dry (5th, 152), Harrison Hoopes (4th, 160), Lance Urbas (2nd, 170), Braden Newby (7th, 182), Ty Price (1st, 195), Nick Beebe (6th, 220) and Harrison Schoen (3rd, 285)
Outlook: It has been quite the season for the young Little Lions.
They went 12-6 in duals on their way to claiming their first District 6 Class 3A dual team title since 2003. State College went 1-2 at the PIAA dual tournament, picking up some more experience along the way.
With those extra matches under their belts, coach Ryan Cummins believes his wrestlers are thriving.
“They are definitely focused and motivated. They are ready to go. They want to win,” he said. “Being in that tournament, it showed them that they belong. It’s only going to help. They are definitely wrestling the way they should be and stepping up like they should.”
The Little Lions relied heavily on some astounding freshmen in Cunningham, Weaver and Carter Weaverling. Their hammers in Woolcott, Leidy, Urbas and Price have shined all season long.
It came as no surprise that six of those seven wrestlers were in the top two of their weight class. But Cummins believes that even more than those top wrestlers can punch their tickets to regionals.
“I think we should get at least 10. It is a reasonable number,” he said. “I don’t want to jinx it. Some guys are on the bubble there, but I think that is a reasonable number.”
Cummins may have felt a little bit better about that number had he not been missing two starters from the regular season lineup. Tate McLaughlin and Josiah Lose were both missing when the seeds came out on Tuesday.
It was a surprise not seeing their names, as they just competed two weeks ago for State College. According to Cummins, they decided “to do something else.”
“They went to work. It was definitely a disappointment for the coaching staff and team, too,” he said. “It’s not what we wanted to have happen. It wasn’t that anything that happened.”
As for the guys who are competing now, Cummins said they are healthy, jokingly saying “knock on wood.” State College was able to avoid the injury bug for the most part all season, another reason why Cummins believes his team was able to be successful.
In the week leading up to districts, State College, like Class 2A team Philipsburg-Osceola, was taking it easy in practice, hoping to continue its good luck with keeping injuries away.
“We’ll get some good practices in. We’ll work on little things that need to be worked on,” Cummins said. “The bulk of the season and work is really done. We just want our guys to be ready to go and peaking at the right time.”
Overall, Cummins says he’s feeling good about his team’s chances this weekend.
“I think the expectation is we are having a great season, let’s keep it going,” Cummins said. “The guys look great. They are wrestling the way they should be at this point.”
District 6 Class 3A Championships
When: 10:30 a.m. Saturday (Session 1), 5 p.m. Saturday (Championship session)
Where: Fieldhouse, Altoona
Brackets: FloWrestling.com
This story was originally published February 21, 2020 at 8:00 AM.
