Centre County wrestlers set to get postseason underway. Here’s a look at each team
The postseason has arrived for three of Centre County’s wrestling teams.
Bald Eagle Area, Penns Valley and Philipsburg-Osceola get the run to Hershey started on Friday in the District 6 Class 2A Championships in Altoona.
The Eagles and Rams combined to earn four of the top 13 seeds, with the Eagles claiming three No. 1 wrestlers.
The 120-pound weight class is solid for Centre County, with BEA’s Coen Bainey the No. 1 seed, the Mounties’ Nick Coudriet No. 2 and Penns Valley’s Colten Shunk rounding out the group.
“It’s a good weight in our county for sure. They’ve all wrestled each other, and are familiar,” Rams coach Joel Brinker said. “Bainey is obviously the front runner there, and very established state-caliber type kid. Coudriet and Shunk will settle that in the semifinals. I’m hoping for a good match and we respond there.”
Added Eagles coach Ron Guenot: “It’s pretty impressive, three Centre County guys. It just goes to show how tough our area is, and what our area has to offer. It is a tough area for wrestling. I think it makes everybody better around the area to have that great competition.”
P-O coach Justin Fye agreed.
“It’s nice. It’s a testament to the Mountain League, preparing our guys for the postseason. Nick has wrestled both Shunk and Coen. It’s pretty neat to see just in our county that we have three guys there, if they all wrestle like they should, they should all have a chance to move on and possibly do well at regionals as well.”
Last season, only the top three wrestlers from the district advanced to the PIAA Southwest Regional tournament. This year, the postseason is back to normal with the top six wrestlers moving on to the regional slated for March 4-5 at Peters Township High School in McMurray.
Here’s a look at each team:
Bald Eagle Area
Top seeds: Lucas Fye (113 pounds), Coen Bainey (120) and Noah Foltz (189)
Other seeds: Gavin Guenot (106, No. 6), Hunter Gardner (126, No. 9), Kevin Taylor (132, No. 9), Jeffre Pifer (138, No. 2), Tayten Yoder (145, No. 13), Mason Reese (152, No. 6), Cameron Dubbs (160, No. 5), Caleb Close (172, No. 2), Matthew Knepp (215, No. 5) and Eric Clark (285, No. 18)
Outlook: The Eagles enter the individual postseason after suffering a tough loss to Forest Hills at home in the District 6 Class 2A dual team semifinals.
One would think that BEA’s wrestlers are looking for some revenge when they get underway on Friday.
The Eagles will be led by their three No. 1 seeds — Fye, Bainey and Foltz.
“They’ve earned it to be the No. 1 seed, and hopefully, earn points for the team,” Guenot said. “The situation they are sitting in, hopefully, is a good situation where they can pick up bonus points, and live up to their seed.”
It’s hard not to start with Bainey, who is looking for his third straight district title.
He is 27-3 with two of those losses coming from a pair of Class 3A wrestlers in State College’s Asher Cunningham and Seneca Valley’s Tyler Chappell. When it has come to the District 6 Championships, Bainey has been a beast.
When we won his first title as a freshman, Bainey opened with a pin, used a technical fall to reach the finals. In the finals, the Eagles junior pinned his opponent in 19 seconds. Last year, Bainey pinned his way to the title.
“It’s pretty amazing as a junior that hopefully he’ll win his third,” Guenot said. “He has to take it one match at a time and not look ahead to anybody or anything like that. It just goes to show that his work ethic and time he put in to improve.”
Fye comes in with a 25-6 record and 17 of his victories coming with bonus points — 10 pins, four major decisions and three technical falls. He reached the district finals last year as freshman at 106 pounds, and fell to then-fellow freshman in West Branch’s Landon Bainey.
Fye and Landon Bainey are No. 1 and 2 this year now up at 113 pounds.
“He loves to wrestle. He loves to be on the mat, and you can see he really enjoys,” Guenot said of Fye. “I think that is a recipe for success, if you work hard and really enjoy something, you’re going to have good results.”
Foltz has come a long way from where he was a year ago.
