17 Centre County wrestlers reach District 6 Class 2A semifinals, secure regional spots
The first day of the District 6 Class 2A Championships was full of ups and downs for the four Centre County wrestling teams getting their postseasons underway inside Altoona’s Fieldhouse.
When it all got settled Friday, 17 athletes were able to reach the semifinals, which secured their spot in the PIAA Southwest Regional Championships in two weeks.
Bald Eagle Area (5) and Penns Valley (5) combined for 10 of those 17 semifinalists to lead the way for the county. Tyrone is the only other school that has the same number of finalists as the Eagles and Rams.
Saturday will be full of action as State College will join Bellefonte and Philipsburg-Osceola as the Class 3A Championships get underway on the second day of the Class 2A Championships.
Here’s a look at how each team finished on Friday:
Bald Eagle Area
Team score: 1st, 103 points
Semifinalists: Lucas Fye (121 pounds), Coen Bainey (127), Jeffre Pifer (152), Caleb Close (172), Cameron Dubbs (189)
Still alive: Liam Purcell (107), Kayson Tice (114), Connor Maney (133), Alex Surovec (139), Mason Reese (145), Shawn Knepp (160), Gage Gardner (215), Eric Clark (285)
Eliminated: None
Recap: Eagles coach Ron Guenot said on Monday after the seeding meeting that he and his staff had to figure out a way to get their guys rolling right away in the tournament.
It’s safe to say they did that as BEA came out and racked up 13 pins in the first session Friday morning/afternoon. In the evening session, it added another five falls for 18 total on the day.
All of those falls in a combination with five semifinalists has the Eagles at the top of the team race.
“That’s what we talked about all week long, is getting the falls when we could get them, especially in the earlier rounds,” Guenot said. “That’s how you get yourself up to the top of the team race. We did that, and that’s where we’re at now. We have to just wrestle well tomorrow.”
BEA had nine make the quarterfinals, but those of the five that won, three of them had bonus points.
Fye wrestled just one bout on the day since he had a bye into the quarterfinals. He recorded an 8-0 major decision over Huntingdon’s Ryan Yocum.
Bainey kept his streak alive of winning all of his district championship matches with bonus points. On Friday, he pinned his way to the semifinals, first taking care of Glendale’s Ryder Krise in 57 seconds. Then, he stuck Bellefonte’s Jackson Long in 2:38 with a cradle.
Pifer opened his day by sticking Bellwood-Antis’ Kolben Alley in 53 seconds. According to Guenot, the senior then put together his best match of the season in a 5-0 shut out of River Valley’s Kaden Barnhart.
“He’s a senior, and he wants it. You could see it today, that he was ready to wrestle,” Guenot said. “He’s excited, and I think he’s enjoying the moment. As a senior, this is his last go. He wanted that match in a big way.”
Close pinned his way to the semifinals too, by wrestling just shy of three minutes on the day. He took care of Central’s Camdyn Wenerick in 1:12. He flattened Juniata’s Harrison Mummah in 1:32 of their quarterfinals match.
Then came some ups and downs for the Eagles.
Dubbs, who is the No. 7 seed and had a pin to start the day, used a late takedown to upset No. 2 seed in Glendale’s Britton Spangle, 4-3.
Gardner, who also had a fall in his opener, was in a tight one in the quarterfinals against Penns Valley’s Brungart. Gardner ended up losing that match.
“A big one at (1)89 there. You have some of this in tournaments,” Guenot said. “You lose some heartbreakers, but then you have to rebound and win those matches like 189. They were tight matches.”
Just as the day started for BEA getting a pin from Purcell, it ended with Clark, who had two falls on the day, staying alive in the consolation bracket with a fall.
“It was a great day with a lot of bonus points, and that’s what we’ve preached,” Guenot said. “I’m happy with day one, but we got a whole other day. Hopefully the momentum will carry over.”
