Here are Centre County’s high school wrestling leaders through Feb. 27

A week ago, Centre County’s Class 2A teams got their postseasons underway.

This week, Bellefonte and State College started their Class 3A championship paths.

The teams combined to crown four District 6 champions and will send 17 to the PIAA Northwest Regional.

Let’s take a look at which Class 3A wrestlers made moves on this week’s leaderboards.

Wins

Bellefonte’s Jude Swisher sat behind a pair of Class 2A wrestlers in Penns Valley’s Ty Watson and Bald Eagle Area’s Caleb Close.

This week, the senior took the top spot away from the underclassmen as he claimed his second District 6 crown.

Swisher, in limited action, claimed two victories on way to his title. He now has 35 wins on the season. Both of the victories came with bonus points.

State College’s Pierson Manville climbed up the leaderboard to fourth place as he got to 31 victories on the year. Manville also claimed his second straight district title in the process.

The sophomore also scored bonus points in both of his wins. His 30th victory came in the 138-pound semifinals, where he pinned Mifflin County’s Jake Cunningham in 1:50.

Swisher’s teammate Aidan O’Shea became the seventh county wrestler to get 30-plus wins on the season. He is at 30, tied with Bald Eagle Area’s Coen Bainey and Philipsburg-Osceola’s Marcus Gable for fifth in the county.

O’Shea’s 30th win was a 15-3 major decision over Mifflin County’s Blake Aumiller in their 132-pound semifinals bout. He is now three away from 100 for his Raiders’ career.

The Little Lions’ Asher Cunningham is part of a trio tied for eighth in the county with 29 wins. He earned two on his way to the 120-pound District 6 title — the first of his career. The freshman took out a pair of juniors to earn his crown.

These wrestlers reached at least 20 wins this week:

Bellefonte: Gage Long (22 wins) pinned Altoona’s Wyatt Young in 5:20 of their 138-pound quarterfinals bout for his 20th win.

State College: Carter Weaverling (20) used a 3-2 decision over Central Mountain’s Damien Galentine to reach the 189-pound finals.

These wrestlers reached at least 10 wins this week:

State College: Josh Hershbine (11) collected three wins en route to his third-place finish at 160 pounds. His 10th win was an 8-2 win over Bellefonte’s Grady Garrison in consolation semifinals.

Pins

Everyone is still trying to track down Watson in this category as he is pinning 76.5% of his opponents this year.

Swisher inched a little bit closer to Watson as he collected one fall during the district tournament. Swisher stuck Altoona’s Wyatt Young in 2:21 to reach the 145-pound finals.

Swisher now has 22 pins on the season, and is nine away from Bellefonte’s season record of 31 set by Mitchell Port. Swisher could get close to that mark, but will not be able to break it.

Manville opened his district tournament with a fall to get to 18 on the year. He is sixth in the county with that mark.

Manville’s teammate Nick Pavlechko, who earned his first district title, continues to climb his way closer to appearing on this leaderboard. The sophomore used two pins to reach the 215-pound finals. He has 14 on the season, which is just outside of the top 10.

These wrestlers reached at least 10 pins for the season:

Bellefonte: Tyler Putnam (11 pins) had a pair of pins on his way to a fourth-place finish at 285 pounds. His 10th fall came in the quarterfinals, where he stuck Johnstown’s Charles Yingling in 1:16.

State College: Weaverling (10) made short work of Hollidaysburg’s Luke Onkst by sticking the Golden Tigers’ wrestler in 34 seconds of their quarterfinals bout for his 10th fall of the year.

Major decisions

Bellefonte’s Garrett Choates decided he was going to be the newest county wrestler to join the massive group at the top of this category this week.

Choates nearly had a technical fall, but settled for a 14-0 shutout of Central Mountain’s Clayton Foster to reach the 113-pound finals — Choates’ second finals appearance. He now has four major decisions on the year and is tied with seven other wrestlers for the county lead.

Swisher shut out Central Mountain’s Griffin Walizer 10-0 in the finals to earn his third major decision of the season. He is tied with two others for ninth in the county.

Pavlechko and the Raiders’ Garrison were each able to get their second major decisions this season.

The Little Lions wrestler racked up a 14-5 win over Mifflin County’s Anson Wagner to claim his title. Garrison picked up a 14-6 win over Altoona’s Zach Reimer in their 160-pound consolation quarterfinals bout.

The quartet of State College’s Jacob Campbell and O’Shea, Long and teammate Cameron Garcia each picked up his first major decision of the year.

Technical falls & Fastest falls

O’Shea remains the leader of the technical falls category as he is the lone county wrestler to have double digit 15-plus-point victories.

However, Manville and Long each moved up the board.

Manville used an 18-1 rout of Central Mountain’s Taylor Weaver in 4:20 to claim his district title. It was Manville’s fifth technical fall of the year, which is second in the county.

Long is tied with two others for third in the county with four techs. His fourth technical fall was a 16-0 shutout of Hollidaysburg’s Mitchell Baronner in 4:23 of their 138-pound consolation semifinals match.

State College’s Braden Newby was the only other county wrestler to earn a technical fall this week. He opened his run to the 172-pound district finals with a 20-5 crushing of Juniata’s Harrison Mummah in 5:57 of their quarterfinals bout.

For another week, no new times were added to the fastest falls list.

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.