Bald Eagle Area’s Coen Bainey gets revenge in claiming Ultimate Warrior wrestling title
It’s not uncommon to see the same wrestlers square off all the time if they are some of the best in the state.
Let’s use Bald Eagle Area’s Coen Bainey for example.
The Eagles’ junior finished fourth in the state tournament last season, but he had to keep encountering a familiar foe in Bentworth’s Chris Vargo all throughout the postseason.
The pair wrestled three times in the postseason, with Bainey only winning once. Vargo ended Bainey’s season with a loss in the third-place match at the PIAA Championships.
On Saturday, the duo squared off again in the 120-pound title match of the Ultimate Warrior tournament at West Branch High School. It was a match that favored Bainey in the end, but he wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
“It’s amazing,” Bainey said of his win. “It’s just awesome to get to wrestle great opponents and have matches like that. I guarantee we are going to see each other further down the road. It’s just the way wrestling is, and how it’s going to be this year. I can’t wait for more matches with him, it’s always fun.”
Fun would be an interesting way of describing the title tilt, but heart-stopping might be the best way.
Vargo and Bainey got into a flurry early in the first period of their bout, but neither was able to score points. Vargo took the lead with 1 minute, 20 seconds left in the second period when he escaped from Bainey.
The third period opened with Vargo holding that 1-0 lead, but according to Bainey the match had a similar feel to the pair’s state tournament bout.
“In that match (Saturday night), it came down to the end at top-bottom,” Bainey explained, “just like it did at states. I rode him out, he rode me out, and we went to sudden victory. This time, I didn’t ride him out, so I knew I needed to get out on my own to be able to either take it to OT or win the match.”
Vargo had a tough ride on Bainey. Several times the Eagles’ wrestler would get to his feet, but Vargo would return him to the mat.
One of those mat returns helped Bainey prep for his final push at the end of the bout. He said that on one return to the mat, he felt Vargo lock in an underhook on his one leg.
Near the end of the bout, Vargo again went for a mat return, but this time he didn’t lock in that underhook. Instead, he went for a wrap around Bainey’s waist.
Bainey went for a throw, and was successful by throwing Vargo to his back for a reversal just before the final buzzer, and a 2-1 win.
“You hit it when you feel it. I felt it,” Bainey said. “It just happened to be that close to the end of the match. I still did it in the time frame and got the win.”
Bainey, who was the No. 2 seed, had no problems making the semifinals. He opened with back-to-back technical falls, outsourcing his opponents 30-0 in just over five minutes of wrestling.
Bainey pinned Philipsburg-Osecola’s Nick Coudriet in 1:46 to make the semis, where he topped Juniata’s Casey Smith, 7-3, to setup that finals match with Vargo.
BEA coach Ron Guenot was happy to see how Bainey wrestled his finals match. He noted that Bainey was off the mat for a week to recover from a “slight injury.”
“Coen wrestled a smart match (in the finals). He wrestled a full six minutes,” Guenot said. “He didn’t stop or quit. It was nice to see.”
Bainey wasn’t the lone BEA wrestler to place at the Ultimate Warrior. He had four teammates in Noah Foltz (189 pounds, second), Gavin Guenot (106, seventh), Lucas Fye (113, fourth) and Caleb Close (172, fifth) get on the podium as the Eagles finished fifth in the team race with 127 points.
Mifflin County won the team title with 215.5 points and crowned four champions. Clearfield finished second with 192 points, and Central Mountain rounded out the top three with 149.5 points.
Foltz cruised to the semifinals with back-to-back falls in just over three minutes of wrestling. He used a 7-4 win over Canton’s Riley Parker to make the finals.
In the finals, Foltz took on Mifflin County’s Trey Shoemaker, who went to work right away on the Eagles’ senior.
Shoemaker racked up an 8-0 first-period lead with a takedown and six nearfall points. In the second period, Shoemaker hit a reversal late to hold a double-digit lead heading to the final frame.
Foltz choose to start on his feet, but Shoemaker quickly took him down, and pinned Foltz in 4:50.
“Overall, the three matches that he won, he wrestled tough,” Guenot said of Foltz. “The finals wasn’t such a great result, but I told him, ‘We just need to focus the next month or so on getting better and doing things right to get to Hershey, and get on the podium.’ We just got to move on and restart on Monday.”
