Here are Centre County’s high school wrestling leaders through Jan. 9

Another week of high school wrestling is in the books for Centre County’s teams.

There is just a little under a month left in the regular season — not much time left to continue adding stats. And that time could easily get shorter depending on if matches get postponed or canceled due to COVID-19 and weather.

This past week saw Bald Eagle Area, Bellefonte, Penns Valley and Philipsburg-Osceola all compete in duals. The Rams, Raiders and Mounties all took part in tournaments, too.

Bellefonte had a perfect week in duals as it went 5-0.

The Raiders started with a win over Penns Valley (44-30) on Tuesday. Then, Bellefonte went to P-O to compete in the Mountaineer Classic, where they picked up wins over Glendale (44-27), Altoona (38-27), the Mounties (32-28) and Punxsutawney (51-9).

The Raiders’ win over Punxsutawney was coach Mike Maney’s 200th of his career.

P-O went 3-1 in its tournament with wins over Glendale (45-27), Punxsutawney (60-18) and Altoona (42-30, for a second time this season).

Penns Valley rebounded after the loss to the Raiders with a 54-23 road win over Mifflinburg on Wednesday. The Rams then headed to Meadville for the Tool City Tournament.

They finished fourth as a team with 145 points. Penns Valley had a champ in Ty Watson (145 pounds) and a runner-up in Cole Felker (172). The Rams had Carter Homan (126, 7th), Colten Shunk (120, 3rd), David Martin (152, 4th), Ethan Fetterolf (145, 4th), Hunter Lyons (189, 6th), Jack Darlington (106, 3rd) and Micah Fetterolf (160, 6th) also place. Ethan Fetterolf nearly set up an all-Penns Valley final, but suffered a loss in the semifinals.

The Eagles suffered their first loss of the season to Clearfield (32-22) on Tuesday, but came back and earned a 47-15 victory over the Mounties on Thursday.

State College hasn’t competed on the mat since the Powerade Tournament on Dec. 29-30. The Little Lions had several wrestlers out, which caused their two duals last week to be postponed. The dual tournament State College was to be in on Saturday was canceled by Chambersburg High School.

Let’s take a look at the movement on the leaderboards:

Wins

A week ago, one wrestler was a lone at the top of this list.

This week, there are three tied at the top. They are just shy of having 20 wins on the year.

Watson, along with teammates Aidan O’Shea and Jude Swisher, are those three wrestlers leading the way for the county with 18 wins.

For Watson, all but one of his victories has come with bonus points — 16 pins, one forfeit and one decision. This week, the sophomore went a perfect 6-0 to stay unbeaten on the season. Watson had four alone on his way to the 145-pound title at the Tool City Tournament. He had a pin of Bellefonte’s Alex James to start the week on Tuesday and received a forfeit on Wednesday at Mifflinburg.

O’Shea and Swisher were 5-0 this week.

Swisher remained unbeaten on the year like Watson. All but one of his wins this week came with bonus — 1-0 defeat of Altoona’s freshman phenom Luke Sipes in the Mountaineer Classic. Swisher had four victories on the day at the Mountaineer Classic, which propelled him to the Outstanding Wrestler award.

O’Shea has just two losses this season, and looks poised to make a return trip to the PIAA Championships since going as a sophomore. The senior was 5-0 this week with all bonus-point victories.

Shunk also had six wins this week. Four of those wins came on his way to a third-place finish at the Tool City Tournament. He had all bonus points in all of his wins this week too.

Shunk now has 15 wins on the season for a tie with teammate Darlington for sixth in the county. Felker had a 4-0 week to climb to 16 wins this season. He is tied for fourth in the county.

Bellefonte’s Garrett Choates also had four wins this week to climb onto the leaderboard. Choates has 13 wins this season to be tied with three other wrestlers for ninth most in the county.

Here were the wrestlers that were able to get to 10-plus wins this week:

Bald Eagle Area: Gavin Guenot and Lucas Fye earned their 10th win of the season in the Clearfield dual. Guenot (11 wins) pinned the Bison’s Xavier Lutz in 53 seconds. Fye (11) racked up a 10-0 major decision on Evan Davis.

Bellefonte: Choates’ 10th win of the season was a forfeit against Penns Valley, but the Raiders also had Gage Long and Addison Shawley each get their 10th victories in the opening dual of the Mountaineer Classic. Long (12) pinned Glendale’s Dayton Johnson in 1:33. Shawley (12) pinned the Vikings’ Landon Gallaher in 57 seconds.

Penns Valley: Shunk’s 10th win came by way of forfeit against Bellefonte. Shunk’s teammates Ethan Fetterolf and Hunter Lyons joined in on getting victory No. 10 this week. Fetterolf (11) pinned Franklin’s Drew Kockler in 5:33 of their 145-pound quarterfinals match of the Tool City Tournament. Lyons (11) pinned Warren’s Connor Hecei in 57 seconds of their 189-pound consolation second round match.