He had a successful sophomore campaign that saw the now senior make the regional tournament before falling out of the postseason. Last year looking to build off his prior year’s success, Foltz went 0-2 in the District 6 tournament to have his already short season end with some disappointment.
Fast forward to this season, where Foltz has amassed a 24-7 record wrestling anywhere from 189 pounds to 285 pounds. The senior is 6-2 in his last eight matches with all six wins coming with pins.
“He’s had a great season up to this point. He’s up at 189 and not having to worry about his weight,” Guenot said. “I think that is a plus for him there. He knows what he needs to do. He has an arsenal of moves that he is able to fall back on and use, it shows when he is out on the mat. He’s definitely earned that No. 1 seed.”
How many wrestlers does Guenot think his team can get to the regional tournament?
He said he hopes that at least half of his guys move on, as BEA entered 13 wrestlers. However, Guenot and his coaching staff seem to be wanting to grab that overall team title, which is held by Forest Hills.
“We’d like to see double digits (regional qualifiers). The goal is for everybody to contribute,” Guenot said. “Even if you don’t make it to the next step of regionals, you need to win a couple of matches, and help the team out. Our goal is to get 10 (regional qualifiers), that’s what we are shooting for, so you got to aim high.”
Penns Valley
Top seeds: Ty Watson (145)
Other seeds: Jack Darlington (106, No. 5), Colten Shunk (120, No. 3), Chase Fleshman (126, No. 14), Nate Long (132, No. 7), Ethan Fetterolf (138, No. 8), David Martin (152, No. 5), Micah Fetterolf (160, No. 8), Cole Felker (172, No. 5), Hunter Lyons (189, No. 4) and Kolin Brungart (215, No. 11)
Outlook: Brinker joked that the District 6 Championships could be right up his team’s alley.
The Rams were in three individual tournaments this year and a team dual tournament. They won the Babbit Duals team dual tournament at the beginning of the year. They finished second in the 47-team field of the Panther Holiday Classic individual tournament.
In January, Penns Valley finished fourth in the 15-team field of the Tool City individual tournament in Meadville. It finished off the individual tournament part of the season by winning the 34-team field of the Fred Bell individual tournament in Grove City.
“This year, we’ve done well in tournaments. I think they are a tournament team if you want to say,” Brinker said with a laugh. “They get it. They know what they are heading into, and what’s at stake.”
The Rams will be led by their lone top seed in Watson.
The sophomore has had a stellar season so far. He is 30-0 with all but three of those wins coming with bonus points.
In fact, Watson has pinned 24 of his foes this season. However, Brinker knows this individual tournament won’t be easy for his wrestler.
“He’s made leaps and bounds from last season to this season. He is a totally different kid,” Brinker said. “He has improved and grown a lot. He puts the time in. It is a deep weight, 145 is a pretty solid weight class in our district. I think he’ll be up for the challenge, and can walk away with a district title.”
Watson and Hunter Lyons are the lone returning district qualifiers for the Rams, who finished second as a team last year. This squad has 11 wrestlers set to compete.
Six of those wrestlers are seeded in the top six, so if they wrestle to their seeds, Penns Valley could challenge for another team title in a tournament.
“This is what you prepare for, for the whole year,” Brinker said. “The guys get thrown into the system we have in place, and no system is perfect, but this is where we settle it on the mat. We go out, wrestle, and take care of business. It is a new season. The slate is wiped clean.”
How many wrestlers does Brinker think his squad will get through?
He feels that his squad should be able to get six to eight guys into the regional tournament. However, he’s not ruling out the possibility of getting more than eight wrestlers through.
Brinker knows it won’t be easy though.
“I think we can get a chunk through if they all wrestle to their potential,” he said. “Some of our guys are going to have to wrestle above their seeds, and that’s common. They know the competition we are facing. We got to wrestle our tails off and get as many as we possibly can.”