Penns Valley
Team score: 2nd, 84 points
Semifinalists: Jack Darlington (114), Brayden Lisowski (121), Colten Shunk (133), Ty Watson (152), Kollin Brungart (215)
Still alive: Max King (139), David Martin (160), Ethan Fetterolf (172), Brandon Corl (189)
Eliminated: Conner Myers (0-2, 107), Zach Rummel (2-2, 127), Chase Fleshman (1-2, 145), Landen Hess (1-2, 285)
Recap: The Rams were the only Centre County school to have a wrestler at each weight class.
It was that full lineup that allowed them to earn the No. 1 seed for the District 6 dual championships.
Seven of the 13 wrestlers reached the quarterfinals, with five of them pushing into the semifinals.
“The guys that won the quarters punched their ticket to regionals,” Penns Valley coach Joel Brinker said. “Now, these guys in wrestlebacks, got to battle and hopefully punch more to regionals.”
Darlington, Shunk, Watson and Brungart all pinned their ways there.
Darlington took care of River Valley’s Devin Blauser first in 2:28. In the quarterfinals, he decked Central’s Ty Biesinger in 1:30.
Shunk didn’t mess around on Friday. He wrestled a total of 2 minutes and 20 seconds.
He stuck Bellefonte’s DuFour in 1:38. The No. 1 seed made the semifinals by flattening Southern Huntingdon’s Elijah Harper in 42 seconds.
Watson made quick work of Westmont Hilltop’s Mike Distefano, 58 seconds, in his opener. The junior then needed some time to take care of United’s Caden McCully in 4:19.
“Colten took care of his guys fairly quick and wrestled well. Ty, this is the Ty I want to see,” Brinker said. “I saw a fire that has to be there from here on out. I was very pleased with him. The old Ty is back, so it was good to see his intensity was up today.”
Brungart had no problems with West Branch’s Tyler Wilson, pinning him in 1:06. Things got a little hairy in his quarterfinals match with Gardner.
He held a 4-3 lead with just under a minute to go, when Gardner reversed Brungart. The Rams wrestler escaped with 22 seconds remaining to force sudden victory.
Neither wrestler scored in that sudden victory period, so they went to ride outs. Gardner escaped in his rideout period, but Brungart collected a reversal and pinned Gardner in his rideout period.
“A little too close for comfort. Gardner is a tough kid. He’s young,” Brinker said. “I wouldn’t say Colin wrestled the smartest match, but a win is a win, so we’ll take it.”
Lisowski had a pin of his own to make the quarterfinals. However, he can claim he had the biggest win of his fellow teammates.
The freshman, who is the No. 7 seed, made the semifinals by upsetting the No. 2 seed in Tyrone’s Logan Rumberger, 4-1.
“A big win for him. He wrestled him earlier in the year in a close bout,” Brinker said. “We knew that was going to be what it was, and it was. He wrestled smart on the mat and he came through.”
Philipsburg-Osceola
Team score: 8th, 57.5 points
Semifinalists: Caleb Hummel (107), Ben Gustkey (127), Nate Fleck (133), Marcus Gable (152)
Still alive: Sam McDonald (114), Ian Phillips (145), Matt Rowles (160)
Eliminated: Haydn Kephart (2-2, 139), Trevor Cort (1-2, 189), Dom Davis (0-2, 285)
Recap: Of all the Centre County teams, the Mounties had a perfect mark in the quarterfinals on Friday night.
They had four reach that far and all four advanced to the semifinals, which locked up a regional spot for them.
Each semifinalist made it there the same except one — Gable. The junior tallied bonus points in each of his wins.
He opened his day by pinning Southern Huntingdon’s Christian Hoops in 1:18. In the quarterfinals, Gable controlled Murray in an 8-0 shutout.
“Marcus had a good match. The kid from Bellefonte is not a bad kid,” P-O coach Justin Fye said. “He’s a funky wrestler. Marcus wrestled a smart match.”
The other semifinalists opened with bonus points, and then did what they had to, to advance further.
