Here are Centre County’s high school wrestling stat leaders through Feb. 21
All six of Centre County’s wrestling teams got their postseasons underway this week.
Bald Eagle Area, Penns Valley, Philipsburg-Osceola and Saint Joseph’s Catholic Academy began on Wednesday with a sectional tournament to qualify for the District 6 Class 2A Championships.
The four schools combined to send 24 wrestlers to the district tournament. Of those 24, 13 advanced to make the PIAA Southwest Regional tournament next weekend at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
The Eagles’ Coen Bainey and the Rams’ Malachi DuVall each claimed their second District 6 crown. It was Bainey’s second consecutive district title, while DuVall had not won a district title since his freshman year with the Wolves.
State College and Bellefonte had to wait until Friday to get their postseasons underway in the District 6 Class 3A Championships. The Little Lions crowned a pair of champs in Pierson and Carson Manville on way to winning the team’s first District 6 Class 3A team title under coach Ryan Cummins.
The Red Raiders had a pair of champs in Lane Aikey, who made his season debut in the postseason, and Ethan Richner, who won his third straight district title.
With all the action, there was plenty of movement on the leaderboards:
Wins
All season long, there has been a three-way tie at the top with Bellefonte’s Ethan Richner, Ethan Rossman and Jude Swisher.
This week it changed to a two-way tie with Richner and Swisher jumping up to 17 wins on the season. Richner and Swisher each added two wins in the district tournament, but Richner claimed a title as Swisher finished in a true second place.
With all the action this week for Class 2A wrestlers, Bainey made a huge jump up the leaderboard. He was just off the leaderboard a week ago, but after amassing five wins this week, collecting a District 6 Section 2 title and District 6 crown, the sophomore is tied for third in the county with 16 wins.
Bainey is joined by Rossman, who came up just short of claiming a district title in a loss to Carson Manville.
Speaking of Manville, Pierson Manville won three matches on way to the 132-pound District 6 title as a freshman, avenging his lone loss of the season from Swisher earlier in the year. Pierson Manville now has 15 wins this year, which is good for fifth in the county.
There’s a logjam at sixth in the county with four wrestlers holding 14 wins. BEA’s Cooper Gilham had a trio of wins this week to get to 14 on the season. State College’s Lance Urbas had two to climb into that four-way tie.
Rounding out the top 10 are four wrestlers that each have 13 wins this season. The Eagles’ Lucas Fye is the only one in that group that can still add to his season total, as the others had their seasons come to an end.
Here’s which Centre County wrestlers earned win No. 10 this week:
Bald Eagle Area: Mason Reese (10 wins), pinned West Branch’s Parker Johnson in the 138-pound quarterfinals of the Section 2 tournament on Wednesday in 2:31
Penns Valley: DuVall (10), pinned Glendale’s Suds Dubler in the 172-pound district finals in 1:47
Philipsburg-Osceola: Hunter Weitoish (10), defeated Bellwood-Antis’ Aiden Taylor 7-0 in the 160-pound district semifinals, also only five wins away from 100 in his career
State College: Bailey Weaverling (10), edged Central Mountain’s Zane Cooper, 4-3, in the 120-pound district consolation finals; Owen Woolcott (10), pinned Mifflin County’s Blake Aumiller in 126-pound district semifinals in 3:14; Ty Price (11), had 10-0 major decision of Juniata’s Jonathan Kauffman in 215-pound district consolation finals
Pins
Richner has done nothing but pin people all season long.
He pinned his way to the 160-pound district title, which gave him 11 on the season. The 11 pins gave Richner his lead back over his teammate Rossman.
The Bellefonte duo are the only county wrestlers to have double-digit pins so far.
Richner’s 10th pin came in the District 6 semifinals, when he stuck Central Mountain’s Damien Galentine.
As Bainey leapfroged up on the wins board, he did the same in this category. All five of his victories this week were pins. The sophomore now has nine on the season, which is third in the county, with plenty of action remaining.
DuVall also had five pins this week to put him in a tie for fourth in the county with eight. He is tied with Gilham, who added two pins this week.
There are four wrestlers tied with seven pins on the season for sixth place with the Mounties’ Austin Foster joining that mix after he had three falls on his way to earning his third straight regional.
Foster’s teammate Marcuse Gable is part of a group of wrestlers tied for 10th with six pins on the season. He had three in the district tournament with two of them coming against a returning state qualifier in Central’s Jaxson Matthews.
Technical falls
After sitting in a tie with Swisher last week, Urbas has reclaimed his throne in this category.
The Little Lions’ senior had two technical fall victories during the District 6 Championships to climb to seven on the year. He opened his tournament with one and closed with one.
Urbas racked up a 21-6 victory in 5:50 over Bellefonte’s Stephen Ivicic in the 172-pound semifinals. He then took on Hollidaysburg’s Aaron Sleeth in a true second-place match later.
Urbas teched the Golden Tigers wrestlers for the third time this season, this one was 18-3 in 3:36.
