Centre County wrestlers claim 2 District 6 Class 2A titles, while 13 advance to regionals
Saturday’s District 6 Class 2A Wrestling Championships marked the second step in the postseason for Bald Eagle Area, Penns Valley, Philipsburg-Osceola and Saint Joseph’s Catholic Academy.
After the dust settled on Saturday, the county claimed two district champs and qualified 13 wrestlers for the PIAA Southwest regional next weekend at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. To qualify, wrestlers had to place in the top three.
The Rams and Eagles finished in the top four of the team race, which secured their spots in the District 6 Class 2A team dual championships, if they occur (they have yet to be officially scheduled). Penns Valley finished second with 80 points. BEA was fourth with 64.5 points.
Forest Hills claimed the team title with 96.5 points. Glendale finished third with 71 points to round out the top four. The Mounties finished fifth with 61 points.
Here’s a look at how all four schools finished:
Penns Valley
Champions: Malachi DuVall (172 pounds)
Other regional qualifiers: Justin Darlington (3rd, 126), Ty Watson (3rd, 132), Ben Sharer (2nd, 285)
Other finishers: Noah Fetterolf (DNP, 145), Dristen Wolfe (4th, 152), Hunter Lyons (DNP, 189)
Recap: In a normal postseason, the District 6 Class 2A Championships would be two days with the top six wrestlers moving on to the PIAA Southwest Regional tournament.
As with everything else nowadays, this postseason is not normal. On Saturday, the top three wrestlers advanced.
Coach Joel Brinker felt that this squad would’ve had a couple more qualifiers in a normal postseason. However, Brinker was still thrilled with his four-man contingent advancing.
“It was a great day. You never know what’s going to happen here,” Brinker said. “The four we are taking, we are very happy with. Dristen (Wolfe) battled back and got fourth. I said (to him), ‘You never know what could happen between the world we are living in now and injuries and stuff. You could get a call.’ We are very happy with getting four through with top three.”
DuVall was the lone champion of those four Rams wrestlers moving on. He hasn’t accomplished that feat since his freshman campaign, when he was competing for Saint Joseph’s Catholic Academy.
The Navy commit became a four-time finalist, but getting this title his senior season was extra sweet.
“I definitely had a tougher bracket this year,” DuVall said while comparing his two titles. “Suds (Dubler of Glendale) is a tank and has been all of his life. I was glad to have some competition in the finals. Freshman year, I had a good bracket, but I’m just glad to bring it back home my senior year.”
DuVall won his title in dominant fashion — pinning his way through. In the finals against Dubler, DuVall built up a 4-1 lead before sticking the Vikings’ wrestler in 1:47.
According to Brinker, his senior his wrestling “on a whole other level.” It has showed all year long and into the postseason.
DuVall, himself, said he spent all offseason working on his game, training with multiple people.
“I was never really an offensive wrestler. I’d get nervous and wouldn’t take my shots,” DuVall said. “I just depended on them shooting in. This whole entire summer, I’ve been drilling with so many people, working on fast, explosive shots and having confidence in my moves. Instead of wrestling scared and letting go of things when they get in danger, I’m scrambling and shooting, and that is by far the biggest jump I’ve made this year.”
To put that into perspective, DuVall outscored his opponents 20-4 before flattening them for a fall. Brinker couldn’t be happier for his wrestler, and sometimes assistant coach.
“He just has to keep it going. He should be in the thick of it,” Brinker said. “Hopefully, it carries on through the next postseason tournaments and stuff.”
It wasn’t all about DuVall, though. Penns Valley had another finalist in Ben Sharer, who attempted to accomplish a feat his older brother, Andrew, did last season. Sharer, who came out for wrestling for the first time this year since fourth grade, came up just shy of claiming a title.
He opened with a 9-2 win in the quarterfinals and reached the finals with a pin. Sharer took on a much larger Marvin Beatty, of Marion Center, in the finals and was pinned.
“It’s funny because Andrew, his brother, jumps in the chair beside me,” Brinker said. “Ben let his shot fly. I’m thinking, ‘What are you doing?’ He let his shot fly, maybe 40 pounds lighter, he might have got it. It is a pretty neat story, maybe seven matches in his career and he was in the district finals. I’m just really happy for him.”
The Rams had a full team effort on display Saturday with Darlington and Watson battling their ways back to earn their regional spots.
The senior in Darlington dropped into the consolations early by suffering a pin to Central’s Ian Crouch. But Darlington turned right around and pinned Crouch when it mattered most to secure that regional berth.
