Here are Centre County’s high school wrestling leaders through March 1

There isn’t much time left in the 2019-2020 high school wrestling season.

Bellefonte and State College each competed in the PIAA Class 3A Northwest Regional tournament this weekend. The schools combined to send 10 to the PIAA Championships in the Giant Center next week.

The Red Raiders made history by claiming their first regional team title since 2000.

Bald Eagle Area, Penns Valley, Philipsburg-Osceola and St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy wrestlers were off this week.

In all, there will be 25 Centre County wrestlers hitting the mat next week in Hershey.

Let’s take a look at which Red Raiders and Little Lions wrestlers made moves this week on the leaderboards.

Wins

The Wolves’ Caleb Dowling (40) and Tyler Stoltzfus (38) have held down the top spots for most of the season.

Bellefonte’s Alex Coppolo was one of four county wrestlers to collect four wins in the regional tournament. His four wins gave him 36 on the season, which is tied for third most in the county with teammate Jude Swisher and State College’s Hayden Cunningham.

Coppolo ended up finishing one spot shy of qualifying for the PIAA Championships, so he will end with 36 wins. Swisher and Cunningham both advanced with a first and third-place finish, respectively.

Swisher and Cunningham have a shot of getting to 40 wins on the season next week.

Perhaps one of the biggest surprises of the regional tournament was the Red Raiders’ Aidan O’Shea. The sophomore collected three victories on way to a second-place finish. He used a 24-seconds pin to reach the semifinals, where he beat returning two-time PIAA qualifier Vincen Rinella, of Meadville, 2-0.

The Little Lions’ Owen Woolcott and Clayton Leidy were the other county wrestlers to secure four victories this weekend. They each finished third to keep their seasons alive with Woolcott topping Coppolo in his third-place match.

Woolcott’s 34 wins has him tied for seventh in the county with O’Shea and four other wrestlers.

Here’s who joined the 30-plus win club this week:

Bellefonte: Ethan Richner (32 wins) collected three victories on way to his second straight regional title. His 30th win was a pin of St. Marys’ Nick Crisp in the quarterfinals. He may have had the biggest win of his career in the finals, where he beat highly touted Coy Bastian, of Selinsgrove.

State College: Leidy (30), as previously mentioned, earned four wins this weekend. His 30th win claimed his PIAA spot. Leidy topped Mifflin County’s Kyler Everly 5-0 in the 138-pound consolation finals, to get revenge from losing to Everly in the district finals a week ago.

Here’s who joined the 20-plus wins club this week:

Bellefonte: The Red Raiders had a trio of wrestlers earn their 20th win this week. Max Barrier (22), Lane Aikey (21) and Stephen Ivicic (21) were those wrestlers. Barrier’s came first by pinning Erie’s Matthew Hoovler in 3:12 in the first round. Ivicic was next with a pin of Selinsgrove’s Dean Hollenbach in the consolation first round. Aikey’s 3-0 win over Cathedral Prep’s Jamale Crockett was his 20th and sent him to the finals.

Pins

The top five remained the same with Penns Valley’s Malachi DuVall still leading the way with 27 pins.

Swisher added a fall this week to climb into a tie with Bald Eagle Area’s Gage McClenahan for third most in the county with 22. Swisher decked McDowell’s Nate Digello in 3:43 to reach the 126-pound semifinals.

Richner also added a pin this week. He has 21 on the season for fourth most in the county. As previously mentioned, he pinned Crisp to make the semifinals. The time of Richner’s fall was 4:33.

Cunningham, O’Shea and Rossman all collected two falls this weekend. Cunningham (20) and O’Shea (18) are on the leaderboard; however, Rossman is on the outside looking in with 16.

Cunningham and O’Shea each pinned their ways to the semifinals of their weight classes. Cunningham wrestled a total of 2 minutes, 7 seconds to get there. O’Shea wasn’t too far off from that wrestling 2 minutes, 43 seconds.

Rossman pinned his way to the finals, using a 34-seconds victory to begin his run toward the 182-pound crown.

Here’s who joined the 20-plus pin club this week:

State College: Cunningham (20 pins) looked like his dominant self in his first regional tournament. His pin of Allderdice’s Jacob Goldber in 1:37 was his 20th fall of the season and send him to the semifinals, where he ultimately lost.

Major decisions

The leader remains Philipsburg-Osceola’s Chase Chapman, who has nine major decisions. He’ll look to add to that mark in the PIAA Championships.

Swisher collected two major decisions this weekend to leap up the leaderboard. He has four on the season now, which is tied for fourth most in the county.

Swisher used back-to-back major decisions to earn his 126-pound title. He outscored his opponents 27-5 in those matches.

His most impressive one came in the finals against Cathedral Prep’s Kaeman Smith. Swisher scored 14 first-period points and won the match 17-4.

State College’s freshmen in Eric Weaver and Carter Weaverling each made their way on to the leaderboard this week by earning a major decision apiece to get to three on the season. However, they won’t be able to earn any more as their seasons came to an end.

Weaver’s victory came first as he opened his first regional tournament with a 10-0 shutout of DuBois’ Kam Stevenson. Weaver lost his next two matches to have his season close.

Weaverling had a 19-6 win over Brashear’s Jermaine Williams to make the consolation quarterfinals, where he had his season end.

Fastest Falls & Technical Falls

For another week, there was not a new time added to the fastest falls list. St. Joseph’s Amonn Ohl still holds the fastest time with a five-seconds victory.

Dowling still holds the lead over Penns Valley’s Clayton Royer for the most technical falls in the county. Dowling has 13 to Royer’s 12.

There were just two wrestlers to add a technical fall this week.

Richner beat DuBois’ Gauge Galvis 18-2 in 2:27 to make the 160-pound finals. Richner has six technical falls, which is fourth most in the county. What is more interesting is that only three of his wins this year have come without bonus points.

State College’s Lance Urbas was the other county wrestler to earn a technical fall this week. He has five on the year, which is tied with Rossman and Woolcott for fifth most in the county.

Urbas used a 15-0 shutout of Clearfield’s Hayden Kovalick in 2:24 to make the 170-pound semifinals.

Wins

Falls

Fastest Fall

Technical Falls

Major Decisions

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.