Pierson Manville, who has trailed Swisher and Urbas all season long, climbed into a tie with Swisher for second with five technical falls this season. Manville used an 18-1 victory over Altoona’s Damion Finnegan to reach the finals.
Saint Joseph’s Zack Witmer got out of a jam of wrestlers as he earned his third technical fall of the season. He beat Tyrone’s Lukas Walk 17-2 in the district quarterfinals.
As Witmer left the pack of wrestlers with two technical falls, the Red Raiders’ Nate Smith joined the pack. He shut out Altoona’s Jordan Carlucci 16-0 in the 126-pound district quarterfinals.
Major decisions
There’s now a three-way tie at the top here as Gilham joined Woolcott and Bellefonte’s Garret Choates with three major decisions this season.
Gilham topped Penns Valley Justin Darlington, 16-2, in the 126-pound Section 2 finals.
Witmer previously had no major decisions this season, but this week he collected two. He outscored his opponents 24-4.
Witmer topped the Rams’ Ty Watson 10-2 in the 132-pound Section 2 finals. In the district tournament, he tallied a 14-2 win over Richland’s Allen Mangus to make the finals.
Fastest Falls
There were three new times added this week.
Richner added his fourth fastest time of the season. He tied his top mark at 13 seconds with the previously mentioned win over Galentine.
Richner is also joined now at the top as Carson Manville had a 13-seconds pin this week. The State College senior stuck Juniata’s Josh Pacheco to open his first District 6 tournament.
Penns Valley’s Cole Felker added the last time this week. The Rams’ junior pinned Saint Joseph’s Josh Hershbine in 24 seconds during their 160-pound Section 2 consolation quarterfinals match.
Wins
| Name | School | Total |
| T1. Ethan Richner | Bellefonte | 17 |
| T1. Jude Swisher | Bellefonte | 17 |
| T3. Coen Bainey | Bald Eagle Area | 16 |
| T3. Ethan Rossman | Bellefonte | 16 |
| 5. Pierson Manville | State College | 15 |
| T6. Cooper Gilham | Bald Eagle Area | 14 |
T6. Aidan O’Shea | Bellefonte | 14 |
| T6. Gage Long | Bellefonte | 14 |
| T6. Lance Urbas | State College | 14 |
| 10. 4 wrestlers | 13 |
Falls
| Name | School | Total |
| 1. Ethan Richner | Bellefonte | 11 |
| 2. Ethan Rossman | Bellefonte | 10 |
| 3. Coen Bainey | Bald Eagle Area | 9 |
| T4. Cooper Gilham | Bald Eagle Area | 8 |
| T4. Malachi DuVall | Penns Valley | 8 |
| T6. Lucas Fye | Bald Eagle Area | 7 |
| T6. Jude Swisher | Bellefonte | 7 |
| T6. Nate Smith | Bellefonte | 7 |
| T6. Austin Foster | Philipsburg-Osceola | 7 |
| T10. 5 wrestlers | 6 |
Fastest Fall
| Name | School | Time |
| T1. Ethan Richner | Bellefonte | :13 |
| T1. Ethan Richner | Bellefonte | :13 |
| T1. Carson Manville | State College | :13 |
| 4. Pierson Manville | State College | :15 |
| 5. Ethan Rossman | Bellefonte | :18 |
| 6. Noah Foltz | Bald Eagle Area | :21 |
| T7. Ethan Richner | Bellefonte | :23 |
| T7. Ethan Richner | Bellefonte | :23 |
| 9. Cole Felker | Penns Valley | :24 |
| 10. Ethan Rossman | Bellefonte | :28 |
Technical Falls
| Name | School | Total |
| 1. Lance Urbas | State College | 7 |
| T2. Jude Swisher | Bellefonte | 5 |
| T2. Pierson Manville | State College | 5 |
| 4. Zack Witmer | St. Joseph’s | 3 |
| T5. Garrett Choates | Bellefonte | 2 |
| T5. Nate Smith | Bellefonte | 2 |
| T5. Malachi DuVall | Penns Valley | 2 |
| T5. Owen Woolcott | State College | 2 |
| T9. 12 wrestlers | 1 |
Major Decisions
| Name | School | Total |
| T1. Cooper Gilham | Bald Eagle Area | 3 |
| T1. Garrett Choates | Bellefonte | 3 |
| T1. Owen Woolcott | State College | 3 |
| T4. Mason Reese | Bald Eagle Area | 2 |
| T4. Noah Foltz | Bald Eagle Area | 2 |
| T4. Aidan O’Shea | Bellefonte | 2 |
| T4. Ethan Rossman | Bellefonte | 2 |
| T4. Justin Darlington | Penns Valley | 2 |
| T4. Parker Moore | Philipsburg-Osceola | 2 |
| T4. Zack Witmer | St. Joseph’s | 2 |
| T4. Kyle Martin | State College | 2 |
| T4. Thomas Hill | State College | 2 |
| T4. Ty Price | State College | 2 |