Watson, who is a freshman, reached the semifinals, where he was pinned by eventual champion Jackson Arrington, of Forest Hills. Watson rebounded with back-to-back falls to earn his first district medal.
“Joel does a really good job of teaching us to wrestle through it and keep six minutes in our mind,” DuVall said. “I think you saw it in the perseverance of our team’s consolation matches. JD (Justin Darlington) coming back and pinning a kid he’s lost to twice. Ty, as a freshman, whooping butt. Dristen (Wolfe) fighting for his life against that one kid. The team did great in the consys.”
Brinker echoed his senior’s words: “It’s easy to talk about it, but to do it, and they did. You got to keep battling back. You reassess your goals after the first one is done. You got to change your mindset and go.”
Bald Eagle Area
Champions: Coen Bainey (113)
Other regional qualifiers: Lucas Fye (106), Cooper Gilham (126)
Other finishers: Hunter Gardner (DNP, 120), Heath Basalla (DNP, 152), Noah Foltz (DNP, 160), Brady Proctor (4th, 172)
Recap: When it comes to wrestling, the best wrestlers in the room tend to make the others around their weight better.
For Bald Eagle Area, that wrestler seems to be Bainey. The sophomore claimed his second consecutive District 6 title, but some of his training partners in Fye and Gilham are moving on with him to the regional tournament.
“It’s always nice to always scrap with both of them,” Bainey said. “They are both great opponents for me in the room. They work to get me better and I work to get them better. We work hard and push each other, and that’s our goal.”
Assistant coach Kyle Wallace agreed with Bainey: “It’s a lot of fun in the room. There is definitely some good scrapping out of those three. Lucas is quite a bit smaller than those other two, but from time to time, he’ll surprise you and get them. Coen being right in the middle is perfect. Him and Coop have some great scraps. Him and Lucas have some scraps. They just make each other better every single day.”
Bainey rolled to this year’s title by pinning his way there. He joked that he doesn’t like being on the mat long. His finals match against Penn Cambria’s Trent Hoover took 3:08 to finish, and that was too long for the sophomore.
One thing for sure, though, Bainey stays consistent. Wallace knows that, but he also knows if Bainey keeps that mindset of being on the mat for just long enough, he’ll go far.
“We stress pace with him and trying to get him in tip top shape,” Wallace said. “He moves so fast and is so strong. I tell him all the time, ‘There is not too many guys in the state that can keep his pace for six minutes.’ If he has six minutes of that in him, he’s going to win everything.”
Gilham was in his fourth district final, but wasn’t able to get over the hump. His previous losses were all by a handful of points to some stellar wrestlers in Arrington and Altoona’s Matt Sarbo.
This year, Gilham suffered a tough 3-0 loss to Arrington’s teammate in Easton Toth. He cruised to the finals though with a fall and an 18-3 technical fall in 5:54.
“Cooper Gilham has been so close to winning a district title, this makes the fourth time (as a) runner up, that works on you as a coach,” Wallace said. “Coop has some more time left here. He’s going to continue to get better and hopefully stand on the top of the podium next week.”
Fye looked to accomplish the feat Bainey set last year of winning a district crown as a freshman. He had a tall task in trying to top West Branch’s Landon Bainey, who he just lost to 10-0 in Wednesday’s sectional finals.
Things looked like they were going to go that same way as Landon Bainey raced out to a 7-0 lead early into the second period. However, Fye didn’t quit, he secured a reversal and three near-fall points to get within 7-5 to open the final period.
Fye started on top, but just couldn’t turn Landon Bainey one more time for near-fall points in the loss.
“His mentality as a freshman is in a very good place,” Wallace said. “We’ve been trying to get him to believe he is this good. He showed it tonight. We were pretty disappointed in the final score on Wednesday, but tonight he showed how good he can be. If we can get our hands on Bainey next week, we’d like to continue to see that gap close.”
Wallace said it was a roller coaster day seeing guys like Foltz, who work hard in the offseason and do “all the right things,” go 0-2. He said that there were matches that some of his wrestlers lost today that they expected to win.
Regardless, they accomplished their goal of qualifying for the team duals, so they could get everyone together again to make a run in the team dual postseason after the individual postseason is over — if it happens.
“I think we lost some matches today that hurt. We got into a rut there for a while, but we were able to pull out of it,” Wallace said. “We accomplished our goal, barely. We lost four good starters this week (not qualifying or injuries), and we want to get back together as a whole unit one more time and try to pursue a team dual title.”
