Trio of Centre County wrestlers bring PIAA Class 3A medals home, two of them bronze
The high school wrestling season came to a close for the PIAA Class 3A Centre County wrestlers on Saturday evening inside the Giant Center.
State College had three place-winners with one being a champion. Bellefonte added another place-winner.
The Little Lions with the three medalists secured themselves a top-10 finish in the team race with 53.5 points. They ended in sixth place. The Raiders ended with 19 points, which was good for a tie for 33rd place.
Nazareth claimed the team crown with 135 points. Bethlehem Catholic ended up second with 109 points. Waynesburg was third with 89.5 points.
Latrobe and Hempfield Area rounded out the top five in that order.
Here’s where the Centre County wrestlers finished the Class 3A Championships:
State College
Medalists: Asher Cunningham (120 pounds, 8th), Pierson Manville (138, 1st), Nick Pavlechko (215, 3rd)
Team score: 53.5 points, 6th
Recap: Pavlechko needed just one win to make the finals in his first PIAA Class 3A Championships.
He took on Belle Vernon’s Cole Weightman, who upset the top seed to make the semifinals. Weightman used that momentum to come out, and put Pavlechko in a deep 7-2 hole after one period.
Weightman’s escape in the second period was the lone points. In the third period, Pavlechko worked on his comeback with two takedowns and two reversals.
However, Weightman did just enough to hang on for a 12-10 win, sending Pavlechko into the consolation bracket.
Pavlechko bounced back, though, to reach the consolation finals, by shutting out Latrobe’s Corey Boerio for a second time in the tournament, 4-0.
Pavlechko went right to work in his consolation final match with Central Bucks West’s Carl DiGiorgio. The sophomore tallied a takedown right before the first-period buzzer.
In the second period, Pavlechko’s reversal made for the lone points. The Little Lion added two more takedowns in the third period to lock up a 10-2 major decision in his final high school match of this season.
“It feels pretty good. It’s not really what I came here to be or do,” Pavlechko said of his finish. “It’s good to come back from a loss and wrestle harder.”
Cunningham had a not so friendly start to his day. He could get nothing going against Nazareth’s Charlie Bunting in their consolation quarterfinals bout.
Bunting led 6-0 after two periods of wrestling. Cunningham looked to get back into the bout with a takedown early in the third period.
However, Bunting reversed him and collected a takedown and nearfall points before the end of the match in a 12-3 defeat of Cunningham.
The freshman took on Penn Trafford’s Troy Hohman for seventh place. Cunningham led 2-0 after one period with a takedown right at the buzzer.
In the second period, Hohman started from the bottom position and caught Cunningham too high on a ride. Hohman wrapped his hands around Cunningham’s neck and collected a defensive fall in 1:11.
“For a freshman, he did a tremendous job. He wrestled well,” Cummins said. “He didn’t finish where he wanted to, but it gives him something to shoot for and work toward next year. For a freshman, finishing in the top eight, is a great thing. He had a nice tournament and worked hard. He got caught in a couple of things here and there.”
Bellefonte
Medalists: Jude Swisher (145, 3rd)
Team score: 19 points, Tied for 33rd
Recap: Swisher began his day in the semifinals, but unfortunately ended with a third place finish for the second year in a row.
He took on Nazareth’s Nicholas Foster in the consolation finals, and controlled from the opening whistle.
Swisher tallied a takedown with just over 30 seconds remaining in the first period. He had a full-period ride out in the second period to keep it a 2-0 score.
In the third period, Swisher turned up the heat a little to score six points on an escape, takedown and nearfall points. He wrapped up his high school career with an 8-0 major decision.
“Long, but a blessing nonetheless,” Swisher said with a laugh as he summed up his high school career. “I think the development. I’ve grown not only as a wrestler but also as a person off the mat. Walking in here, I was hit with a feeling of nostalgia. Coming in as a freshman with Cole Urbas, when I was at State College, I was 0-2 and out the first day. It was a wake-up call.
“It made me question what did I want out of this sport. The truth is I believe I’m the best wrestler in here. I might not have won all the matches. My goal was to be a state champ and to perform the best of my ability. I think I did almost just about that. I can honestly say I haven’t wasted an opportunity for the last two years. It hurts to not be at the top.”
In the semifinals, the senior took on West Allegheny’s Ty Watters, who came out of a cannon to start, collecting a takedown 12 seconds into the bout. Swisher escaped before the end of the period.
In the second period, Watters got an escape, turned around into a takedown and collected nearfall points to extend his lead to 8-2. Swisher was taken down two more times in the third period of the 12-5 loss.
Swisher rebounded nicely against Hempfield Area’s Lucas Kapusta. Kapusta nearly beat Swisher in the second round on Thursday, but this time around it was all Swisher.
The Penn commit snapped off three takedowns, and showed that second-round match was just a fluke in a 7-0 shutout of Kapusta to make the consolation finals.
