State College claims District 6 Class 3A team crown as 13 Centre County wrestlers advance
As Centre County’s Class 2A wrestling teams got the postseason underway earlier this week, the Class 3A teams in Bellefonte and State College had to wait their turn.
That time came on Friday as the Red Raiders and Little Lions began their postseason runs toward the state championships with the District 6 Championships.
The teams combined to crown four champions and send 13 wrestlers — who finished in the top two of their weight classes — to the PIAA Northwest Regional tournament next weekend in Altoona.
State College earned the team title with 172 points.
“That’s the one I’m really happy about,” said Little Lions coach Ryan Cummins, who was named the District 6 Class 3A Coach of the Year. “The guys did such a phenomenal job. I don’t know how else to put it. The guys in the finals and the guys coming back through showed so much heart. I couldn’t be prouder.”
The Little Lions outpaced the second-place team in Central Mountain by 31.5 points. The Red Raiders finished third with 133.5 points.
By finishing in the top four in the team race, State College and Bellefonte secured their spots in the District 6 team dual championships, which won’t take place until after the individual state championships.
Here’s a look at how each team did:
State College
Champions: Pierson Manville (132 pounds), Carson Manville (189)
Other regional qualifiers: Owen Woolcott (2nd, 126), Carter Weaverling (2nd, 152), Lance Urbas (2nd, 172), Ty Price (2nd, 215), Harrison Schoen (2nd, 285)
Other finishers: Madeline Baney (5th, 106), Jacob Campbell (4th, 113), Bailey Weaverling (3rd, 120), William Tennity (4th, 138), Kyle Martin (3rd, 145), Braden Newby (DNP, 160)
Recap: The Little Lions had a successful postseason last year. They won their first District 6 Class 3A dual title in 17 years and made their first trip to the PIAA dual team championships.
Fast forward to this season.
State College claimed Cummins’ first District 6 Class 3A individual team championship.
“We are moving in the right direction,” said Cummins. “We’ve got great kids in the room and are not afraid to work hard. They are really giving a great effort here at the end. They want to win and that’s a big part of it. They have all the tools, but now they believe in themselves now, so that makes a big difference.”
The Little Lions crowned two champions in brothers Pierson and Carson Manville. Those two, along with Woolcott, Urbas and Schoen, made the finals.
The Manville Bros. had to put in a lot of work to earn their first district titles.
For Pierson Manville, all of the work culminated with a revenge victory over former State College wrestler Jude Swisher, who topped Manville 10-6 in the Big 7 finals in January.
“It feels good to get one back,” Manville said. “Me and Jude are friends and like to battle each other. We don’t wrestle each other in the practice room, but it feels good to get one back.”
Cummins knew that loss in January bugged Manville, too.
“I know it hurt him losing before,” Cummins said. “I know it wasn’t easy for him. I think he has just had that in the back of his mind the whole time. He did a nice job of doing what he had to do to win. Everything we talked about, he did.”
Trailing 1-0 to start the third period, Manville was in the bottom position. He struggled to get out from under Swisher, but forced a second stall call on Swisher to tie it up 1-1.
With 25 seconds remaining in the match, Manville earned an escape for a 2-1 lead. He then fought off several Swisher shot attempts for the district title and the tournament’s Most Outstanding wrestler award.
“I haven’t got a trophy in two years for anything, so it just feels great,” Manville said. “It feels amazing.The freshman part, it doesn’t matter how old you are, it matters how you do.”
The freshman opened with a pin of Juniata’s Tye Jabs in the quarterfinals in 1:06. He followed up with an 18-1 semifinal technical-fall win over Altoona’s Damion Finnegan in 4:17.
Carson Manville took just 44 seconds to reach the finals, where he took on Bellefonte’s Ethan Rossman.
Manville opened his run with a 13-seconds pin of Juniata’s Joshua Pacheco. In the semifinals, he stuck Altoona’s Josh Keirn in 31 seconds.
