Here are Centre County’s high school wrestling leaders through Feb. 6

It’s getting down to crunch time for Centre County’s wrestling teams.

This week will be the last bit of dual action for all five programs.

The Class 2A teams of Bald Eagle Area, Penns Valley and Philipsburg-Osecola will then prep for the District 6 Championships, which are Feb. 18-19. Bellefonte and State College get an additional week to prepare for the District 6 Class 3A individual postseason, which is Feb. 26.

This past week all five squads had some sort of dual action, whether it was regular season or postseason.

Let’s take a look at where movement was this week on the leaderboards.

Wins

There is one guy at the top here — Bellefonte’s Jude Swisher.

The Penn commit has 32 victories this season. His 30th win of the year came during the Rumble in the Den dual tournament that the Raiders were in on Jan. 29. He received a forfeit against Columbia Montour.

Swisher isn’t the lone wrestler with 30-plus wins this season.

Bald Eagle Area freshman Caleb Close got to this mark this week by going 3-0 during the District 6 Class 2A dual championships. Close has 31 wins, which is good for second in the county.

Close’s 30th win was a 6-1 defeat of Forest Hills’ Dustin Flinn in the District 6 Class 2A semifinals.

There are a pair of wrestlers in Penns Valley’s Ty Watson and State College’s Pierson Manville that are one win away from 30. Watson had multiple wins this week in the Rams’ two duals in the district dual postseason. Manville was one of three winners for the Little Lions in their dual against Williamsport.

There were several other wrestlers on the leaderboard that had a perfect week with multiple victories, including Bald Eagle Area’s Coen Bainey (27 wins on year) and Lucas Fye (26), and Penns Valley’s Cole Felker (25) and Jack Darlington (25).

Here’s which wrestlers got to 20-plus wins this week:

Bellefonte: Tyler Putnam (20 wins) became the latest Raiders wrestler to get to 20 wins on the year. As a team they now have five 20-plus win wrestlers. Putnam edged Central Mountain’s Brayden Blackwell, 4-2, in the District 6 Class 3A dual semifinals match on Saturday.

Penns Valley: Hunter Lyons (20) became the Rams’ fifth wrestler with 20-plus victories this year. He pinned Mount Union’s Josh Ryan in 5:48 of Penns Valley’s first round dual of the District 6 Class 2A dual championships on Tuesday.

Philipsburg-Osceola: The Mounties’ Austin Foster (20) joined the 20 win club this week. Foster is only the second wrestler on the team to hit the mark. He received a forfeit against Hollidaysburg on Wednesday in a regular season dual.

Here are the wrestlers that got to double digit wins on the year:

Bellefonte: The Raiders had a pair in Nate Smith (11) and Cameron Garcia (12). Smith pinned Columbia Montour’s Sawyer Rapach in 13 seconds during a dual in the Rumble in the Den tournament on Jan. 29. Garcia used a 7-6 defeat of Columbia Montour’s Zander Billings.

Philipsburg-Osceola: Scotty Frantz (11) and Dominic Shaw (10) got to double digit wins on the year. Frantz’s came first during the District 6 Class 2A first round dual on Tuesday, he received a forfeit for No. 10. Shaw pinned Hollidaysburg’s Luke Onkst in 5:28 during the Wednesday dual.

Pins

There remains no change at the top here in this category.

Watson continues to put his opponents on their backs. He now has 24 pins in his 29 wins, which means he is pinning nearly 83 percent of his foes. This week though, he only had one fall.

Felker and the Mounties’ Marcus Gable each had multiple pins this week to climb up the leaderboard.

Felker had two on Tuesday during Penns Valley’s District 6 Class 2A duals. He flattened Mount Union’s Jayce Reck in 4:58 first, and then stuck BEA’s Nathan Fry in 2:31 during the quarterfinals dual. Felker’s 18 pins is good for third in the county.

Gable pinned Central Cambria’s Donavin DeRubis in 1:07 during the District 6 Class 2A first round dual on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Gable stuck Hollidaysburg’s Mitchell Baronner in 1:27. He now has 17 pins, which is tied for fourth in the county with Manville and teammate in Foster.

Here are the wrestlers to get to 10 pins on the season:

Bald Eagle Area: Bainey (11 pins) added three pins this week during the dual championships. His 10th was sticking Forest Hills’ TJ Carroll in 1:52 to give the Eagles their first lead of the dual, that they did lose in the end.

Penns Valley: The Rams had a pair in Kollin Brungart (10) and David Martin (10) get to double digit pins this week. Brungart was first by pinning Mount Union’s Will Harkleroad in 42 seconds. Martin, who had two pins during the dual championships, put BEA’s Mason Reese on his back in 1:12 of the district quarterfinals.

Major decisions

Nobody seems like they want to be at the top of this category by themselves.

Instead, others keep joining the lead pack. This week it was Darlington joining the other five wrestlers that held the lead together last week.

Darlington got to four on the year when he topped Mount Union’s Terran Bookwalter, 11-2, in the first round D6 dual on Tuesday.

Bellefonte’s Garrett Choates earned his third major decision of the season to get into a three-way tie for seventh in the county. Choates defeated Central Mountain’s Clayton Foster 10-2 during the D6 Class 3A semifinals dual on Saturday.

A trio of wrestlers in Swisher, P-O’s Ben Gustkey and Penns Valley’s Colten Shunk all got to multiple major decision victories this week. They are tied with eight other wrestlers in the county with two major decisions.

Gustkey and Shunk joined the club first on Tuesday. Gustkey beat Central Cambria’s Jacob Wilson 12-3 in the first round of the District 6 Class 2A dual championships. Shunk shut out Mount Union’s AJ Chilcote 12-0 in the first round of the District 6 Class 2A dual championships.

Technical falls & Fastest falls

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

The Mounties’ Nick Coudriet was the fastest of the two times. He pinned Central Cambria’s Madison Rigsby in 10 seconds. Coudriet’s time is the third fastest in the county.

Bellefonte’s Smith had that previously mentioned 13-seconds victory, which is tied for sixth in the county with Penns Valley’s Ethan Fetterolf.

O’Shea continues to lead the way in the technical fall category. He actually got to double digit technical falls when he picked up a 15-0 win over Columbia Montour’s Noah Moyer in 4:56 during the Rumble in the Den dual tournament.

O’Shea (10 technical falls) is the only wrestler in the county with double digit technical falls.

Fye climbed up the leaderboard this week as he earned his third technical fall. He is tied with four other wrestlers for fourth in the county.

Fye defeated Huntingdon’s Ryan Yocum 17-0 in 3:45 of wrestling during the D6 third-place team match on Saturday.

State College’s Asher Cunningham was able to secure his second technical fall this week when he topped Williamsport’s Luke Segraves 17-1 in 3:39 during the Little Lions’ dual on Monday.

Leaders

Wins

Pins

Fastest Falls

Technical Falls

Major Decisions

Nate Cobler

Centre Daily Times

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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.