Fye was the only other BEA wrestler to make the semifinals. He did so with flair as he used back-to-back fall in just over three minutes of wrestling.
In the semifinals, Fye was leading Mifflin County’s Nic Allison, who was the eventual champion, 5-1. However, Allison caught Fye and pinned him in 4:36.
Fye responded by winning his consolation semifinals match, 8-2, over Hickory’s Dylan O’Brien, but ultimately suffered a 12-7 defeat to Brockway’s Weston Pisarchick in the consolation finals.
“Team-wise, there was a lot of positives and a lot of things to work on,” Guenot said of his entire squad’s performance. “The biggest thing is just getting our mental edge right here coming up for district duals. I’m excited for what’s in store for Tuesday (start of District 6 dual tournament).”
Philipsburg-Osceola also took part in the tournament and had three wrestlers in Nick Coudriet (126, 7th), Marcus Gable (138, 7th) and Austin Foster (152, 4th) stand on the podium.
Foster advanced the furthest of all the Mounties, by getting to the semifinals, before suffering his first loss.
He was the No. 2 seed and used back-to-back falls to make the semifinals. Foster suffered an 8-2 defeat to Canton’s Hayden Ward in the semifinals.
However, he rebounded nicely by pinning Reynolds’ Camren Klenke in 2:11 to make the consolation finals. In that consolation finals match, Foster took on Mifflin County’s Parker Kearns.
Kearns used a takedown with just under one minute left in the second period to secure a 3-1 win over Foster.
“He had a good tournament. The last kid he wrestled,” P-O coach Justin Fye said, “he didn’t score against him in the dual meet, when we wrestled them a couple of weeks ago. It was a great response (Foster’s pin of Klenke), because I know he wanted to get to the finals and have a chance to wrestle (Altoona’s Luke) Sipes there, but it didn’t happen.
“He came back with a big win. We knew our third and fourth place bout was going to be tough at that point, but he wrestled good again and right in the match the whole time.”
Fye felt that Gable was in the toughest weight class of the tournament, but was proud of the finish he had. The sophomore made the quarterfinals, where he faced off with Southern Columbia’s Kole Biscoe, who finished as a PIAA runner-up as a freshman.
Gable suffered a 4-2 loss to Biscoe. He rebounded nicely by making the consolation quarterfinals by defeating Clearfield’s Nolan Barr, 1-0.
Gable was then kicked into the seventh-place bout when he lost 6-0 to Midd-West’s Conner Heckman, who finished seventh in the state last season.
“He wrestled really well. He lost a tough match to Biscoe (Friday night),” Fye said. “He came back today and wrestled well. He lost to the kid from Midd-West, that kid is a state place-winner. He’s right there with them. He needs to continue to know that he is right there with the best guys. I look for him to continue to keep getting better and better.”
Ultimate Warrior Tournament
Friday & Saturday at Allport
Team key: Altoona (A), Ambridge (AB), Bald Eagle Area (BEA), Bellwood-Antis (BA), Bentworth (BW), Bradford (BF), Brockway (B), Canton (C), Central Mountain (CM), Central York (CY), Clearfield (CF), Hickory (HY), Hollidaysburg (H), Johnsonburg (JB), Juniata (J), Juniata Valley (JV), Lake Lehman (L), Marion Center (MCT), Midd-West (MW), Mifflin County (MC), Moshannon Valley (MV), Mount Union (MU), Pen Argyl (PA), Philipsburg-Osceola (P-O), Port Allegany (PTA), Reynolds (RD), Richland (R), Ridgway (RY), River Valley (RV), Southern Columbia (SC), Towanda (TW), Tyrone (T), United (U), West Branch (WB), Wilson (W)
Team scores: 1. Mifflin County 215.5, 2. Clearfield 192, 3. Central Mountain 149.5, 4. Hickory 129, 5. Bald Eagle Area 127, 6. Reynolds 120, 7. Central York 114, 8. Southern Columbia 112, 9. Canton 106, 10. Tyrone 104.5, 13. Philipsburg-Osceola 78.
