How Centre County wrestlers fared at US Marine Corps Nationals, UWW Cadet World Championships
While it’s technically the offseason for high school wrestling, Centre County wrestlers were plenty busy this past week as nine local athletes competed for Team Pennsylvania at the U.S. Marine Corps national wrestling championships in Fargo, North Dakota.
State College had the most athletes with Pierson Manville (16U classification), Owen Woolcott (Juniors), Lance Urbas (Juniors) and Harrison Schoen (Juniors) competing. Bald Eagle Area had Coen Bainey (Juniors) and Jeffre Pifer (16U) there, along with Bellefonte’s Jude Swisher (Juniors) and Ethan Richner (Juniors), and Philipsburg-Osceola’s Austin Foster (Juniors).
Manville, Woolcott, Schoen, Swisher and Richner pulled double duty competing in both styles. However, it was Manville who had the best week.
The Little Lions rising sophomore claimed a 16U 145-pound Greco Roman national title, while finishing second in freestyle.
“Most guys now only do one style, which is not smart,” Manville told the Centre Daily Times on Saturday, “because they are the same guys that want to make world teams. My motto is: ‘make teams, make teams, make teams,’ which is to do both styles. I guess that makes me feel good about being in both styles.”
Manville was one of three Greco Roman champions that Team Pennsylvania had on its way to claiming the 16U team title with 197 points. Minnesota finished second with 128 points and Wisconsin rounded out the top three with 101 points.
Manville was the top seed of his weight class and he showed why. He used three technical falls to make the quarterfinals, outscoring his opponents 32-0.
In the quarterfinals, Manville pinned his opponent in 27 seconds. He reached the finals with an injury default victory.
In the finals, Manville took on Wisconsin’s Brett Back, who he previously beat in the freestyle semifinals. The result was the same in Greco Roman, with Manville earning a win, 6-1, for the title.
“I had a little plan already ready for him, but he changed up his style from when I wrestled in freestyle,” Manville said. “In freestyle, I had a more dominant fashion of winning. In Greco, he changed up what I had planned on how to wrestle him. I had a specific tactic on how to score and show him passive. I still came through.”
The one point scored by Back was all that Manville surrendered in his title run. He claimed his first “stop sign” trophy, which now gives the Manville family a total of nine titles. Manville’s older brothers, Mason and Carson, each claimed four titles apiece in their high school careers.
During the freestyle portion of the tournament, which was the first style to compete, Manville outscored his opponents 40-7 en route to making the finals. He had three technical falls and a pin.
He suffered a 4-2 defeat to Connecticut’s William Henckel in the finals.
Manville was one of four Pennsylvania wrestlers to make the freestyle finals. They all suffered losses, but the team still won the 16U team title with 223 points. Minnesota (139 points) and Ohio (122) rounded out the top three.
Pifer also competed in Manville’s weight class in the freestyle competition. He went 1-2.
Swisher was the only other county wrestler to claim the honor of All-American by finishing in the top eight of his weight class, earning a fifth-place finish.
He reached the junior 138-pound quarterfinals, where he dropped an 11-1 technical fall loss to New Jersey’s Ty Whalen, who finished third. Swisher rebounded with a 14-4 technical fall to reach the consolation quarterfinals.
The senior then made the consolation semifinals with a 10-2 victory, but was kicked into the fifth-place match with an 8-5 loss. Swisher closed out his freestyle competition with a 7-6 win over Wisconsin’s Blaine Brenner.
In Greco Roman action, Swisher went 5-2. He opened with 10-0 technical fall, and was kicked into the consolations when he was pinned in the next round. He won four matches in the consolation bracket before being eliminated.
Richner, who is going to continue his wrestling career in college at South Dakota State, competed at 182 pounds of the junior division. He went 4-2 in freestyle competition with all four wins being technical falls. In Greco Roman action, Richner went 2-2.
Woolcott, who competed at 132 pounds of the junior division, was 4-2 in freestyle action. He went 1-2 in Greco Roman competition.
Schoen was a combined 2-4 wrestling between freestyle and Greco Roman. The State College graduate competed in the junior 285-pound weight class with his victories coming by way of pins in Greco Roman action.
Bainey went 3-2 in the junior 113-pound freestyle bracket. He reached the quarterfinals, but dropped back-to-back losses to be eliminated. He opened his tournament with 10-0 tech fall in 1:24.
Foster competed in the junior 152-pound freestyle weight class and went 2-2. Both of his victories were technical falls and he outscored his opponents 20-0 in the wins.
Urbas, who was to compete in the junior 170-pound freestyle weight class, suffered a knee injury during training camp. He tried to recover and hoped to compete, but ultimately had to withdraw from competition the morning he was to start.
BEA’s Stem sees world stage
Eagles senior Grace Stem traveled to Budapest, Hungary, last week to compete for the United States in the United World Wrestling Cadet World Championships. While Stem dropped her first and only match at the tournament, she was still a part of history as the women’s freestyle Cadet World Team won its first-ever team title, with 149 points. India was second with 139, and Russia third with 134.
Stem, who helped spearhead the approval of a girls wrestling team at BEA, competed on Wednesday in the 65 kilogram weight class. She took on Turkey’s Duygu Gen.
Gen grabbed the first points of the match with a takedown with 1:14 left in the first period. Stem was able to secure a takedown of her own with 17 seconds remaining in the period to tie the bout 2-2.
With 45 seconds remaining in the match, Stem secured a takedown to take a 4-2 lead. 20 seconds later, Stem secured another takedown to lead 6-2.
However, Gen threw a headlock. No points were awarded by the official on the mat, but Turkey’s coaches challenged the call. Gen was awarded the points on the review and picked up a 6-6 criteria win to end Stem’s time in the tournament.
This story was originally published July 24, 2021 at 4:01 PM.
