Here are the Centre County high school wrestling leaders through Jan. 8

This past week of Centre County high school wrestling saw a lot of winning, but also some losses.

It’s hard to believe, but the season is only three weeks away from the dual postseason getting underway.

Bald Eagle Area, Bellefonte and Philipsburg-Osecola all took part in dual tournaments on Saturday. However, only the Mounties secured a dual victory earlier in the week when they topped Tyrone, 33-27, on Tuesday.

The Eagles suffered a tough 36-31 loss to Clearfield on Tuesday, while the Red Raiders got flattened by Penns Valley, 51-15 on Wednesday. BEA and Bellefonte responded nicely though in those dual tournaments.

The Eagles won the Juniata duals with a perfect 5-0 mark beating Susquehanna Township (78-0), Susquenita (66-9), Juniata (51-17), Harry S. Truman (72-0) and West Perry (37-28 in championship dual).

The Red Raiders looked like a totally different team from Wednesday on their way to winning the 20th Annual Mountaineer Duals at Philipsburg. They beat Glendale (43-30), West Branch (38-30), Altoona (46-27), P-O (37-22 in the championship match) and Punxsutawney (53-18).

P-O topped Punxy (58-15), Glendale (45-24), West Branch (42-32) and Altoona (34-24) on the way to that second place finish in the Mountaineer Duals.

The Rams throttled Bellefonte on Wednesday, and followed that up by winning the Tool City Tournament in Meadville with 235 points Saturday. Meadville (203 points) and Titusville (165.5) rounded out the top three.

Penns Valley had 14 placewinners — five finalists in Jack Darlington (114 pounds), Brayden Lisowski (121, champion), Colten Shunk (133), Ty Watson (152) and Ethan Fetterolf (172). Other placewinners for the Rams were Conner Myers (107, 5th), Wyatt Homan (127, 7th), Zach Rummel (127, 5th), Chase Fleshman (139, 8th), Max King (139, 7th), David Martin (160, 5th), Brandon Corl (189, 4th), Kollin Brungart (215, 5th) and Landon Hess (285, 4th).

State College had two duals this week, but suffered losses in both. The Little Lions fell to Williamsport (41-36) on Tuesday and Bishop McDevitt (41-24) on Saturday.

Let’s take a look at the leaderboards.

Wins

Several wrestlers this week won every time they hit the mat. Some of them amassed up to six wins over the week.

One of those six-victory wrestlers is Bellefonte’s Gage Long. Long collected bonus points in every single one of those victories, and is tied with three others for the county lead at 17 wins.

BEA’s Caleb Close, and State College’s Hayden Cunningham and Pierson Manville are those three other wrestlers tied with Long. Close opened his week with a gut-wrenching loss to Clearfield’s Carter Chamberlain on Tuesday. He was leading Chamberlain, 4-1, late in their bout and went to score another takedown, but Chamberlain caught him and pinned him.

The sophomore responded by having a perfect day for the Eagles in the Juniata duals collecting five wins. Cunningham and Manville each won both of their bouts in State College’s duals.

Close’s teammate Lucas Fye had six wins this week. Fye had bonus points in all but one of his victories.

His 16 wins are tied with the Red Raiders’ Max Murray, the Mounties’ Caleb Hummel and the Little Lions’ Nick Pavlechko. Murray and Hummel each collected five wins this week with Murray grabbing all of his on Saturday as he sat out Bellefonte’s dual on Wednesday.

All of Murray’s wins came with bonus points, as did Hummel’s.

BEA’s Coen Bainey, the Red Raiders’ Ezra Swisher and P-O’s Nate Fleck also collected six wins this week. They are tied for ninth in the county with Swisher’s teammate Noah Weaver and Penns Valley’s Ty Watson with 15 wins.

This week saw a ton of county wrestlers get to 10-plus victories on the year:

Bald Eagle Area: Bainey (15 wins) pinned Clearfield’s Colton Bumbarger in 2:21 on Tuesday; Jeffre Pifer (13), who had a perfect day for the Eagles on Saturday, pinned Susquenita’s Dylan Fulton in 2:28 for No. 10; Mason Reese (10) pinned Harry S. Truman’s Lincoln Goldey in 3:36 on Saturday

Bellefonte: Swisher (15) edged Lisowski, 2-0, on Wednesday; Jackson Long (11) earned a 9-0 win over P-O’s Hunter Kephart on Saturday; Nash Irwin (11) pinned the Mounties’ Jake Shaw in 1:22 on Saturday; Wyatt Long (10) received a forfeit against Punxsutawney on Saturday.

