Here are the Centre County high school wrestling leaders through Jan. 15

Another week has come and gone in the high school wrestling season.

Centre County’s teams are roughly two weeks away from the dual team postseason getting underway. This week saw each team have a dual with two others taking in a tournament over the weekend.

This week’s dual winners were Bellefonte, who topped Hollidaysburg, 59-12 on Tuesday; and Penns Valley, who edged Bald Eagle Area, 31-27 on Tuesday. Winners for the Red Raiders were Wyatt Long (107 pounds), Cameron Garcia (114), Ezra Swisher (121), Jackson Long (127), Noah Weaver (139), Aaron Shawley (145), Gage Long (152), Max Murray (160), Grady Garrison (172), Nash Irwin (189) and Addison Shawley (215).

Winners during the Rams-Eagles bout were Coen Bainey (133, BEA), Colten Shunk (139, PV), Mason Reese (145, BEA), Ty Watson (152, PV), Jeffre Pifer (160, BEA), Ethan Fetterolf (172, PV), Caleb Close (189, BEA), Kollin Brungart (215, PV), Landon Hess (285, PV), Conner Myers (107, PV), Jack Darlington (114, PV), Lucas Fye (121, BEA) and Conner Maney (127, BEA).

Philipsburg-Osceola and State College suffered dual losses this week.

The Mounties fell to Huntingdon, 45-12 on Tuesday. Winners for P-O were Marcus Gable (152), Matthew Rowles (189) and Caleb Hummel (107). The Little Lions dropped a 40-29 dual to Cumberland Valley on Wednesday. Winners for State College were Mason Sanderson (114), Hayden Cunningham (133), Pierson Manville (139), Asher Cunningham (145), Carter Weaverling (172) and Nick Pavlechko (285).

The Little Lions and Bellefonte also had a tournament.

The Red Raiders traveled to New York for the 1st Southern Tier Memorial in Elmira. They finished third as a team with 125 points. Lake Highland Prep School (FL) won with 335 points with Tioga High School (NY) finishing as runner-up with 198.5 points.

The following were placewinners for Bellefonte: Wyatt Long (5th, 102), Garcia (7th, 110), Swisher (6th, 118), Jackson Long (7th, 126), Gage Long (4th, 145), Murray (6th, 152), Garrison (8th, 160), Irwin (6th, 172) and Addison Shawley (7th, 189).

State College finished 13th with 70 points at Escape the Rock at Council Rock South High School. Malvern Prep won the team title with 206.5 points. Blair Academy and St. Joseph’s Regional (NJ) rounded out the top three.

Placewinners for the Little Lions were Hayden Cunningham (8th, 133), Manville (2nd, 139), Asher Cunningham (7th, 145) and Pavlechko (4th, 285).

Let’s take a look at the leaderboards.

Wins

Gage Long continues to pile up wins, which keeps him at the top of this list.

A week ago, Long amassed six wins. He did the same this week.

The senior now has 23 victories to hold a one-win lead over Manville. He had a dual win against Hollidaysburg on Tuesday, and then had five more in the Southern Tier Memorial.

Long is one of four county wrestlers with 20-plus wins on the season. His 20th win came by way of a pin of St. Anthony’s (NY) Joshua Jorgge in 3:02.

Manville nearly had a perfect week, but fell in the finals of the Escape the Rock, which gave him only four wins this week. The junior did appear to injure his right knee in his semifinals match. His 20th victory was a 9-4 win over Camden Catholic’s (NJ) Wayne Rold in the third round.

Hayden Cunningham and Pavlechko are the others to have 20-plus wins. Cunningham earned his 20th win in the third round like Manville, when he topped Conwell Egan’s Charlie Robson, 6-2. Pavlechko’s 20th win was a pin of Southern Regional’s (NJ) Anthony Evangelista in 1:30 of their consolation semifinals match.

Swisher and Murray are just one win away from getting to 20 on the year. They are tied for fifth in the county.

