Here are Centre County’s high school wrestling stat leaders through Jan. 31

The high school wrestling season is three weeks away from the start of the postseason.

There was plenty of action this week for several Centre County teams, but two teams were shut down until the postseason gets here, at least for now.

Philipsburg-Osceola and Saint Joseph’s Catholic Academy each were supposed to get action in this week. Instead, the Mounties got shut down for a second time due to COVID-19 protocols. The Wolves were to compete in the illustrious Powerade Tournament, which was the only other opportunity for their wrestlers to get action, this past weekend, but were not allowed to due to school rules.

Penns Valley and Bald Eagle Area each got three duals in this week. State College was to have multiple duals this week, but only ended up wrestling against Williamsport on Saturday.

Bellefonte took part in a tri-meet with the Rams on Thursday, and then a quad-meet on Saturday at Tyrone. The Red Raiders now have 10 duals under their belt. They haven’t lost a single one, so it is no surprise that their athletes pop up all over the county leaders’ list.

So, let’s see where things sit with the postseason looming:

Wins

There were six county athletes who were able to surpass 10 victories this week. They were all Bellefonte wrestlers in Ethan Richner, Ethan Rossman, Jude Swisher, Addison Shawley, Aidan O’Shea and Gage Long.

Richner, Rossman and Swisher each have 12 wins on the season to lead the county. None of these wrestlers have lost this season. All three secured their 10th win against Blairsville in the opening dual of the quad-meet in which the Red Raiders took part on Saturday.

Richner received a forfeit. Rossman secured a pin. Swisher racked up a technical fall. Rossman is one win away from No. 100 for his career.

In the second match of the quad meet, Shawley (11 wins) and O’Shea (11) earned their 10th victories. They each pinned their Marion Center counterparts.

Long earned his 10th win with a 4-0 shutout in the final meet of the day for Bellefonte against Tyrone.

The Red Raiders’ Max Barrier is one win away from 10 on the year. He sits seventh in the county.

Bellefonte has a quartet of wrestlers with eight wins in Andrew McChesney, Dylan Dann, Nathan Smith and Stephen Ivicic.

The first non-Red Raiders wrestler after the top-10 list is BEA’s Noah Foltz, who has seven victories to pace the Eagles. His teammates Coen Bainey, Cooper Gilham and Lucas Fye are one behind him.

Pins

Richner has held the top spot by himself in this category all season.

But now he has company in his teammate in Rossman. The duo have eight falls on the season.

Rossman amassed four falls this week in his five matches that he wrestled. He pinned Penns Valley’s Hunter Lyons in 37 seconds on Thursday.

On Saturday, the senior decked all three of his opponents in the quad meet.

Richner had three pins in the five matches he had this week. He collected two of those pins on Saturday.

The Red Raiders’ Long and BEA’s Fye are tied for second in the county with five falls on the season.

Fye went a perfect 3-0 this week and had three pins in all of his matches. His quickest was sticking Central’s Tyler Biesinger in 1:59 on Saturday.

Long had two falls this week. The pins came on Saturday with the sophomore’s quickest coming in a opening day victory over Blairsville’s Gage Pierce in 1:02.

There are six county athletes that are one pin away from five for the season. Those wrestlers are Shawley, O’Shea, Swisher, Bellefonte’s Nate Smith and the Little Lions’ Nick Pavlechko.

Fastest Falls

If a wrestlers first name isn’t Ethan, good luck making the top five.

Richner and Rossman hold those spots with Richner holding three of the five.

Richner made it even harder to grab the top spot as he pinned Huntingdon’s Owen Garlock in 13 seconds on Thursday. The senior held the top three spots until Saturday.

Rossman stuck Marion Center’s Gaven Palko in 18 seconds for the second fastest fall of the season. The senior then added a 28-seconds pin on Saturday of Blairsville’s Mason Bell for the fifth fastest fall. Rossman nearly had a third time on the list when he stuck Penns Valley’s Hunter Lyons in 37 seconds on Thursday, but it didn’t make the cut.

BEA’s Hunter Gardner has the gateway time for the top 10 this week. The Eagles’ wrestler stuck Central’s Ian Crilly in 36 seconds on Saturday.

Penns Valley’s Ben Sharer, who already has a time on the list, was on their a second time until Gardner made his move. Sharer pinned Central’s Wyatt Holsinger in 38 seconds on Tuesday.

Technical falls

State College’s Lance Urbas is no longer at the top by himself of the technical falls category.

The Little Lions’ senior is now joined by Swisher. Each wrestler has four technical fall wins this season.

Urbas took care of Williamsport’s Sebastian Robinson in 4:55 on Saturday. Urbas’ final tally was 17-2.

Swisher is a man on a mission. He collected two technical falls on Saturday, outscoring his opponents 57-26. He’s been a takedown machine, collecting 39 takedowns in Saturday’s action. He now sits at 104 takedowns on the season, which is two away from Bellefonte’s program record. He’s also done all this work in 10 matches as he has received two forfeits this season.

Penns Valley’s Malachi DuVall made a jump into the top 10 of the technical falls category after collecting two this week. He racked up a 16-0 shut out of Central’s Andrew McMonagle on Tuesday. The Navy commit bumped up to 189 pounds and wrecked Huntingdon’s Myles Baney, who is a returning state qualifier, on Thursday in a 19-4 win in 5:28.

Major decisions

There were four wrestlers in P-O’s Parker Moore and State College’s trio of Kyle Martin, Owen Woolcott and Thomas Hill at the top of this list. It isn’t the case anymore.

Now, O’Shea, O’Shea’s teammate Garrett Choates and the Rams’ Justin Darlington are in the mix with two major decision victories each.

Choates jumped to the top after not being on the list with two major decisions this week. The junior had identical 10-2 victories. He topped Huntingdon’s Ryan Yocum on Thursday, and then Marion Center’s Camden Stewart on Saturday.

O’Shea shut out Huntingdon’s Landon Dunsmore 9-0 on Thursday. Darlington topped Huntingdon’s Devin Grubb 9-1 on Thursday.

Bald Eagle Area had Foltz, Jeffre Pifer, Mason Reese and Matthew Knepp each record their first major decision wins this week.

Penns Valley had Colten Shunk and Ty Watson secure their first major decisions this week.

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.