Bellefonte sends 7 wrestlers into PIAA Northwest Regional semifinals as State Colleges adds 4 others
There were a lot of chances for Centre County’s wrestlers to make some noise on the first day of the PIAA Class 3A Northwest Regional on Friday.
After all, there were 18 wrestlers competing combined between Bellefonte and State College. Each school had nine wrestling and all nine remained alive for each team as no one got eliminated on the first day.
However, the Red Raiders sent seven into the semifinals — tied for most in the tournament with Cathedral Prep. Those seven wrestlers need just one more victory to lock up a PIAA Championships spot. The Little Lions added four other semifinalists to give the county 11 total out of the 18 into the semifinals.
In the team race, it was no surprise to see Bellefonte near the top. The Red Raiders’ 46 team points trails Mifflin County by six points as the teams are No. 1 and No. 2, respectively.
Cathedral Prep, Williamsport and DuBois round out the top five in that order. State College has 32.5 points and is seventh.
Here’s a look at how each of the county’s teams sit going into Day 2 on Saturday, which starts at 10 a.m.:
Bellefonte
Semifinalists: Aidan O’Shea (113 pounds), Lane Aikey (120), Jude Swisher (126), Ethan Richner (160), Ethan Rossman (182), Tyler Benner (195) and Max Barrier (220).
Others alive: Alex Coppolo (132) and Stephen Ivicic (170).
Team score: 2nd, 46 points
Recap: Red Raiders coach Mike Maney compared the end of the night for his squad to an NCAA feel.
They had two wrestlers on the mats at one time. Benner and Barrier were competing in the quarterfinals.
Maney was in Benner’s corner watching him close out a 2-1 win over St. Marys’ Jeremy Garthwaite, who pinned Benner in the first competition of the season. He heard the Bellefonte fans in attendance in a roar, it wasn’t because Benner just won, but Barrier had his opponent on his back.
Barrier earned the fall, sending the crowd into a frenzy.
“It was an exciting way to end the day,” Maney said. “Tyler Benner has had a phenomenal year. He went from not being able to make the lineup last year to potentially 30 wins and a state qualifier. I’m really proud of the gains he made this year. He needs one more match in him.
“Max came in as a non-district champ and upsets a couple of guys. He’s got a returning state champ tomorrow, but anything can happen when you are one match away.”
That was the second fall of the day for Barrier after he stuck his first round opponent in 3:12. Benner also began his day with a fall in 1:42.
Maney knew he had have several semifinalists, but to have seven, he was smiling from ear-to-ear.
As much as underdogs Barrier and Benner may have been, so was O’Shea.
The sophomore was competing in his first regional tournament. Earlier this week, O’Shea mentioned the tournament was similar to the District 6 Tournament, but more intense. He seemed to turn the notch up on his own intensity.
In the first round, O’Shea slapped a crossface cradle on Williamsport’s Luke Seagraves and decked him in 2:19. In the quarterfinals, O’Shea got to that crossface cradle again, but it was a lot quicker.
He took down District 8 champion in Allderdice’s Dylan Mayer, locked the cradle up and pinned Mayer in 24 seconds.
“He battled last year, he didn’t make regionals last year, so he goes from a non-regional qualifer to one match away (from states),” Maney said. “He’s got a tough semifinal match against a returning state qualifier. He’s in the running for 30 wins. It’s a great start, but tomorrow is a big day.”
As for those four district champs in Aikey, Swisher, Richner and Rossman, it was status quo.
Neither had a first round match and all of them pinned their quarterfinals’ opponent except Aikey, who had a 3-0 victory. Rossman was the quickest, sticking Selinsgrove’s Steven Miller in 34 seconds.
It wasn’t all perfect for Maney and Co. as they saw two wrestlers drop closed contested matches.
They saw Coppolo drop a tough 1-0 loss to DuBois’ Trenton Donahue in the quarterfinals. Coppolo just couldn’t break the strong ride of Donahue.
Ivicic got caught a little out of position and gave up a reversal to Clearfield’s Hayden Kovalick with 1:33 left in his match. Those points ended up being the only ones scored in Ivicic’s 2-0 loss.
“At this level, it’s little things. Both guys we talked after the match, it’s about putting matches together,” Maney said. “Sometimes in that consolation, it’s not always the best guy that wins, it’s the guy that has momentum. If we can look at a positive from losing tonight, tomorrow you come back and regroup.
“The most important match is the first win. Win that, dig deep, win the next one and start stringing together multiple wins. You get a semifinal loser who is coming off a tough loss, that guy can’t mentally regroup and you have that momentum and you win. So the focus tomorrow is dig deep and get that first win under the belt and get that momentum going.”
State College
Semifinalists: Hayden Cunningham (106), Owen Woolcott (132), Clayton Leidy (138) and Lance Urbas (170).
Others alive: Eric Weaver (120), Carter Weaverling (126), Kyle Martin (145), Ty Price (195) and Harrison Schoen (285).
Team score: 7th, 32.5 points
Recap: As good as Bellefonte’s day ended, the same couldn’t be said for the Little Lions.
Yes, they had already secured four semifinalists, but they saw their lone district champ in Price go down.
The junior was leading Selinsgrove’s Ryan Aument 5-1 late in the second period of their quarterfinals match. Aument went for a granby roll and Price followed.
Aument, the No. 3 seed out of District 4, caught Price out of position, reversed him and pinned him with three seconds left in the period.
Price laid on the mat in disgust.
“He out wrestled him the whole periods,” a stunned State College coach Ryan Cummins said about his wrestler. “He looked really good on his feet. His takedowns were nice, but got a little sloppy.”
Outside of the stunner, Cummins felt his guys “wrestled well and looked great.”