Penns Valley: Lisowski (12) pinned Eisenhower’s Ryan Chambers in their quarterfinals match; David Martin (12) pinned Youngsville’s Aiden Turner in their first round match; Kollin Brungart (11) pinned Cochranton’s Noah Mcmaster in 2:05 of their consolation quarterfinals match

Philipsburg-Osceola: Fleck (15) edged Tyrone’s Cohen Wallace, 3-2, on Tuesday; Ben Gustkey (14), who had five wins this week, topped Tyrone’s Remington Fleck, 2-1, on Tuesday for No. 10; Marcus Gable (13), who had five wins this week, received a forfeit against Punxsutawney on Saturday; Ian Phillips (12), who had six wins this week — five alone on Saturday — pinned West Branch’s Reed Yingling in 1:01.

Pins

While Long shares the throne at the top of the wins category, he stands alone as the “Pin King” as of now.

The Bellefonte senior had six wins this week all with bonus points. Five of those wins were Long sticking his opponents on their backs.

He flattened the Rams’ King in 2:51 on Wednesday. On Saturday, Long pinned his way through the day and ended it with a forfeit.

The Red Raiders wrestler took care of Glendale’s Malachi Richards pretty quickly, followed by putting Yingling on his back in 56 seconds. Against Altoona, Long stuck Eli Wisor in 57 seconds and took care of P-O’s Haydn Kephart in 3:50.

Long’s 15 falls gives him a two-pin cushion in front of Pavlechko, who pinned Williamsport’s Brycen Delker in 1:35 on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Pifer pinned his way through the week to amass six falls and get to 12 on the year. He’s in a three-way tie with Martin and Bainey for third in the county.

Pifer’s first fall came on Tuesday when he stuck Clearfield’s Patrick Knepp in 3:04. On Saturday, the senior opened by pinning Susquehanna Township’s Mohammed Mansour in 33 seconds and closed the day by flattening West Perry’s Carter Nace in 1:02.

Bainey totaled five falls this week to get to 12. Martin amassed four to get to 12.

In all there are only seven county wrestlers to have double-digit pins, but there are a pile inching closer and closer. Fye had three this week to get to nine.

Reese had four this week to get to eight.

Here’s who got to 10-plus pins this week:

Bald Eagle Area: Pifer (15 pins) flattened Juniata’s Wesley Woodward in 3:24 on Saturday for No. 10; Bainey (12) took care of another Indians wrestler in Ryder Smith in 1:18

Bellefonte: Murray (11) pinned West Branch’s Carter Yingling in 47 seconds on Saturday

Penns Valley: Watson (10) stuck Union City’s Steven Klakamp in 1:24 of their quarterfinals match

Fastest Falls

It’s been quite some time since this category has been able to stand on its own, but it happened this week as five new times were added.

Murray’s win in eight seconds still reigns supreme at the top, but three newbies came after him.

Lisowski was first, but two seconds short. He flattened Eisenhower’s Ryan Chambers in 10 seconds of their quarterfinals match of the Tool City Tournament.

Next, Bainey had the third fastest win of the season when he stuck Susquenita’s Jack Stoesz in 11 seconds on Saturday.

P-O’s Dylan Koptchak has just four wins on the year, but one of his most recent came in 12 seconds on Saturday. Koptchak took care of Altoona’s Julian Fetter in that time.

Martin opened his Tool City Tournament by sticking Youngville’s Aiden Turner in 14 seconds. He is tied with Murray’s third fastest time on the list at eighth in the county.

Long opened his Mountaineer Duals by taking care of Richards in 15 seconds, which is the 10th fastest time in the county.

There were a few that just missed the list too.

Murray, who would’ve had his fourth fastest time on the list, and Penns Valley’s Conner Myers each had falls in 19 seconds early Saturday, but when the dust settled on Saturday’s action, it wasn’t quick enough.

Major Decisions & Technical Falls

Last week, there was a tie at the top of this category.

Bellefonte’s Noah Weaver was tied with State College’s Asher Cunningham. Well, Weaver pulled ahead when he racked up a 10-0 win over Altoona’s Wyatt Young to get major decision No. 4.

Now, Cunningham has some friends joining him for second in the county with three major decisions. Those wrestlers are Weaver’s teammate Grady Garrison and Fleck.

Garrison shut out Glendale’s Dravin Beatty, 10-0 on Saturday. Fleck also got his third on Saturday, when he shut out Punxsutawney’s David Kunselman, 8-0.

Six wrestlers were able to get their second major decision of the year this week in Close, Fye, Murray, Swisher, Penns Valley’s Zach Rummel and the Mounties’ Ben Gustkey. However, Bellefonte’s Jackson Long collected two major decisions on Saturday to get on the leaderboard.

He first beat West Branch’s Drake Taylor, 8-0. Then, Long shut out P-O’s Hunter Kephart, 9-0.

There was no movement on the technical falls list, however King, Darlington and Bellefonte’s Cameron Garcia all collected their first victory that was by 15 points.

Leaders

Wins

Pins

Fastest Falls

Technical Falls

Major Decisions

This story was originally published January 8, 2023 at 1:06 PM.

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.