Philipsburg-Osceola: The Mounties had a pair of wrestlers in Marcus Gable and Austin Foster get to 10 wins on the year. Gable (11) pinned Punxsutawney’s David Kunselman in 1:15 of the Mounties’ fourth round dual of the Mountaineer Classic. Foster (10) pinned BEA’s Mason Reese in 2:36 during the dual on Thursday.

Pins

Watson reclaimed the throne here after being tied with Swisher last week.

The Rams’ wrestlers collected five pins in his six victories this week. Watson opened the week by sticking Bellefonte’s Alex James in 49 seconds on Tuesday.

Then, Watson pinned his way to the Tool City title — four such wins. His quickest came in the second round when he decked Conneaut’s Mitchell Blood in 42 seconds. In the finals, Watson stuck Erie McDowell’s Logan Carrick in 5:01.

Swisher isn’t too far behind Watson. The Penn commit collected four pins this week, with three of them coming during the Mountaineer Classic.

Swisher opened the week by pinning the Rams’ Micah Fetterolf in 3:00. On Saturday, the senior opened and closed the day with pins. All but one of Swisher’s victories on Saturday were pins.

Felker became the third county wrestler to collect 10-plus pins this week. He has 11 on the year, which is good for third in the county. The senior had three falls this week, with his 10th coming in the quarterfinals of the Tool City Tournament. Felker stuck Girard’s Jeremiah Colon in 1:11.

Lyons and Shawley each added four pins this week to climb up the leaderboard. Lyons is up to nine on the year, which is good for fourth in the county. Shawley has seven now on the year, which is tied with four other county wrestlers for seventh.

Gable had three falls this week to get to seven and is part of that group that includes Shawley.

Fastest falls

After weeks of not having new times added to this list, there were four new times this week.

A pair of those times came at the top with Fye and Noah Fetterolf claiming the county’s quickest victories.

Each athlete earned a nine-seconds pin this week.

Fye’s win came first when he put P-O’s Layne Russell on his back on Thursday. Fetterolf’s came in his Tool City Tournament opener, when he stuck Grove City’s Ryan Faler.

Another Rams wrestler, Micah Fetterolf, added a new time this week. He pinned Erie McDowell’s Ayoob Al-abdullah in 18 seconds of their 160-pound second round match of the Tool City Tournament. Fetterolf’s time is good for a tie for sixth in the county with State College’s Pierson Manville.

The other new time this week came from the Mounties’ Nick Coudriet. Coudriet pinned Glendale’s Sam Cherry in 22 seconds of P-O’s opening dual of the Mountaineer Classic.

Coudriet’s time is tied with three other wrestlers for ninth in the county.

Technical falls & major decisions

O’Shea remains the leader in the technical fall category this week, but he has put plenty of space between him and the next closest wrestlers.

The Franklin & Marshall commit collected four technical falls this week as part of his five wins. He outscored three of his opponents by a total of 48-1. The score of his final technical fall was not immediately available.

O’Shea started the week by topping Penns Valley’s Nate Long, 15-0, in 4:00. In the second round dual against Altoona at the Mountaineer Classic, the Raiders’ wrestler topped Wyatt Young 17-0 in 2:24. In the next round, O’Shea racked up a 16-1 win over P-O’s Scott Frantz, and O’Shea finished the Mountaineer Classic with another technical fall against Punxsutawney.

Shunk and Choates each added two technical falls this week to move into a two-way tie for second in the county with three. Shunk outscored his two opponents 32-0 in the Tool City Tournament — identical 16-0 wins. Choates’ technical falls came in the Mountaineer Classic, where he outscored his opponents 35-3. Choates’ biggest win was a 19-2 defeat of Altoona’s Eli Wisor in 3:58.

BEA’s Noah Foltz was the only other wrestler to add a technical fall this week when he topped P-O’s Dominic Shaw 15-0 in 3:45 of wrestling action on Thursday.

There is now a three-tie at the top of the major decisions category. Homan topped Meadville’s Caden Ream, 9-0, in the fourth round of consolations to collect his third major decision of the year.

Homan is tied with the Eagles’ Bainey and Foltz.

Fye, Ethan Fetterolf and Bellefonte’s Noah Weaver each picked up their second major decisions of the season to become the ninth, 10th and 11th wrestlers, respectively, to have more than one major decision.

Fye beat Clearfield’s Evan Davis 10-0 on Tuesday. Fetterolf topped Warren’s Grant Heeter 10-0 in the Tool City consolation semifinals. Weaver racked up a 12-0 win over Altoona’s Jordan Carlucci in the Mountaineer Classic.

Leaders

Wins

Pins

Fastest Falls

Technical Falls

Major Decisions

Nate Cobler

Centre Daily Times

814-231-4609

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.