Here are the Centre County high school wrestling leaders through Jan. 1

A new year is here, but that didn’t stop Centre County’s wrestling teams from hitting the mat before 2022 ended.

All five county schools had a dual the week of Christmas with State College, Bald Eagle Area and Penns Valley all picking up victories. The Little Lions topped Cedar Cliff, 42-30, for their first dual win of the year.

The Eagles blew open a one-point dual with four bouts left to top Philipsburg-Osceola, 40-20. The Rams crushed Tyrone, 49-18. Bellefonte suffered a 42-27 loss to Huntingdon.

State College, BEA and the Red Raiders also threw in a tournament before the new year began.

The Little Lions finished 11th out of 70 schools from 12 states at the prestigious Powerade Tournament. They had 93 points. Wyoming Seminary won the team title with 233.5 points. Malvern Prep (2nd, 182 points) and Delbarton (NJ) (3rd, 172) rounded out the top three.

State College had four place winners in Hayden Cunningham, Asher Cunningham, Pierson Manville and Nick Pavlechko.

The Eagles finished fifth at the MyHouse Trojan Wars out of 48 teams with 139.5 points. South Carroll (MD) won with 162 points. Warrior Run (2nd, 158 points), West Perry (3rd, 151.5) and host Chambersburg (4th, 146.5) rounded out the top five.

BEA had three place winners, which were all finalists in Lucas Fye, Coen Bainey and Caleb Close. Fye and Close came away with titles.

Bellefonte finished 16th out of 32 schools at the Neil Turner Memorial Holiday Tournament with 72 points. Central Dauphin took the team title with 241 points. Central York (2nd, 162 points) and Shikellamy (3rd, 139) completed the top three.

The Red Raiders had three place winners in Ezra Swisher, Noah Weaver and Gage Long.

Here’s a look at the movement on the leaderboards with all of the holiday action.

Wins

There is a three-way tie at the top with each wrestler getting to 15 victories on the season. All three are teammates in Hayden Cunningham, Pavlechko and Manville.

Cunningham had seven wins in the two-week time frame with six alone coming in the Powerade tournament. The senior finished eighth at 133 pounds.

Pavlechko and Manville each had six wins over the two weeks with five apiece in the Powerade. They each finished third at their respective weight classes of 285 for Pavlechko and 139 for Manville.

The reigning PIAA champ in Manville topped a fellow District 6 wrestler in Central Mountain’s Luke Simcox, 5-2, in the consolation finals.

Asher Cunningham didn’t wrestle in State College’s dual, but recorded five wins to finish fifth in the Powerade at 145 pounds. He has 13 wins, good for fourth in the county.

Close had six wins over the two-week period, while collecting five on way to his 172 pound title. He has 12 victories to sit fifth in the county.

There are seven county wrestlers that have 11 wins to finish out the top 10. Long and teammate Max Murray are among that group.

Long tallied five wins with four alone in the Neil Turner Memorial tournament, where he finished seventh at 145 pounds. Murray had four wins in the two weeks — three in the tournament — but didn’t place.

Here’s who claimed their 10th win of the season:

Bald Eagle Area: Close (12 wins), edged Tyrone’s Kyle Scott, 3-0, in the quarterfinals; Fye (10), topped West Perry’s Jackson Rush, 4-3, in the finals at 121 pounds.

Bellefonte: Long (11 wins), pinned Delaware Military Academy’s Charles Perrin in 1:27 of consolation fourth round match; Murray (11), pinned Fishburne Military School’s (VA) John Caccavale in consolation second round bout; Weaver (10), snuck by Conestoga Valley’s Teagan Ruble, 4-3, in consolation quarterfinals.

Penns Valley: Conner Myers (10 wins), received a forfeit against Tyrone on Dec. 21.

State College: Hayden Cunningham (15 wins), majored Montoursville’s Cole Johnson, 9-1, in the first round; Pavlechko (15), pinned Cedar Cliff’s Guner Hiller in 1:35 on Dec. 21; Manville (15), pinned Cedar Cliff’s Liam Gannon in 41 seconds; Asher Cunningham (13), pinned St. Edward’s (OH) Bradley Eaton in 4:46 of third round; Carter Weaverling (11), pinned Central Valley’s Brandon Singleton, in 1:32 of first round.

Pins

Over the past two weeks, two Centre County wrestlers in Pavlechko and Long got to double-digit pins on the season.

Pavlechko leads the way with 12 falls in his 15 wins on the year. He has flattened 80% of his opponents.

The junior had six pins over the last two weeks with five of them coming in the Powerade. He pinned his way to the semifinals, and made the quarterfinals with a pinning in 28 seconds of Fort LeBoeuf’s John Duran.

In the quarterfinals, Pavlechko picked up his 10th pin of the year by sticking Wadsworth’s (OH) Aaron Ries in 4:17.

After being pinned in the semifinals by defending PIAA champion Riley Robell of Bishop McDevitt, Pavlechko finished his Powerade off with two more falls.

Long had five pins over the two weeks as he collected four alone in the Neil Turner Memorial tournament. His 10 falls are good for second in the county.

The senior opened his tournament with a pair of falls. He used another to reach the consolation quarterfinals, and secured himself a podium finish. In the seventh-place match, Long stuck St. Georges Technical School’s (DE) Thomier White in 2:51 for his 10th fall.

Murray had four falls over the two weeks to climb into a two-way tie for third with Penns Valley’s David Martin. The duo have eight pins on the year.

The Eagles’ Coen Bainey is part of a three-way tie for fifth in the county with seven falls. He had five in the two-week period.

The senior pinned his way to the 127-pound finals of the MyHouse Trojan Wars. His fastest pin was in 26 seconds, which was in the second round over Northeastern’s Eric Orpin.

Fye had four falls in the two weeks to tie with two others at six falls. Fye is joined by teammate Jeffre Pifer and Bellefonte’s Ezra Swisher to round out the top 10.

Major decisions

Asher Cunningham has been the leader of this category since the season started. He now has company at the top in Weaver.

The duo have three major decisions apiece to lead the county.

Weaver got his third by opening the Neil Turner Memorial by racking up a 14-1 victory over Radnor’s Kyle Johnson in the first round.

Weaver’s teammate Grady Garrison and Hayden Cunningham broke away from a group of wrestlers that had one major decision as they each picked up their second.

Garrison blanked Fishburne Military School’s (VA) Grayson Jones, 9-0, to open his tournament. Cunningham opened his Powerade with the previously mentioned 9-1 win over Montoursville’s Johnson.

Seven county wrestlers earned their first major decision of the year in BEA’s Close, Pifer and Nate Fry; Bellefonte’s Cameron Garcia and Nash Irwin; Penns Valley’s Kollin Brungart; and Manville.

Fastest Falls & Technical Falls

Murray has been making a habit of taking care of his opponents as quickly as possible.

The senior already had two of the top 10 fastest fall times in the county. Over the past two weeks, he added two more times.

He became the county’s leader by sticking Littletown’s Ethan Warner in eight seconds to open his Neil Turner Memorial tournament. After getting kicked to the consolation bracket, Murray then added the seventh quickest win in the county by flattening Caccavale in 19 seconds of their consolation second round bout.

There were no changes on the technical falls list as Manville still leads the way with four.

However, the Mounties’ Nate Fleck and the Eagles’ Kayson Tice joined the list by collecting their first technical fall.

Fleck racked up an 18-3 win over BEA’s Alex Surovec in 5:22 of wrestling on Dec. 21. Tice shut out Selinsgrove’s Anthony Snook, 15-0, in 3:00 of wrestling in their consolation fourth round match.

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.