Of the four semifinalists, Cunningham and Urbas racked up bonus points in both of their matches.
Cunningham began his first regional with a 33-seconds pin of Cranberry’s Jacob Umstead. In the quarterfinals, the freshman was up 5-0 on District 8 champ in Allderdice’s Jacob Goldber.
Cunningham slapped on a crossface cradle, his favorite, and stuck Goldber in 1:37.
“He looked really good today. It is the same consistent stuff,” Cummins said. “He’s not letting the kid breathe by staying on him the whole time. I don’t expect anything different tomorrow.”
Urbas looks like he’s on a crash course to face off with Mifflin County’s Trey Kibe for the regional title. Urbas pinned his tournament-opening opponent in 3:39.
His quarterfinals match was nothing but a points parade. Urbas recorded a takedown 15 seconds in and went to work with tilts.
He built up a 13-0 lead after one period on District 9 champ in Clearfield’s Hayden Kovalick. Kovalick chose neutral to start the second period and Urbas got a takedown 24 seconds into the period for the 15-0 technical fall.
“That is the way he needs to be wrestling. I think he is hitting that here,” Cummins said. “I want to see him carry that through into tomorrow.”
Woolcott had two matches as well, but Leidy had just one match as he was a recipient of a forfeit as his first-round opponent was a scratch.
Woolcott started with a pin and earned a 9-3 win over Allderdice’s Troy Jacobson, who was the District 8 champion, in the quarterfinals. Leidy was dominant in a 7-1 win over St. Marys’ Gregory Tettis in the quarterfinals. He held a 5-1 lead after two periods of wrestling, scoring those five points in the first period and riding Tettis out for the entire second period.
“They had great matches. Owen had a dangerous kid and he wrestled him smart,” Cummins said. “He probably could’ve put more points on the board, but he needs to get through, that’s the most important part. Clayton looked good. I thought he looked fine. He had some nice shots. I think he is ready to go for tomorrow.”
Even though State College suffered some other losses, Cummins was still happy with how his guys wrestled. He noted they were all in great matches.
Weaver and Weaverling each made the quarterfinals before dropping into the consolations. Martin and Schoen suffered some heartbreaks in their opening-round matches.
Martin nearly had his opponent pinned, but ultimately lost 15-6. Schoen got tossed and gave up near-fall points in a 6-1 sudden-victory loss.
“They are doing all the right things. A little mistake here and there,” Cummins said. “They were being aggressive and that’s what we want to see. They’ve got every chance to come back tomorrow. We just got to build up their confidence here over night and get them back into it tomorrow. If they want it, it is there for the taking.”
PIAA Class 3A Northwest Regional
Friday at Altoona
Team key: Allderdice (AD), Altoona (A), Bellefonte (B), Bradford (BF), Brashear (BS), Carrick (C), Cathedral Prep (CP), Central Mountain (CM), Clearfield (CF), Cranberry (CB), DuBois (D), Erie (E), Hollidaysburg (H), Johnstown (JT), Juniata (J), McDowell (MD), Meadville (MV), Mifflin County (MC), Obama (O), Perry (P), Punxsutawney (PT), Selinsgrove (S), Shikellamy (Shik.), St. Marys (SM), State College (SC), Warren (W), Westinghouse (WH), Williamsport (WT).
Team scores: 1. Mifflin County 52, 2. Bellefonte 46, 3. Cathedral Prep 43.5, 4. Williamsport 39.5, 5. DuBois 39, 6. Central Mountain 36, 7. State College 32.5, 8. Meadville 30, 9. McDowell 23, 10. Selinsgrove 21.
Quarterfinals
106: Hayden Cunningham, SC, pinned Jacob Goldber, AD, 1:37; 113: Aidan O’Shea, B, pinned Dylan Mayer, AD, :24; 120: Lane Aikey, B, dec. Westin Chess, MV, 3-0; Carter Weaver, WT, dec. Eric Weaver, SC, 7-1; 126: Jude Swisher, B, pinned Nate Digello, MD, 3:43; Kaeman Smith, CP, dec. Carter Weaverling, SC, 8-3; 132: Owen Woolcott, SC, dec. Troy Jacobson, AD, 9-3; Trenton Donahue, D, dec. Alex Coppolo, B, 1-0; 138: Clayton Leidy, SC, dec. Gregory Tettis, SM, 7-1; 160: Ethan Richner, B, pinned Nick Crisp, SM, 4:33; 170: Lance Urbas, SC, tech. fall Hayden Kovalick, CF, 15-0 (2:24); 182: Ethan Rossman, B, pinned Steven Miller, S, :34; 195: Tyler Benner, B, dec. Jeremy Garthwait, SM, 2-1; 220: Max Barrier, B, pinned Renee Velasquez, C, 3:34.
First Round
106: Cunningham, SC, pinned Jacob Umstead, CB, :33; 113: O’Shea, B, pinned Luke Seagraves, WT, 2:19; 120: Weaver, SC, major dec. Kam Stevenson, D, 10-0; 126: C. Weaverling, SC, dec. Nolan Barr, CF, 8-3; 132: Woolcott, SC, pinned Aidan Northup, E, 1:51; Coppolo, B, dec. Logan Carrick, MD, 6-1; 138: Leidy, SC, def. Ahmed Al-luhaibi, E, forfeit; 145: Alex Anderson, W, major dec. Kyle Martin, SC, 15-6; 170: Hayden Kovalick, CF, dec. Stephen Ivicic, B, 2-0; Urbas, SC, pinned Dean Hollenbach, S, 3:39; 195: Benner, B, pinned Nick Knoblach, C, 1:42; 220: Barrier, B, pinned Matthew Hoovler, E, 3:12; 285: Charles Crews, WT, dec. Harrison Schoen, SC, 6-1 (SV).