There are a trio of wrestlers in Close, Asher Cunningham and Bellefonte’s Noah Weaver tied for seventh in the county at 18 wins apiece. Cunningham collected the most wins of the three by getting five this week.

Here’s a look at who earned their 10th victory this week:

Bellefonte: Garcia (13 wins), who had five wins this week, pinned Dryden’s (NY) Wyatt Curtis in 53 seconds of their consolation second round match. Garrison (12) received a forfeit against Hollidaysburg for No. 10.

Penns Valley: Landon Hess (10) topped BEA’s Gage Gardner, 12-3 on Tuesday, for No. 10, and avenged a loss to Gardner from junior high action last year.

There are now 79 county wrestlers with at least one win.

Pins

Gage Long still leads the way in this category and it’s not close.

Long had six wins this week, and they were all pins. He is scoring bonus points 100% of the time he wins.

Of his 23 wins, 21 are falls — to lead the county. His other two wins are a forfeit and a technical fall.

The senior opened the week by sticking Hollidaysburg’s Mitchell Baronner in 2:53 on Tuesday. During the Southern Tier Memorial, Long had five pins in that fourth-place finish. His fastest came in the consolation fourth round, when he stuck Milton’s Alex DeHart in 1:21.

Pavlechko is trying to keep pace with Long, but he’s now five behind and is second in the county with 16. The junior had three pins this week — two in the Escape the Rock.

The Little Lions wrestler had his fastest win in 1:17, when he put Owen J. Roberts’ Christian Gregory on his back in the second round.

Behind these two are seven wrestlers who all have 10-plus pins so far this year.

Murray flattened Hollidaysburg’s Aiden Schenk in 1:20 on Tuesday to get to 12 on the year. He is tied with Pifer, Baney and Penns Valley’s David Martin for third in the county.

Watson, who finished as the county leader last year in pins, is seventh in the county with 11 falls. He had one this week.

Swisher and Wyatt Long became the eighth and ninth county wrestlers to get to 10 falls on the year.

Swisher stuck Elmira’s Liam Ogden in 1:00 of their consolation fourth round bout. Long handled Horseheads’ (NY) Joel Scibek in 1:31 of their consolation third round match.

There are six county wrestlers needing one more pin to get to 10.

Major Decisions

A week ago, Asher Cunningham lost his spot at the top of this category. This week, he regained his seat on the throne.

Cunningham had two major decision victories this week to get to five on the year. He now sits one ahead of Weaver.

Cunningham shut out Cumberland Valley’s Waylon Kitzmiller, 10-0 on Wednesday. In the second round of the Escape the Rock, the sophomore shut out St. John Vianney’s (NJ) Cole Stangle, 8-0.

Garcia also had two major decisions this week to join five others tied with three on the year.

He opened the Southern Tier Memorial by topping Spencer-Van Etten Central’s (NY) Rodney Vaow, 10-1. In the third round of consolation wrestling, Garcia beat Addison’s (NY) Justin Wise, 10-2.

Fye, Murray, Garrison, Hayden Cunningham and Philipsburg-Osceola’s Nate Fleck are tied with Garcia. Only Fye, Murray and Cunningham added another major decision this week.

Fye beat Penns Valley’s Brayden Lisowski, 12-3 on Tuesday. Cunningham took care of Cumberland Valley’s Gordon Hung, 10-2 on Wednesday. Murray had no problems with Longwood’s (NY) Mason Rappold in a 16-6 win during a quarterfinals match.

Technical Falls & Fastest Falls

The leader in technical falls stayed the same in Manville, however Weaver came from nowhere to join the list and tied for second with three technical falls this week. Weaver is tied with Hayden Cunningham.

Weaver shut out Hollidaysburg’s Jacob Brua, 15-0 on Tuesday. Then, Weaver had two technical falls to open his Southern Tier Memorial Tournament. He outscored his opponents, 31-0, in the first two rounds, but ultimately did not place.

Shunk and Bainey were the only other wrestlers to collect a technical fall this week.

There were no new times added this week to the fastest falls list. However, if a wrestler wants to get on the list, they need to get that pin in under 15 seconds.

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.