Here are Centre County’s high school wrestling leaders through Jan. 17

The high school wrestling season is sitting one month away from the start of the postseason — at least for the Class 2A teams in Centre County.

Over the past week, Bald Eagle Area, Bellefonte, Penns Valley, Philipsburg-Osceola and State College had at least one dual. The Eagles and Mounties competed in dual tournaments on Saturday, while the Red Raiders and Little Lions took part in the Escape the Rock tournament, which started on Saturday and ended on Sunday.

BEA and P-O had the most dual action.

The Eagles went a perfect 5-0 this week. They topped the Rams 40-29 on Wednesday. On Saturday, BEA had wins over Susquenita (47-12), Juniata (50-11), West Perry (35-31) and Selinsgrove (40-27) to claim the Juniata Duals team title.

Coen Bainey (120 pounds), Jeffre Pifer (138/145), Caleb Close (172) and Noah Foltz (189) were the lone Eagles wrestlers to go 4-0 during the Juniata Duals.

The Mounties lost to Huntingdon 37-30 on Tuesday. However, they rebounded nicely to go 2-1 during the Husky Duals at Mifflin County High School on Saturday. P-O topped Manheim Central (54-24) and Trinity (48-22), but fell to the host Huskies (64-6).

Marcus Gable (138/145) was the lone Mounties wrestler to have a perfect day during the Husky Duals.

Bellefonte was 2-0 in its duals, earning home wins over Hollidaysburg (50-21, Tuesday) and Jersey Shore (54-12, Wednesday). There were a handful of Raiders that earned wins in both duals, which included Cameron Garcia (106), Garrett Choates (113), Aidan O’Shea (132/138), Alex James (138/152), Gage Long (145), Jude Swisher (160) and Addison Shawley (189).

Bellefonte finished 20th as a team with 56.5 points at Escape the Rock. It had one placer in Swisher, who finished third.

State College had a dual with Mifflin County that was a nail-bitter throughout. However, the Little Lions came up short in a 34-28 loss on Wednesday. Winners for the Little Lions were Johnathan Coates (106), Asher Cunningham (120), Eric Weaver (126), Owen Barr (138), Pierson Manville (145) and Nick Pavlechko (215).

State College finished 11th as a team with 78.5 points. It had placewinners in Cunningham (6th), Manville (5th) and Pavlechko (1st).

The Rams had the lightest week of work with just one dual. They suffered that loss to BEA, but winners for Penns Valley in the dual were David Martin (152), Micah Fetterolf (160), Cole Felker (172), Jack Darlington (106), Carter Homan (126) and Ty Watson (145).

Here’s a look at where movement was made this week on the leaderboards.

Wins

This week saw three county wrestlers go over 20 wins. There are now 30 athletes that have at least 10 victories this year, too.

Swisher, who leads the county with 25 wins, added seven wins alone this week. He went perfect in Bellefonte’s duals. The Penn commit then strung together five victories to finish third in the Escape the Rock Tournament. Swisher did suffer his first loss of the season too, 4-3 in the 145-pound semifinals.

His 20th win of the year came on Wednesday in the Red Raiders’ dual with Jersey Shore. Swisher pinned Kale Rossin 1:39.

O’Shea is second in the county now with 22 wins. He had four this week — a pair in dual action and a pair in the Escape the Rock. The Franklin & Marshall commit collected his 20th win in that Jersey Shore dual on Wednesday with a forfeit.

Manville was that third wrestler to go over 20 wins this week. He had five this week — four alone for his previously mentioned fifth-place finish. Manville has 21 on the year, which is third in the county.

His 20th win came with a medical forfeit over Legacy Christian Academy’s Camron Lacure in the Escape the Rock quarterfinals.

Cunningham and Watson are tied for fourth in the county with 19 wins. Watson had just one win this week, but Cunningham had five thanks in part to four on way to his sixth place finish at Escape the Rock.

There is a three-way tie for sixth in the county with 18 wins this year. Choates, Shawley and Bainey are all sitting two wins shy of 20 on the year. Of the three, Bainey had the most wins this week with five, but the Raiders’ duo each had four a piece.

Pavlechko, Close, Pifer and Foltz are just off the leaderboard, but they each had big weeks to climb up the board. Pavlechko only has 14 wins so far, but he had five victories this week. Four of Pavlechko’s victories came on his way to his title at Escape the Rock. Close had a 4-1 week with all four coming during the Eagles run to the Juniata Duals title to get to 17 on the year. All four of the freshman’s wins had bonus points.

Pifer and Foltz each went 5-0 this week to get to 14 wins.

