Here are Centre County’s high school wrestling stat leaders through Jan. 17

There was a lot of uncertainty about whether or not there would be a high school wrestling season this year.

But despite the uncertainty, the first full week of the season is complete, with four of Centre County’s six teams seeing some sort of action.

Philipsburg-Osceola and Bellefonte each have four duals under their belts. The Mounties are still searching for their first win as the Red Raiders are undefeated.

State College picked up two dual wins on Saturday and St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy wrestlers competed in the first of two tournaments that they have scheduled for their season.

Let’s take a look at which athletes lead the county in the first installment of our weekly leaders story:

Wins

As it stands, 18 Centre County wrestlers are undefeated. Most of those wrestlers have multiple victories.

It comes as no surprise that Bellefonte and P-O wrestlers lead this category, as they have seen the most action.

There are seven athletes tied at the top with four victories, five of those are Red Raiders and the others are Mounties. Aidan O’Shea, Ethan Richner, Ethan Rossman, Jude Swisher and Max Barrier represent Bellefonte. Hunter Weitoish and Nick Coudriet represent P-O.

O’Shea, Richner, Rossman, Swisher and Barrier all collected three victories on Saturday during their teams’ quad-meet with the Mounties, Clearfield and Tyrone. All except Rossman and Barrier secured bonus-point victories on Saturday.

Richner picked up a historic win on Saturday. Richner earned his 100th career victory with his win over P-O’s Jimmy Richtscheit to start the day. It was a rather subdued celebration, without the typical amount of fans cheering in the stands, but nonetheless, but it was exactly how Richner would’ve wanted to get it — at home with a pin.

Red Raiders’ sophomore Gage Long and Wolves’ senior Zack Witmer are part of a group that have three wins so far this season. Both wrestlers are undefeated, as well. Witmer won the 132- pound title at the Mid-Winter Mayhem tournament in Monroeville on Saturday.

There are 14 other wrestlers who have at least two victories so far. Eight of those athletes come from the Little Lions, who are also unbeaten. Those athletes include several starters from last season’s District 6 Class 3A title team in Bailey Weaverling, Harrison Schoen, Kyle Martin, Lance Urbas, Owen Woolcott and Ty Price. The other are a pair of freshmen in Nick Pavlechko, who has grown up through the program, and Pierson Manville, who came to the squad from Minnesota.

Pins

Richner sits atop this list all by himself, as all four of his victories this year are by fall.

He started this same way last year, endeding up with 21 falls on the season. He may not be able to get to that point with the shortened season, but he is well on his way.

The senior had three alone on Saturday in 1:46 of wrestling action, not even wrestling a full period over three matches.

Richner’s teammate Swisher sits right behind him with three pins.

However, what’s most impressive with the junior is he has 45 takedowns on the season in just four matches, that’s an average of just over 10 a match. Swisher had 35 takedowns alone in Saturday’s matches, where he collected two falls before racking up a near 14-point lead in each match.

There are five other wrestlers that have at least two pins this season. They are Rossman, Coudriet, Pavlechko, Manville and St. Joseph’s Amonn Ohl.

Rossman had a pair of pins, with probably one of the biggest of his career when he stuck Clearfield’s Mark McGonigal on Saturday. Coudriet had his come last weekend in a dual against DuBois and then on Thursday against Tyrone.

Ohl had a pair to win his bracket at 138-pounds at the Mid-Winter Mayhem, but he ultimately fell in the cross-over championship. The senior has had an interesting high school career when it comes to pins.

He led the county his freshman year with 34. He tied for the county lead in his sophomore campaign with 27. Last year, he amassed 15 pins, despite a season plagued by injuries. He is now up to 78 pins over four years of varsity-level wrestling.

Fastest Fall

It’s no surprise who the leader is here.

However, what is impressive is the fact that Richner has the top three times, and all four of his falls are in the top 10.

Richner had a pair of 23-second victories on Saturday. The senior opened with a victory over Richtscheit. He ended the day by sticking Clearfield’s Wyatt Reorda.

On Thursday, Bellefonte traveled to Jersey Shore that saw Richner stick Tyler Bauder in 39 seconds, the third-fastest fall this season. He had another fall Saturday that was one-minute flat over Tyrone’s Jermaine Myers, which is good for sixth.

Stephen Ivicic helps the Red Raiders hold the top four spots as he pinned Clearfield’s Carter Chamberlain in 42 seconds on Saturday.

Freshman Marcus Gable represent the Mounties on the list, and finishes out the top five with a 58-second pin of Bellefonte’s Aaron McClusick on Saturday.

State College’s Harrison Schoen is tied with Richner for sixth as he took care of Lower Dauphin’s Aaron Moyer on Saturday in one minute.

Manville has a pair of quick pins and they are eighth and ninth. He stuck Lower Dauphin’s Alec Merry in 1:07 to start the day. The rookie then pinned Mifflin County’s Lucas Sheetz in 1:02 to close out the day.

The Red Raiders’ Nate Smith rounds out the top 10, when he flattened P-O’s Ben Gustkey in 1:16.

Technical falls & Major decisions

Not too many wrestlers tallied these types of victories this week.

Witmer was able to secure a pair of technical falls in his run to that 132-pound title. He outscored his opponents 30-0.

The Columbia commit opened by topping Berlin Brothersvalley’s Landon Wellington in 3:38. Witmer then shut out Commodore Perry’s Zane Grinnell in the finals to earn the victory in 4:00.

Others to record a technical fall were: Swisher, who strung together 13 takedowns in a 26-11 victory over the Mounties’ Austin Foster in 4:00; Weitoish, who topped DuBois’ Ryan White last weekend 18-3 in 5:25; and Woolcott, who racked up a 17-2 win over Mifflin County’s Deakon Schaeffer.

O’Shea, Foster, Weitoish, Woolcott and P-O’s Parker Moore are the only wrestlers to secure major decision victories so far.

Wins

Falls

Fastest Fall

Technical Falls

Major Decisions

Nate Cobler

Centre Daily Times

814-231-4609

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.