Philipsburg-Osceola
Champions: None
Other regional qualifiers: Marcus Gable (3rd, 120), Austin Foster (3rd, 138), Hunter Weitoish (2nd, 160), Parker Moore (3rd, 215)
Other finishers: Scotty Frantz (DNP, 113), Luke Hughes (DNP, 145), Dom Shaw (DNP, 189), Chase Klinger (DNP, 285)
Recap: The Mounties brought the most wrestlers to the district championships with eight.
They ended up getting half of those guys into next weekend’s PIAA Southwest Regional tournament.
They had one finalist, but the other three fought their way back through the consolations.
“We are really pleased,” P-O coach Brad Pataky said. “They came ready to wrestle. We had four kids make it through to the regionals, and we anticipated with four or five kids to make it through, so we were right on track. Overall, it was a good effort on the day. The entire team wrestled hard.”
Weitoish was that lone finalist,re aching the district finals for the third time in his career. He won a title his freshman season in Class 3A, but finished second last year.
He matched up with a similarly built wrestler in Forest Hills’ Ryan Weyandt, who is a Lock Haven commit.
The pair got into a scramble late in the first period with, Weitoish hitting a peterson roll to secure the bout’s opening points. They would be the only points Weitoish scored.
Weyandt recorded a reversal with two seconds left in the period. In the second period, Weyandt rolled Weitoish to his back for two sets of near-fall points to hold a 7-2 lead at the end.
Weitoish tried to work Weyandt over in the third period from the top position, but just couldn’t get the points to win.
“Weyandt is a tough kid. He’s funky like Hunter,” Pataky said. “I was extremely pleased with Hunter. He wrestled the entire match. He didn’t stop. There are some situations that need cleaned up a little bit. We’ll work with him on that this coming week. He wrestled really well.”
Even though Gable didn’t make the finals at his weight, he still had a memorable first district tournament.
The freshman opened by pinning Central’s Jaxson Matthews, who was a returning state qualifier, in 42 seconds. After suffering a 13-3 loss in the semifinals, Gable responded by reaching the consolation finals with a pin of Mount Union’s AJ Chilcote.
Gable had to take on Matthews again for the regional qualifying spot. The result was the same — Gable sticking Matthews on his back — this time in 2:59.
“It’s always a good feeling to qualify for the next round of the postseason,” Pataky said. “When you can have a victory that solidifies it and in the fashion that he did today, it gives you a good measurement of where you’ve come since the beginning of the year, especially as a freshman. He’s a sponge and loves learning. He’s been getting his offense going. It is showing in the postseason.”
Moore and Foster are making a return trip to the regional tournament after going last season. For Foster, it will be his third trip. This year was a little more challenging to get there.
Moore finished third at districts last year, but that’s when the top six advanced. This year, that same finish barely got him through. He suffered a 16-1 technical fall to eventual champion in Briar Deline, of Huntingdon.
Moore then had to take on Westmont Hilltop’s Tanner Dluhos, who was the No. 1 seed and the wrestler Moore beat to claim the PIAA Southwest Regional title last year. Moore planted Dluhos on his back for a fall to stay alive and send Dluhos home.
“The past couple of weeks, it has been slow getting the momentum,” Pataky said of Moore. “After wrestling that first match, he wrestled the same kid he wrestled in the regional finals last year. I think that experience of wrestling that kid in a match, that one is going home and one is going on. I think it helped him recognize where we are at in the season. It’s a different type of season. I think it was a good eye opener for him and a confidence builder as well.”
Foster finished sixth last season in the district, which was the final spot, but he lost his final two matches during that span. This season, Foster left it in his own hands to qualify.
After suffering a semifinals’ loss to eventual champion in Glendale’s Brock McMillen, Foster rebounded to pin his consolation opponents on the way to the third-place finish.
“Austin is a kid who recognizes when it’s time to go,” Pataky said. “We’ve helped him develop that mindset that, ‘I lost to a guy, but so what.’ We always tell him wrestlers have short-term memories when it comes to losses. He didn’t dwell on it. You could see in his eyes he was ready to go for the next one.”
Saint Joseph’s Catholic Academy
Champions: None
Other regional qualifiers: Zack Witmer (2nd, 132), Amonn Ohl (2nd, 138)
Other finishers: None
Recap: Coach Brian Witmer said that his two remaining wrestlers in his son, Zack, and Ohl have a goal of being state champions, just like every other wrestler.