Here’s which wrestlers go to 10-plus wins this week:

Bald Eagle Area: Foltz (14 wins, No. 10 was pin of Penns Valley’s Josh Spahr in 32 seconds on Wednesday up a weight at 215), Pifer (14, No. 10 was pin of Penns Valley’s Bella DuVall in 14 seconds)

Bellefonte: Noah Weaver (11, No. 10 was pin of Hollidaysburg’s Noah Horne in 2:35 on Tuesday)

Penns Valley: Carter Homan (10, No. 10 was a pin of Bald Eagle Area’s Hunter Gardner in 3:49 on Wednesday)

Philipsburg-Osceola: Chase Klinger (10, No. 10 was pin of Trinity’s Ryan Dalton in 1:50 of third round dual of Husky Duals on Saturday)

State College: Pavlechko (14, No. 10 was a pin of Mifflin County’s Tucker Crum in 1:55 on Wednesday), Carter Weaverling (12, No. 10 was a 15-0 technical fall of Delaware Valley’s Brennan Colville in 3:40 of their 189-pound first round bout of Escape the Rock)

Pins

Watson and Swisher have been trading the top spot of this category for several weeks now. They’ve even been tied too, which is where things stand this week.

The pair lead the county with 17 pins a piece. Watson had only one bout this week and fittingly it was a pin of BEA’s Preston Reed in 1:42.

Swisher had two falls this week, and is only 15 pins away from setting Bellefonte’s season pin mark, which is at 31 and held by Mitchell Port. Swisher stuck Jersey Shore’s Kale Ross in 1:39 on Tuesday. He then opened his Escape the Rock Tournament with a pin of Caravel Academy’s Jordan Miller in 1:40.

Shawley and Gable each had four falls this week.

Shawley has 12 on the year, which is good for third in the county. Gable has 11, which is a tie for fourth in the county with Manville and Felker. Manville had three pins to get to 11 this week.

The Raiders’ wrestler opened by sticking Hollidaysburg’s Luke Onkst in 3:45 on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Shawley decked Jersey Shore’s Dyllian Ross for his 10th pin of the year in 4:57. During Escape the Rock, he had two — one to open his tournament and another to open his consolation bracket.

Gable stuck Huntingdon’s Eric Mykut in 1:23 to start the week on Tuesday. On Saturday during the Husky Duals, the sophomore went 3-0 with three pins — Mifflin County’s Lucas Sheetz in 1:06, Manheim Central’s Brodie Daugherty in 1:14 (Gable’s 10th of the year) and Trinity’s Artyom Helling in 21 seconds.

Here’s which wrestlers got to 10-plus pins:

Philipsburg-Osceola: Austin Foster (10 pins, No. 10 was sticking Trinity’s Jacob Scherra in 41 seconds of the third round dual of the Husky Duals on Saturday)

State College: Manville (11, No. 10 was putting Loudoun County’s Luke Robertson his back in 1:56 of the third round of Escape the Rock)

Major decisions

Bainey and Foltz remained in the lead of the county in this category. The pair were joined by Homan last week, but the Eagles’ duo added another major decision this week to get to four on the year.

Bainey’s major decision came first as he topped Penns Valley’s Colten Shunk on Wednesday, 13-5. Foltz earned his major decision in BEA’s final dual of the Juniata Duals, when he topped Selinsgrove’s Tucker Teats, 10-0.

Cunningham leaped up the leaderboard to a tie for third in the county as he got to three major decisions on the season. He is tied with Homan.

The freshman had a 10-0 shutout of Mifflin County’s Hunter Johnson on Wednesday. He then used a 15-4 win over Norwin’s Luke Passarelli to open his Escape the Rock Tournament.

Weaverling earned his second major decision of the season when he beat St. Joseph Regional’s Chad Falcon, 11-1, in their 189-pound consolation second round of Escape the Rock.

Swisher, Pavlechko and the Eagles’ Gardner and Gavin Guenot each earned their first major decision this week.

Technical falls & Fastest falls

The leader remained the same in the technical fall category with O’Shea, who collected his eighth such victory this week.

He racked up a 16-1 defeat of Hollidaysburg’s Jacob Brua in 3:30 on Tuesday.

BEA’s Close had no technical falls coming into this week, but he added three to climb into a tie for second in the county. All of the technical falls came during the Juniata Duals.

Close outscored his opponents 46-0.

Long is one of three other wrestlers tied with Close as he earned his third technical fall this week. Long hung a 17-1 defeat on Council Rock North’s Ethan Mercado in 5:00 of their first round 138-pound first round bout of Escape the Rock.

There were two new times added to the fastest falls list this week.

Pifer’s previously mentioned 14 seconds pin of DuVall became the fifth fastest win of the county this year.

Gable’s previously mentioned 21 seconds pin of Helling is tied for ninth best in the county.

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.