In the finals, Manville secured two first-period takedowns and frustrated Rossman in a 5-4 win.
“It feels pretty good,” Manville said of the win. “Ethan Rossman is a great wrestler. I have so much respect for that guy.”
Manville, a senior, had just four matches entering the district tournament. He even joked that he felt sick after his first match. But on Friday, he felt much better.
He gave all the credit to his teammates for getting him to that point.
“Without Lance (Urbas) and Ty Price pushing me every day, my conditioning wouldn’t be where it is now,” Manville said. “The guys on this team have pushed me to my breaking point and past it.”
Cummins knows Manville has come a long way, too.
“We’ve had to work quite a bit on getting him back in shape and having him where he needs to be to wrestle those tight matches at the end of the day,” Cummins said. “He did a really nice job. There is still some work to do. We got a few more weeks ahead of us, so we’ll keep him going in the right direction.”
Woolcott suffered a 1-0 loss to Central Mountain’s Luke Simcox in his finals match. Urbas fell to Mifflin County’s Trey Kibe, who was a Penn State commit, 4-1. However, Urbas had to hang another technical fall win on Hollidaysburg’s Aaron Sleeth to finish second.
Schoen took on Altoona’s Trevor Manley in the finals and was pinned in sudden victory after the pair were tied 1-1 after regulation. Price wrestled his way through the consolation bracket and received a medical forfeit to finish second.
Carter Weaverling did the same thing as Price, winning three consolation matches to secure his regional berth.
The seven qualifiers isn’t what Cummins expected, but knows the work his team had to put in to get there.
“I knew that going off the seedings, it didn’t look that way,” he said. “I thought that we had a chance to get a bunch of guys through. They rose to the occasion and did what they had to do to make it happen. We said you have to earn everything and they certainly did.”
Bellefonte
Champions: Lane Aikey (120 pounds), Ethan Richner (160)
Other regional qualifiers: Garrett Choates (2nd, 106), Aidan O’Shea (2nd, 113), Jude Swisher (2nd, 132), Ethan Rossman (2nd, 189)
Other finishers: Nate Smith (4th, 126), Dylan Dann (DNP, 138), Gage Long (4th, 145), Andrew McChesney (DNP, 152), Stephen Ivicic (DNP, 172), Max Barrier (DNP, 215), Addison Shawley (4th, 285)
Recap: Red Raiders coach Mike Maney said earlier this week that he believed his squad could get double digit wrestlers through to the PIAA Northwest Regional tournament next weekend.
Bellefonte ended up only getting six, but its wrestlers went a combined 2-4 in the finals.
“When you look throughout the whole season, I don’t think it was our best performance,” Maney said. “We got off to a slow start and lost some close matches at the beginning. We definitely could have wrestled better in spots. It is what it is at this point in the season. The guys moving on got to find ways to get better. We can certainly do that in a week. I’m excited to get back to work and continue to improve.”
Aikey and Richner were able to finish off with gold medals. It was Aikey’s second District 6 crown and Richner’s third.
Friday’s tournament action was the first action of the year for Aikey, who was recovering from an injury from last year. He compared the tournament to a usual tournament the Red Raiders take part in during a normal season in St. Marys.
“Normally, every year we do a St. Marys tournament to warm up, that’s what it felt like today,” Aikey said. “I felt like I was there, it didn’t feel real that districts was happening. I’m just taking it day by day, that’s all I can do.”
Aikey looked good in his first match of the year by shutting out Central Mountain’s Zane Cooper, 7-0. In the finals, the senior continued to impress.
He opened the finals with a five-point first period on Altoona’s Caleb Fasick. An escape in the second period for Aikey was the lone point scored. In the third, Aikey recorded two takedowns to secure a 10-2 major decision.
Aikey joked that his gas tank was near empty, but knows it is nothing but up from here.