For Saint Joe’s, this postseason is all about surviving to advance and then winning when it matters most at the PIAA Championships.
“I’ve told them all week and the last several weeks. Their goals are five (tournaments) in a row,” Coach Witmer said. “Right now, we are two out of five (tournaments). They both are at the point, where they met the goals of moving on. We are only 40 percent of the way through it. There is a lot of wrestling yet to do yet.”
The Wolves’ duo didn’t have any troubles reaching the finals of their weight classes.
Zack Witmer outscored his opponents 31-4 to make the finals. He opened with a 17-2 technical fall over Tyrone’s Lukas Walk in 2:42.
Zack Witmer then topped Richland’s Allen Mangus 14-2 in the semifinals. In the finals, Witmer, who is a Columbia commit, was pinned by Arrington, who is a North Carolina State commit, in 4:30.
Ohl did what he does best — pin people. He opened by sticking Mount Union’s Trevor Skopic in 2:20. In the semifinals, Ohl put Westmont Hilltop’s Roy Dunn on his back in 2:28.
In the finals, Ohl came up just short in a 5-3 loss to McMillen, who is committed to Pitt.
“Those two kids they wrestled are Division I wrestlers for reasons, too,” Brian Witmer said. “There were four Division I wrestlers wrestling out there in those two matches. I thought Amonn wrestled a great tournament and finals match. He’s a Division I wrestler that the past two years, he’s been hurt.”
Brian Witmer told his guys that it didn’t matter that they lost on Saturday because they advanced, and their goals are still alive.
In fact, he feels his duo will see McMillen and Arrington again soon, so they better get used to them.
“If all goes well, they’ll dance three more times together,” Brian Witmer said. “I told them (his wrestlers), ‘Get to know them this weekend, give them a little goodbye kiss and get ready for next week, because we are going to do it all over again.”
District 6 Class 2A Championships
Saturday at Altoona
Team key: Bald Eagle Area (BEA), Bellwood-Antis (BA), Bishop McCort (BM), Blairsville (B), Cambria Heights (CH), Central (C), Central Cambria (CC), Claysburg-Kimmel (CK), Forest Hills (FH), Glendale (G), Huntingdon (H), Juniata Valley (JV), Marion Center (MC), Mount Union (MU), Penn Cambria (PC), Penns Valley (PV), Philipsburg-Osceola (PO), Richland (R), Southern Huntingdon (SH), St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy (SJ), Tyrone (T), West Branch (WB), Westmont Hilltop (WH)
Team scores: 1. Forest Hills 96.5, 2. Penns Valley 80, 3. Glendale 71, 4. Bald Eagle Area 64.5, 5. Philipsburg-Osceola 61, 6. Tyrone 59.5, 7. Huntingdon 50.5, 8. Central 44, T9. Marion Center 42, T9. Westmont Hilltop 42, 14. St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy 34.5
Finals
106: Landon Bainey, WB, dec. Lucas Fye, BEA, 7-5; 113: Coen Bainey, BEA, pinned Trent Hoover, PC, 3:08; 120: Mason Gibson, BM, tech. fall Hunter Walk, T, 23-8 (2:37); 126: Easton Toth, FH, dec. Cooper Gilham, BEA, 3-0; 132: Jackson Arrington, FH, pinned Zack Witmer, SJ, 4:30; 138: Brock McMillen, G, dec. Amonn Ohl, SJ, 5-3; 145: Cooper Warshel, R, major dec. Dustin Flinn, FH, 12-4; 152: Hudson Holbay, WH, dec. Zeke Dubler, G, 3-1; 160: Ryan Weyandt, FH, dec. Hunter Weitoish, PO, 7-2; 172: Malachi DuVall, PV, pinned Suds Dubler, G, 1:47; 189: Ian Eckenrode, CH, dec. Myles Baney, H, 4-0; 215: Briar Deline, H, pinned Ethan Yingling, WB, 1:26; 285: Marvin Beatty, MC, pinned Ben Sharer, PV, :56
