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

It’s hard to believe there is only one week left in the high school wrestling season.

It will be the most important week for 11 Centre County wrestlers as they head for the PIAA Championships in the Giant Center this coming week.

This past week saw all five of the county’s teams have a combined 38 regional qualifiers get pared down to that final 11 heading to Hershey.

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

Wins

It has been a back and forth affair with a trio of wrestlers at the top here.

This week saw Bellefonte’s Jude Swisher and Penns Valley’s Ty Watson both get to 38 victories on the season, which leads the county.

Coincidentally, they both also walked away with regional crowns at the same weight. Swisher earned his fourth straight PIAA Class 3A NW title — this year at 145 pounds. Watson claimed his first PIAA Class 2A SW crown.

Watson had to do just a little more work than Swisher as Watson claimed four victories on way to his title as Swisher had three wins. Also, Watson is one of seven Class 2A wrestlers who are still undefeated, with a total of 13 in the state still unbeaten.

Bald Eagle Area’s Caleb Close is that third wrestler who’s been near the top all season long. He is one win behind Swisher and Watson. He had three wins during his first regional title and finished fourth.

Tied for fourth in the county are State College’s Pierson Manville and Bellefonte’s Aidan O’Shea. Both wrestlers have 34 wins on the year.

Manville bonused his way to his second regional title with three wins. O’Shea finished third to make his second trip to the PIAA Championships, but he also earned his 100th career win.

O’Shea beat DuBois’ Brendan Orr, 7-0, in their 132-pound consolation semifinals bout for that 100th win.

The Eagles’ Coen Bainey is sixth in the county with 33 wins. He collected three wins en route to making the regional finals but came up just short of earning his first regional title.

A trio of wrestlers in the Rams’ Jack Darlington, Philipsburg-Osceola’s Marcus Gable and the Little Lions’ Asher Cunningham are tired for seventh in the county with 32 wins. Darlington and Cunningham will get the chance to add to their totals by making the PIAA Championships.

The top 10 is rounded out with a pair of BEA wrestlers in Lucas Fye and Noah Foltz, each having 31 wins. They will also get to add to their totals after advancing to Hershey.

These wrestlers got to 30 or more wins this week:

Bald Eagle Area: Fye (31 wins) and Foltz (31) each earned win No. 30 this week. Fye’s came first when he edged Laurel’s Colin Bartley, 1-0, in the 113-pound quarterfinals. Foltz used a 2-0 win over Berlin-Brothersvalley’s Grant Mathias in the 189-pound consolation quarterfinals for No. 30, but also to secure his PIAA spot.

Penns Valley: Darlington (32) and Cole Felker (30) became the second and third wrestlers for the Rams to collect 30 wins. Darlington hung a 9-2 win on Fort Cherry’s Shawn Robertson in their 106-pound second round match. Felker topped Southmoreland’s Bryson Robinson, 8-2, in their 172-pound consolation second round bout.

State College: Cunningham (32) became just the second Little Lions wrestler to get to 30 wins on the year. He opened his run to his first regional title with a 7-0 defeat of McDowell’s Logan Sallot in their 120-pound quarterfinals match.

These wrestlers got to 20 or more wins on the year:

Bellefonte: Noah Weaver (21) became the seventh wrestler for the Raiders to eclipse 20 wins. He racked up a 17-2 technical fall on Meadville’s Mark Dait in 4:54 of their 126-pound consolation first round bout.

Philipsburg-Osceola: Chase Klinger (20) was the Mounties’ fourth wrestler to reach the 20-win plateau. He pinned Central Valley’s Lance Crawley in 4:37 of their 285-pound consolation second round bout.

State College: Braden Newby (23) had a total of eight wins coming into his final season, and came up just shy of qualifying for the PIAA Championships. His 20th win of this year came when he pinned Meadville’s Ty Tidball in 5:35 of their 172-pound first round match.

One wrestler, State College’s Jonathan Coates, was able to get to 10 wins on the year. His 10th win was a pin of Clearfield’s Xavier Lutz in 1:25 of their 106-pound consolation second round bout.

Pins

It is another week, but the leader remains the same in Watson.

The sophomore pinned his way to the regional finals, which was a total of three falls. He now has 29, which is tied for Penns Valley’s all-time season mark set by Malachi DuVall.

To put into perspective of what Watson is doing this year, he is pinning 76% of the opponents he has faced.

Watson holds a six-pin lead over a pair of wrestlers in Swisher and P-O’s Austin Foster, who are tied for second in the county. Swisher just had one fall on his way to his title as Foster collected two more pins during his run to a seventh place finish at regionals.

At this point of the year, pins are hard to come by, so there wasn’t too much more movement.

State College’s Nick Pavlechko had two pins to make the 215-pound regional finals, which had him climb up into a tie for eighth in the county with Bellefonte’s Addison Shawley with 16 falls.

These wrestlers got to 10 or more pins this week:

State College: The Little Lions had a pair in Newby (10) and Jacob Campbell (10). Newby stuck Obama Academy’s Marcos Gonzalez in 45 seconds of their 172-pound consolation second round bout. Campbell put Obama Academy’s Khalil Collins in 1:23 of their 126-pound consolation second round match.

Technical Falls

Just like in the last category, it’s a new week, but the leader remains the same in O’Shea.

He has been head and shoulders above the rest of the county in this category. O’Shea added another technical fall this week to get to 12 on the year.

He opened up his regional tournament with a 16-0 defeat of General McLane’s Ben Watkins in 3:06 of their 132-pound first round match. In these 12 wins, O’Shea has outscored his opponents, 177-5.

Manville has been trying to reel in O’Shea. This week, he had two technical falls to reach the 138-pound regional finals. Manville now has seven technical falls this year. In the regional tournament, he outscored his two opponents, 37-7.

Close became the county’s third wrestler to get to five technical falls on the year. His five such wins are good for third in the county. His fifth came this week when he topped Burgettstown’s Jacob Noyes, 17-1, in their 172-pound second round bout in 4:17.

Fye and Bainey each added a technical fall this week to get to four on the year, which is tied with Bellefonte’s Gage Long and Penns Valley’s Colten Shunk for fourth in the county.

Major decisions & Fastest falls

There is finally one wrestler who has the lead of the major decision category all by himself: Cunningham.

When he beat Juniata’s Casey Smith, 16-3, in the 120-pound regional finals, that gave Cunningham his fifth major decision. It broke him away from a pack of eight wrestlers who have four major decisions and tied for second in the county.

Another week has come to a close with no new times added to the fastest falls list. The leaders still remain in Fye and Penns Valley’s Noah Fetterolf with 9-second victories.

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.