“It’s been a heck of a journey. I didn’t even know if I was going to be able to compete today,” he said. “My coaches got me to where I am. The two matches weren’t my best. I definitely need to improve. I went out and did all that I could do. I’m just taking it week by week, hoping to get stronger and my conditioning back up, and get a state title this year.”
Maney echoed his wrestler’s words about improving.
“He’s been practicing, but until you get your first match underneath your belt, you don’t know what to expect,” Maney said. “It was good to get him a feel and get on the mat. Obviously, he needs to continue to improve, but he’s a district champion.”
Richner went out and did what he’s done all year: win.
The senior is 17-0 now this year. On Friday, he pinned his way to his title.
Richner took just 13 seconds to dispatch his first opponent in Central Mountain’s Damien Galentine.
The senior took on Hollidaysburg’s Campbell Walls in the finals and built up a 5-0 lead early into the second period. With just under a minute left in the period, Richner stuck Walls on his back for the fall in 3:05.
“He’s a man on a mission,” Maney said. “He wants to get on to the podium after falling short last year. He just has to keep it going and take it one week at a time.”
Choates, O’Shea, Swisher and Rossman all came up short in their finals matches.
Choates, who was making his postseason debut on the varsity level, ran into a buzzsaw in Juniata’s Casey Smith. Smith racked up a 17-2 technical fall on the sophomore in 5:59.
O’Shea, who made an improbable run through the postseason a year ago, suffered a 6-0 loss to Mifflin County’s Nic Allison, who became a three-time District 6 champion. Swisher suffered the loss to Pierson Manville, then pinned Central Mountain’s Gino Serafini in 2:24 to secure the true second-place finish.
Rossman was frustrated in his loss to Carson Manville, but still advanced.
For Maney, the six regional qualifiers was “status quo,” but he knows there is still work to be done.
“Based off of seeds, six was the number. We pretty much wrestled to our seeds, obviously, you want to find ways to improve on your seeds, and some guys did place higher than what their seed was,” Maney said. “Next week, we got to focus on getting after it early and often. The stakes are (also) higher, so we got to come ready to go.”
District 6 Class 3A Championships
Friday at Altoona
Team key: Altoona (A), Bellefonte (B), Central Mountain (CM), Hollidaysburg (H), Juniata (J), Mifflin County (MC)
Team scores: 1. State College 172, 2. Central Mountain 140.5, 3. Bellefonte 133.5, 4. Mifflin County 132.5, 5. Altoona 79
Finals
106: Casey Smith, J, tech. fall Garrett Choates, B, 17-2 (5:59); 113: Nic Allison, MC, dec. Aidan O’Shea, B, 6-0; 120: Lane Aikey, B, major dec. Caleb Fasick, A, 10-2; 126: Luke Simcox, CM, dec. Owen Woolcott, SC, 1-0; 132: Pierson Manville, SC, dec. Jude Swisher, B, 2-1; 138: Matt Sarbo, A, pinned Taylor Weaver, CM, 2:22; 145: Griffin Walizer, CM, dec. Kyler Everly, MC, 7-2; 152: Rocco Serafini, CM, dec. Adam Zerbee, A, 6-5; 160: Ethan Richner, B, pinned Campbell Walls, H, 3:05; 172: Trey Kibe, MC, dec. Lance Urbas, SC, 4-1; 189: Carson Manville, SC, dec. Ethan Rossman, B, 5-4; 215: Nik Miller, CM, major dec. Jaxson Pupo, MC, 9-1; 285: Trevor Manley, A, pinned Harrison Schoen, SC, 6:11