Finals
106: Louie Gill, HY, dec. Luke Hileman, A, 6-4; 113: Nic Allison, MC, dec. Landon Bainey, WB, 6-3; 120: Coen Bainey, BEA, dec. Chris Vargo, BW, 2-1; 126: Dalton Perry, CM, major dec. Brady Collins, CF, 18-7; 132: Luke Simcox, CM, dec. Mason Barvitskie, SC, 1-0; 138: Carter Davis, CY, dec. Connor Saylor, HY, 5-3 (SV); 145: Carter Gill, HY, dec. Griffin Walizer, CM, 7-0; 152: Luke Sipes, A, dec. Hayden Ward, C, 6-1; 160: Kyler Everly, MC, dec. Macon Myers, CY, 14-7; 172: Garrett Garcia, SC, dec. Mark McGonigal, CF, 8-7; 189: Trey Shoemaker, MC, pinned Noah Foltz, BEA, 4:50; 215: Anson Wagner, MC, dec. Hayden Kovalick, CF, 6-3; 285: Oliver Billotte, CF, pinned Gaving Thompson, B, :33
Consolation finals
113: Weston Pisarchick, B, dec. Lucas Fye, BEA, 12-7; 152: Parker Kearns, MC, dec. Austin Foster, P-O, 3-1
5th Place match
172: Caleb Close, BEA, dec. Bryant Green, TW, 1-0
7th Place match
106: Gavin Guenot, BEA, dec. Kayden Cominski, HY, 4-3; 120: Nick Coudriet, P-O, dec. Devan Poe, BF, 10-7; 138: Marcus Gable, P-O, dec. Braylen Corter, CM, 5-0
Consolation Semifinals
113: Fye, BEA, dec. Evan Davis, CF, 8-2; 152: Foster, P-O, pinned Camren Klenke, RD, 2:11; 172: Jalen Wagner, RD, dec. Close, BEA, 3-0
Semifinals
113: Nic Allison, MC, pinned Fye, BEA, 4:36; 120: Bainey, BEA, dec. Casey Smith, J, 7-3; 152: Ward, C, dec. Foster, P-O, 8-2; 189: Foltz, BEA, dec. Riley Parker, C, 7-4
Consolation Quarterfinals
106: Jacob Sombronski, U, major dec. Guenot, BEA, 9-0; 120: Chase Bell, RD, dec. Coudriet, P-O, 4-2; 138: Conner Heckman, MW, dec. Gable, P-O, 6-0; 172: Close, BEA, dec. Ty Holland, HY, 9-2
Consolation Fourth Round
106: Sombronski, U, dec. Sam McDonald, P-O, 4-0; Guenot, BEA, dec. Ian O’Shea, PTA, 5-0; 120: Coudriet, P-O, dec. Michael Monty, U, 6-2; 126: Timmy Krivosh, HY, pinned Ben Gustkey, P-O, 2:57; 132: Cody Miller, HY, dec. Kevin Taylor, BEA, 6-4; Mark Palmer, B, pinned Scott Frantz, P-O, 2:10; 138: Heckman, MW, tech. fall Jeffre Pifer, BEA, 15-0 (3:50); Gable, P-O, dec. Nolan Barr, CF, 1-0; 160: Mason Higley, TW, dec. Cameron Dubbs, BEA, 2-0; 172: Close, BEA, medical forfeit, Gavin Stewart, MCT; 215: Ethan Norris, BA, dec. Matthew Knepp, BEA, 7-4; 285: Ian Scully, CY, dec. Chase Klinger, P-O, 3-2
Consolation Third Round
106: McDonald, P-O, pinned Harris Keares, CY, 2:08; 126: Gustkey, P-O, dec. Colton Henning, U, 7-6; 132: Taylor, BEA, major dec. Jacob Brua, H, 15-2; Frantz, P-O, pinned Louie DeJulia, RD, 1:46; 138: Pifer, BEA, pinned Adam Blauser, RV, :43; 145: Lucas Sheetz, MC, dec. Tayten Yoder, BEA, 3-1; 160: Caden Wolfley, MW, dec. Luke Hughes, P-O, 1-0; 189: Brayden McCloskey, RD, pinned Dom Shaw, P-O, 4:21
Consolation Second Round