Philipsburg-Osceola
Top seeds: None
Other seeds: Sam McDonald (106, No. 10), Hunter Kephart (113, No. 9), Nick Coudriet (120, No. 2), Scott Frantz (126, No. 5), Marcus Gable (132, No. 2), Nate Fleck (138, No. 16), Austin Foster (145, No. 4), Luke Hughes (152, No. 2), Jimmy Richscheit (160, No. 10), Dominic Shaw (189, No. 6), Andrew Hensal (215, No. 18) and Chase Klinger (285, No. 4)
Outlook: The Mounties may not have any No. 1 seeds, but they have several guys who have dropped their weights just for the postseason, and that could pay off big. It’s because of those moves that coach Fye feels good about Friday.
“We didn’t have any top seeds, but to have three No. 2 seeds, and seven guys overall that are seeded in the top six, we are pretty excited,” he said.
The Mounties also have six wrestlers returning that helped the team to a fifth-place finish a year ago in the district tournament.
Two of those three No. 2 seeds — Gable and Hughes — are part of that returning contingent. They also decided to drop their weight for the postseason.
Gable wrestled most of the season at either 138 or 145 pounds. He is 26-6 with 19 pins in those 26 wins. Fye is excited to see how Gable does with the drop down to 132.
“Marcus decided to make the drop later in the year,” Fye said. “I think 132, those top four guys are pretty good right there. Marcus is coming down from a weight, so he is big and strong, and has a good gas tank. I think he is going to do well there. He’s going to have a couple of good matches early on.”
Hughes competed most of the year at 160 or 172 pounds. A year ago, Hughes wrestled at 145 pounds, was 4-5 in the short season and didn’t place in the district tournament.
This year, Hughes is 16-12 and at 152 pounds. He was able to move down as Foster decided to go down to 145 pounds after competing most of the season at 152 or 160 pounds.
“Luke Hughes has improved from a couple of years ago. He is more confident when he is wrestling on the mat,” Fye said. “Once Austin (Foster) decided to drop and Luke was going to drop (to 152), we knew Luke was going to probably have a pretty good seed there. I’m excited to see what Luke can do in his last postseason.”
Coudriet, who is the other No. 2 seed for P-O, never got to hit the mat until Dec. 14. He has a 19-4 record, and will be looking for his third time on the district podium.
The senior finished seventh in his freshman and sophomore seasons, but came up short of qualifying for the district tournament last season due to finishing third in the section. Sixteen of Coudriet’s 19 wins this year came with bonus points, so the sky is the limit for his final postseason run.
“Nick Coudriet has had a really good year. He missed a couple of matches earlier in the year,” Fye said, “but he’s been wrestling really well. He continues to get more and more confident on his feet and the mat. We are really looking forward to what he can do this weekend.”
So, how many Mounties does Fye feel will make the trip to McMurray for the regional tournament?
He said that based on seeding, his squad should get seven guys through. However, he knows that wrestlers that get into the consolation bracket early have a really good shot of qualifying.
That’s because those wrestlers in the consolation brackets are consistently coming off of victories as opposed to guys dropping into the consolation bracket that are coming off of losses.
“Realistically, we have seven that should go, I’m thinking a couple of more,” Fye said. “There are a few other guys in there, that like I said, coming back through a consolation bracket, you face a guy who is coming off a loss, you never know what can happen. If we end up getting 8 or 9 guys, that’s terrific. We might have to get another vehicle to take to regionals when we do that, but I’m OK with doing that.”
District 6 Class 2A Championships
When: Friday — 1st session (Round of 32, Consolation 1st Round, Round of 16), 10:30 a.m.; 2nd session (Consolation 2nd Round, Quarterfinals, Consolation 3rd Round), 5 p.m.; Saturday — 1st session (Consolation 4th Round, Semifinals, Consolation Quarterfinals, Consolation Semifinals, 7th-8th place matches), 10:30 a.m.; 2nd session (Hall of Fame inductions, Finals, Consolation Finals, 5th-6th place matches), 4:45 p.m.
Where: Fieldhouse, Altoona High School, Altoona
Tickets: $10 per session or $18 per day, selling at entrance (cash only)
Brackets: FloArena
Twitter: @byncobler