True Second Place Match
120: Caleb Fasick, A, pinned Bailey Weaverling, SC, 2:33; 132: Jude Swisher, B, pinned Gino Serafini, CM, 2:24; 152: Carter Weaverling, SC, dec. Zerbee, A, 7-3; 172: Urbas, SC, tech. fall Aaron Sleeth, H, 18-3 (3:36); 215: Ty Price, SC, med. forfeit Pupo, MC
Consolation finals
113: Taylor Smith, J, dec. Jacob Campbell, SC, 9-5; 120: B. Weaverling, SC, dec. Zane Cooper, CM, 4-3; 126: Blake Aumiller, MC, pinned Nate Smith, B, 4:50; 138: Parker Kearns, MC, pinned William Tennity, SC, 4:56; 145: Kyle Martin, SC, pinned Gage Long, B, 2:40; 152: C. Weaverling, SC, dec. Jake Cunningham, MC, 7-3; 172: Sleeth, H, dec. Stephen Ivicic, B, 7-2; 215: Price, SC, major dec. Jonathan Kauffman, J, 10-0; 285: Gage Sutliff, CM, dec. Addison Shawley, B, 3-1
Consolation semifinals
106: Clayoton Foster, CM, pinned Madeline Baney, SC, :43; 113: Campbell, SC, pinned Eli Wisor, A, 1:52; 120: B. Weaverling, SC, med. forfeit Hunter Johnson, MC; 126: Smith, B, pinned Brian Praul, H, 4:39; 138: Tennity, SC, pinned Dylan Dann, B, 4:39; 145: Long, B, med. forfeit Nicholas Burkey, H; 152: C. Weaverling, SC, pinned Andrew McChesney, B, 2:50; 160: Damien Galentine, CM, dec. Braden Newby, SC, 4-2; 172: Ivicic, B, dec. Caleb Porter, CM, 6-4; 215: Kauffman, J, dec. Max Barrier, B, 7-3; Price, SC, pinned Colin Allmond, A, 4:16
Semfinals
106: Choates, B, dec. Clayton Foster, CM, 6-1; 113: Allison, MC, pinned Campbell, SC, :36; O’Shea, B, dec. Smith, J, 4-2; 120: Aikey, B, dec. Cooper, CM, 7-0; 126: Simcox, CM, pinned Smith, B, :49; Woolcott, SC, pinned Aumiller, MC, 3:14; 132: Swisher, B, pinned Deakon Schaeffer, MC, 1:27; P. Manville, SC, tech. fall Damion Finnegan, A, 18-1 (4:17); 138: Weaver, CM, tech. fall Tennity, SC, 16-0 (4:00); 145: Everly, MC, pinned Martin, SC, :45; 160: Richner, B, pinned Galentine, CM, :13; 172: Urbas, SC, tech. fall Ivicic, B, 21-6 (5:50); 189: Rossman, B, major dec. Trey Shoemaker, MC, 10-0; C. Manville, SC, pinned Josh Keirn, A, :31; 215: Miller, CM, dec. Price, SC, 2-0; Pupo, MC, dec. Barrier, B, 3-1; 285: Manley, A, dec. Shawley, B, 5-1 (SV); Schoen, SC, pinned Sutliff, CM, 1:28
Quarterfinals
106: Noah Horne, H, pinned Baney, SC, 1:10; 113: Campbell, SC, tech. fall Xavier Adams, H, 17-2 (3:25); 120: Cooper, CM, dec. B. Weaverling, SC, 9-5; 126: Smith, B, tech. fall Jordan Carlucci, A, 16-0 (6:00); 132: P. Manville, SC, pinned Tye Jabs, J, 1:09; 138: Kearns, MC, pinned Dann, B, 5:56; Tennity, SC, pinned Weston Barnes, H, 5:12; 145: Martin, SC, pinned Long, B, 4:44; 152: Josh Bomberger, J, dec. McChesney, B, 7-5; 160: Anson Wagner, MC, pinned Newby, SC, 5:34; 172: Ivicic, B, pinned Austin Kravetz, A, 1:12; 189: C. Manville, SC, pinned Joshua Pacheco, J, :13; 215: Price, SC, pinned Kauffman, J, :50
This story was originally published February 20, 2021 at 12:59 AM.