106: McDonald, P-O, pinned Jacob Turner, MV, 1:55; 113: Michael Sandacz, CY, pinned Hunter Kephart, P-O, :33; 138: Pifer, BEA, dec. Victor Vazquez, C, 8-2; 145: Yoder, BEA, dec. Aaron Myers, WB, 7-3; 152: Xander Shank, BA, pinned Mason Reese, BEA, 2:15; 160: Josh Bomberger, J, dec. Jimmy Richtscheit, P-O, 8-4; Hughes, P-O, dec. Dylan Hunyadi, HY, 3-2; 189: Shaw, P-O, major dec. Jason Pluebell, BA, 14-5; 215: Ryvan Audi, R, pinned Andrew Hensal, P-O, 1:47
Quarterfinals
106: Gill, HY, pinned Guenot, BEA, 1:14; 113: Fye, BEA, pinned Cohen Landis, C, :37; 120: Bainey, BEA, pinned Coudriet, P-O, 1:46; 138: Kole Biscoe, SC, dec. Gable, P-O, 4-2; 152: Foster, P-O, pinned Tyler Merritt, RY, 3:08; 160: Lucas Laktash, BF, pinned Dubbs, BEA, 5:06; 172: Green, TW, dec. Close, BEA, 1-0; 189: Foltz, BEA, pinned Josh Ryan, MU, 1:38; 215: Jonathan Kauffman, J, dec. Knepp, BEA, 6-4; 285: Billotte, CF, pinned Klinger, P-O, 1:02
Second Round
106: Guenot, BEA, dec. Wyatt Stranger, TW, 3-1; Giovanni DiBiagio, W, pinned McDonald, P-O, 1:58; 113: Fye, BEA, pinned Sandacz, CY, 2:46; 120: Bainey, BEA, tech. fall Adam Rougeux, CF, 15-0 (2:48); Coudriet, P-O, pinned Matthew Smith, MW, 1:13; 126: Caden Chilcote, MU, dec. Gustkey, P-O, 6-1; 132: Daniel Painter, J, pinned Frantz, P-O, 1:54; Ty Aveni, CF, dec. Taylor, BEA, 6-2; 138: Riley Vanderpool, TW, dec. Pifer, 9-2; Gable, P-O, dec. Braylen Corter, CM, 8-6; 145: Brett Thompson, BF, major dec. Yoder, BEA, 10-0; 152: Kearns, MC, pinned Reese, BEA, 1:57; Foster, P-O, pinned Dayton Sherwood, PTA, 2:52; 160: Dubbs, BEA, dec. Mason Konigus, L, 9-2; 172: Close, BEA, pinned Lucas Porter, CM, 1:56; 189: Parker, C, pinned Shaw, P-O, 2:49; Foltz, BEA, pinned Connor Reimer, A, 1:34; 215: Knepp, BEA, dec. Miska Young, PTA, 2-1; 285: Klinger, P-O, dec. Braden Ewing, T, 3-1
Consolation First Round
113: Kephart, P-O, pinned Cole Blanchetti, R, 2:11; 126: Tyler Druckemiller, MC, dec. Hunter Gardner, BEA, 1-0; 160: Richtscheit, P-O, pinned Aydin Grove, MU, 3:15; 215: Hensal, P-O, pinned Dyson Jenkins, MU, 2:11
First Round
106: Guenot, BEA, pinned Turner, MV, 1:29; McDonald, P-O, pinned Connor Bartholomew, PA, :26; 113: Logan Rumberger, T, pinned Kephart, P-O, 3:33; 120: Bainey, BEA, tech. fall Eli Wisor, A, 15-0 (2:16); 126: Colby Seiler, MC, pinned Gardner, BEA, 3:43; 138: Pifer, BEA, pinned Jack Simpson, JV, :25; Gable, P-O, pinned Vazquez, C, 1:08; 145: Yoder, BEA, pinned Dylan Bash, B, 5:05; 152: Reese, BEA, pinned Petros Neofotistos, HY, :58; 160: Hughes, P-O, dec. Jackson Millen, W, 2-1; Dubbs, BEA, pinned Zach Reimer, A, 3:22; Laktash, BF, pinned Richtscheit, P-O, 3:12; 172: Close, BEA, pinned Wyatt Weaver, MW, 1:11; 189: Shaw, P-O, pinned Luke Onkst, H, 1:58; 215: Knepp, BEA, pinned Sammy Mancino, HY, :31; Ashton Smith, BF, pinned Hensal, P-O, 2:55; 285: Klinger, P-O, pinned Peayton Kearns, MC, 5:06
This story was originally published January 30, 2022 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Bald Eagle Area’s Coen Bainey gets revenge in claiming Ultimate Warrior wrestling title."