Consolation finals
120: Marcus Gable, PO, pinned Jaxson Matthews, C, 2:59; 126: Justin Darlington, PV, pinned Ian Crouch, C, 4:21; 132: Ty Watson, PV, pinned Allen Mangus, R, 1:53; 138: Austin Foster, PO, pinned Noah Teeter, FH, 2:31; 152: Gavin Stewart, MC, pinned Dristen Wolfe, PV, 4:43; 172: Hunter Holbay, WH, pinned Brady Proctor, BEA, :57; 215: Parker Moore, PO, dec. Austin Wagner, PC, 3-0
Consolation semifinals
120: Gable, PO, pinned AJ Chilcote, MU, 1:36; 126: Darlington, PV, dec. Ethan Zukus, R, 1-0; 132: Watson, PV, pinned Lukas Walk, T, 2:27; 138: Foster, PO, pinned Cole Claycomb, CK, 1:54; 145: Adam McCullough, CC, dec. Luke Hughes, PO, 2-1 (UTB); 152: Wolfe, PV, pinned Austin McCloskey, PC, 1:38; 172: Proctor, BEA, pinned Jon Hajzus, CC, :44; 189: Ethan Kubat, CC, pinned Hunter Lyons, PV, 2:23; 215: Moore, PO, med. forfeit Zach Weakland, CH
Consolation quarterfinals
113: Connor LaMantia, WH, pinned Scotty Frantz, PO, 1:56; 120: Chilcote, MU, dec. Hunter Gardner, BEA, 7-3; 126: Darlington, PV, dec. Devin Grubb, H, 9-2; 145: McCullough, CC, dec. Noah Fetterolf, PV, 7-0; 152: Wolfe, PV, pinned Deegan Rittenhouse, MU, 4:25; Elijah Morder, JV, major dec. Heath Basalla, BEA, 12-0; 160: Tommy Cohenour, SH, dec. Noah Foltz, BEA, 8-4; 189: Lyons, PV, pinned Max Muto, WH, 4:44; Mason Bell, B, pinned Dom Shaw, PO, 3:49; 215: Moore, PO, pinned Tanner Dluhos, WH, 2:24; 285: Gunner Singleton, H, pinned Chase Klinger, PO, 4:42
Semifinals
106: Fye, BEA, dec. Korry Walls, T, 2-0; 113: Bainey, BEA, pinned Tony Dipaola, FH, 1:16; 120: Walk, T, major dec. Gable, PO, 13-3; 126: Gilham, BEA, tech. fall Zukus, R, 18-3 (5:54); 132: Arrington, FH, tech. fall Watson, PV, 19-4 (4:00); Witmer, SJ, major dec. Allen Mangus, R, 14-2; 138: McMillen, G, pinned Foster, PO, 1:49; Ohl, SJ, pinned Roy Dunn, WH, 2:28; 145: Warshel, R, pinned Hughes, PO, 4:46; 160: Weitoish, PO, dec. Aiden Taylor, BA, 7-0; 172: DuVall, PV, pinned Hajzus, CC, :53; 285: Sharer, PV, pinned Karter Quick, CC, 1:44
Quarterfinals
106: Fye, BEA, pinned Tyler Beisinger, C, 4:46; 113: Bainey, BEA, pinned Luke Uplinger, C, :59; Trent Hoover, PC, pinned Frantz, PO, :40; 120: Gable, PO, pinned Matthews, C, :42; George Campbell, G, tech. fall Gardner, BEA, 16-0 (2:50); 126: Gilham, BEA, pinned Brandt Patterson, PC, 1:43; Crouch, C, pinned Darlington, PV, 4:57; 132: Watson, PV, pinned Eden Wagner, H, 1:50; Witmer, SJ, tech. fall Walk, T, 17-2 (2:42); 138: Foster, PO, pinned Andrew Weaver, T, 1:04; Ohl, SJ, pinned Trevor Skopic, MU, 2:20; 145: Hughes, PO, dec. Xander Shank, BA, 6-2; Reese Wood, T, pinned Fetterolf, PV, 3:56; 152: Stewart, MC, tech. fall Wolfe, PV, 18-3 (5:52); Hud. Holbay, WH, pinned Basalla, BEA, :53; 160: Andrew McMonagle, C, pinned Foltz, BEA, 3:44; Weitoish, PO, pinned Garret Misiura, G, 2:25; 172: DuVall, PV, pinned Aiden Cattau, MC, 1:57; Hun. Holbay, WH, dec. Proctor, BEA, 12-7; 189: Tommy Hicks, T, pinned Lyons, PV, 5:37; Myles Baney, H, pinned Shaw, PO, :56; 215: Deline, H, tech. fall Moore, PO, 16-1 (3:59); 285: Beatty, MC, pinned Klinger, PO, 4:40; Sharer, PV, dec. Noah Gresh, WH, 9-2