PIAA Class 3A Championships
Saturday at Giant Center, Hershey
Team key: Abington (AB), Abington Heights (AH), Altoona (A), Armstrong (AS), Belle Vernon (BV), Bellefonte (B), Bethlehem Catholic (BC), Bethel Park (BP), Boyertown (BYT), Bradford (BF), Butler (BT), Canon-McMillan (C-M), Carlisle (C), Cathedral Prep (CP), Central Bucks East (CBE), Central Bucks West (CBW), Central Dauphin (CD), Central Dauphin East (CDE), Central Mountain (CM), Central York (CY), Chambersburg (CB), Chartiers Valley (CV), Clearfield (CF), Cocalico (C), Conestoga (CT), Conestoga Valley (CTV), Connellsville (CNV), Council Rock North (CRN), Council Rock South (CRS), Crestwood (CW), Dallastown (DT), Daniel Boone (DB), Delaware Valley (DV), Dover (D), Downington West (DW), Easton (E), Emmaus (EM), Ephrata (EP), ES North (ESN), Exeter (EX), Father Judge (FJ), Franklin Regional (FR), Freedom (F), Garden Spot (GST), Garnet Valley (GV), General McLane (GM), Gettysburg (G), Greensburg Salem (GS), Haverford (HF), Hempfield (H), Hempfield Area (HA), Highlands (HL), Indiana (I), Interboro (IB), JP McCaskey (JPM), Juniata (J), Kennett (K), Kiski Area (KA), Latrobe (L), Lebanon (LB), Liberty (LY), Lower Merion (LM), Manheim Central (MHC), Manheim Township (MT), McDowell (M), Meadville (MV), Mifflin County (MC), Mt. Lebanon (ML), Nazareth (NZ), Neshaminy (NY), North Penn (NP), Northampton (NH), Northern (N), Norwin (NW), Octorara (O), Overbrook (OB), Owen J Roberts (OJR), Oxford Area (OA), Parkland (P), Penn Manor (PM), Penn Trafford (PT), Pennridge (PR), Perkiomen Valley (PV), Peters Township (PTT), Phoenixville (PX), Pine Richland (PRD), Pittston Area (PA), Quakertown (Q), Ridley (R), Saint Marys (SM), Selinsgrove (SGV), Seneca Valley (SCV), Shippensburg (SB), Solanco (S), Souderton (ST), Spring Grove (SG), Spring-Ford (SF), State College (SC), Strath Haven (SH), Sun Valley (SV), Thomas Jefferson (TJ), Trinty (T), Upper Darby (UD), Upper Perkiomen (UP), Wallenpaupack (WPP), Warwick (WW), Waynesburg (WB), West Allegheny (WA), West Chester East (WCE), West Chester Henderson (WCH), West Chester Rustin (WCR), West Scranton (WS), Whitehall (WH), Williamsport (W), Wilson (WN)
Team scores: 1. Nazareth 135, 2. Bethlehem Catholic 109, 3. Waynesburg 89.5, 4. Latrobe 78, 5. Hempfield Area 62, 6. State College 53.5, 7. Franklin Regional 51, 8. Quakertown 49, 9. Central Dauphin 44, 10. Thomas Jefferson 42, T33. Bellefonte 19
Finals
106: Nathan Desmond, BC, major dec. Luke Willochell, L, 15-5; 113: Zachary Jacarusso, DV, dec. Cole Campbell, BC, 3-1; 120: Vinny Kilkeary, L, major dec. Mason Leiphart, D, 12-3; 126: Dalton Perry, CM, dec. Ethan Lebin, HA, dec. 6-3; 132: Mac Church, WB, dec. Matt Repos, CD, 3-1; 138: Pierson Manville, SC, dec. Briar Priest, HA, 5-4 (UTB2); 145: Ty Watters, WA, dec. Finn Solomon, FR, 7-4; 152: Dylan Evans, CV, dec. Kaemen Smith, CP, 3-2; 160: Jared Keslar, CNV, dec. Ryan Garvick, CD, 7-5; 172: Rocco Welsh, WB, tech. fall Dom D’Agostino, I, 24-8 (5:00); 189: Sonny Sasso, NZ, dec. Quinn Collins, CBE, 5-0; 215: Brian Finnerty, TJ, dec. Cole Weightman, BV, 6-5; 285: Sean Kinney, NZ, dec. Matthew Cruise, E, 2-0
Consolation Finals
145: Jude Swisher, B, major dec. Nicholas Foster, NZ, 8-0; 215: Nick Pavlechko, SC, major dec. Carl DiGiorgio, CBW, 10-2
7th Place Match
120: Troy Hohman, PT, pinned Asher Cunningham, SC, 1:11
Consolation Semifinals
145: Swisher, B, dec. Lucas Kapusta, HA, 7-0; 215: Pavlechko, SC, dec. Corey Boerio, L, 4-0
Semifinals
138: Manville, SC, pinned Tyler Kasak, BC, 5:39; 145: Watters, WA, dec. Swisher, B, 12-5; 215: Weightman, BV, dec. Pavlechko, SC 12-10
Consolation Quarterfinals
120: Charlie Bunting, NZ, major dec. Cunningham, SC, 12-3
This story was originally published March 12, 2022 at 10:32 PM.
