Here’s which Centre County wrestlers ended the season with the most wins, pins, tech falls and more

It’s hard to believe that the 2020 PIAA high school wrestling season has already come and gone.

It seems like just yesterday Centre County’s programs were getting practices underway.

Overall, last week’s PIAA Wrestling Championships were favorable to Centre County teams. Bald Eagle Area’s Gage McClenahan and St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy’s Caleb Dowling and Tyler Stoltzfus all achieved their goals of winning a PIAA gold medal. McClenahan became the first PIAA champ for Centre County since 2013, when fellow Eagle Jacob Taylor did it.

Dowling and Stoltzfus became the first state champs for the Wolves’ program.

For the first time in Philipsburg-Osceola’s history, the Mounties had three PIAA medalists in the same season — Chase Chapman, Hunter Weitoish and Parker Moore.

It was a historic year all around for all six county schools, so let’s take a look at the final leaders of the 2019-2020 season.

Wins

It’s fitting that Dowling, Stoltzfus and McClenahan led the county in victories since they were all champs. Dowling and Stoltzfus were the lone wrestlers to eclipse the 40-win mark. McClenahan came close with 39.

Dowling ended with 44 wins, collecting four on his way to the 152-pound state title. Stoltzfus finished with 42, while also collecting four on way to the 170-pound crown. Stoltzfus picked up his 40th win in the quarterfinals over Greenville’s Cole Karpinski with a 16-0 shutout.

As mentioned, McClenahan had 39 on the year and amassed four en route to the 145-pound championship.

McClenahan isn’t alone with 39 wins, Bellefonte’s Jude Swisher is there, too. Swisher collected three wins on way to a fourth-place finish at 126 pounds in the Class 3A championships.

Penns Valley’s Malachi DuVall, who had the next-highest finish of country wrestlers outside of the champs, has the fifth-most wins in the county with 38. DuVall finished third at 152 pounds and is tied with State College’s Hayden Cunningham

BEA’s Coen Bainey is tied with four other wrestlers with 36 wins on the season. Bainey fell three victories shy of tying the Eagles’ freshman wins mark set by former Penn State wrestler and NCAA champ Quentin Wright.

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

Philipsburg-Osceola: Chapman (32 wins) became the third Mounties’ wrestler to go over 30 wins on the year. His 30th victory was a 6-5 win over Conwell Egan’s Hunter Mays in the first round of consolations of the 138-pound weight class.

Pins

The king of pins goes to DuVall. He finished with 29 falls on the season.

The junior added two more falls this week in the state championships. His first came in the quarterfinals over Sharon’s Sully Allen in 1:15.

DuVall’s second pin came over Forest Hills’ Ryan Weyandt in the 152-pound consolation semifinals in 1:33.

Stoltzfus added another fall this week to remain in second. He finished with 24 on the year. His fall began his run toward a state title in 1:44 over Tri-Valley’s Jacob Scheib.

McClenahan began his run toward his state crown with a fall, too. His took just 19 seconds and was his 23rd of the season.

McClenahan is tied with Swisher, who also added a fall this week. Swisher’s pin secured him a spot on the PIAA podium.

Cunningham added two falls during the PIAA Championships, which helped him jump up a spot on the leaderboard. Cunningham finished the year with 22 falls.

Bainey added two falls this week too, to go over 20 on the year. The freshman finished with 21 falls on the year. His 20th was a 40-seconds victory in the consolation first round of the 106-pound weight class.

Penns Valley’s Andrew Sharer, who ended with just 14 falls, used three pins to reach the 182-pound semifinals.

Major Decisions

Chapman took the lead of this one early in the year. He was able to close the season out as the leader with nine. His teammate Gabe Dunkleberger was second with seven.

Bellefonte’s Alex Coppolo was alone in third with five, but Swisher added his fifth this week. Swisher topped Father Judge’s Eamonn Logue 10-1 to open his state tournament.

St. Joseph’s Zack Witmer had two major decisions en route to his fifth-place finish. He topped Cambridge Springs’ Ayden Miller, 12-2, to secure his spot on the podium. Witmer then shut out Curwensville’s Zach Holland 8-0 to win fifth.

Witmer has four major decisions, which is four other wrestlers for fifth most in the county. Bald Eagle Area’s David Close and Bellefonte’s Ethan Rossman also added a major decision this week, which got them to four.

Fastest Falls & Technical Falls

The Wolves’ Amonn Ohl had led the county for the most falls the past two seasons. This year, he can say he led the county with the fastest fall.

Ohl pinned Line Mountain’s Lane Schadel in five seconds in the New Oxford Tournament in the middle of January. The time stood the rest of the way.

Dowling edged Penns Valley’s Clayton Royer for the technical fall crown by one. Dowling finished with 13 to Royer’s 12.

Stoltzfus was the lone wrestler to secure a technical fall in the PIAA Championships for the county. His previously mentioned win over Karpinski was his fourth technical fall, which was eighth most in the county.

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.