Hummel racked up a 15-0 technical fall on West Branch’s Bryce English in 4:06. He made the semifinals by dispatching Marion Center’s Griffin Tinsman, 8-2.
Gustkey opened his day by pinning Southern Huntingdon’s Kyler Cromwell in 5:02. Then, he topped United’s Colton Henning, 6-4.
Fleck earned a 10-2 major decision over Huntingdon’s Dom Peruso to open the day. The junior then took care of Maney, 8-2.
“Caleb wrestled a close match with that kid earlier this year. He wrestled a very smart match, controlled, kept in good positions and was attacking on his feet,” Fye said. “Ben wrestled a smart match. He controlled that whole match. The final score was 6-4, but we gave him a couple points there with cautions and stuff, and gave up a point at the end. Nate Fleck has done a good job just continuing to get better all year.”
With the perfect mark in the quarterfinals, Fye said that was a great way to end the day.
The Mounties have those three wrestlers still alive in the consolation bracket. They each need two more wins to secure a regional spot.
Fye feels those three have great matchups to start Saturday off on the right foot.
“They all have winnable matches tomorrow morning. It’s just one match at a time,” Fye said. “The guys have been putting the hard work in. They’ve done it all year, but the last week and a half they put in a lot of work. It’s great to see that transfer out onto the mat.”
Bellefonte
Team score: 6th, 65 points
Semifinalists: Noah Weaver (139), Gage Long (145), Addison Shawley (189)
Still alive: Wyatt Long (107), Cameron Garcia (114), Ezra Swisher (121), Jackson Long (127), Max Murray (152), Grady Garrison (160), Nash Irwin (172)
Eliminated: Gavin DuFour (0-2, 133)
Recap: The Red Raiders couldn’t have asked for a better start to the day than Wyatt Long, who was the No. 10 seed, upsetting the No. 7 seed in Southern Huntingdon’s Noah McMath, 8-6.
His teammates fed off of that to the tune of pushing 9 of the 11 wrestlers entered, into the quarterfinals. Things went a little haywire in that round.
Bellefonte went a combined 3-6 in the quarterfinals.
“It’s the nature of the tournament. We got off to a good start, but you’re going to start running into some some good wrestlers in that quarterfinal round,” Red Raiders coach Mike Maney said. “We were right there. Wyatt was right there with the number two seed. Garcia was right there with a guy, who he’d lost to twice. Swisher was in overtime, so it could go either way. We just need our guys to refocus. The goal right now is to advance, so they got to string two wins together, and that’s going to be our focus.”
As Maney mentioned, Wyatt Long suffered a 2-0 loss to the No. 2 seed in United’s Jacob Sombronski. Garcia was pinned by Huntingdon’s Alex Gladfelter.
Swisher trailed 5-4 to United’s Gideon Bracken late in the third period, but his consistent pressure earned him a stalling point to tie the bout. The pair went to sudden victory, where Bracken tallied the winning score 10 seconds into the frame.
Weaver and Gage Long got Bellefonte into the win column. Weaver shutout Huntingdon’s Eric Mykut, 3-0. Long won a scorefest with Reese, 12-8.
“Gage, that’s the third time they’ve wrestled this year, let alone previous years. They’re both going to put up a lot of points on the board in those matches,” Maney said. “Credit to Gage to just get the job done — two wins tonight and punch his ticket to next week. Noah Weaver just does all the right things. He’s a great kid on and off the mat, so we’re happy for him.”
Irwin was pinned by Tyrone’s Kyle Scott, but Shawley responded to become the third semifinalist.
The senior pinned his way to the semifinals with the second one coming by sticking River Valley’s Chase Stuchal in 4:13.
“Shawley can surprise a lot of people. He doesn’t have a lot of matches under his belt this year, but he’s seasoned,” Maney said. “He’s been in the postseason before, so he knows what he needs to do.”
District 6 Class 2A Championships
Friday at Altoona
Team key: Bald Eagle Area (BEA), Bellefonte (B), Bellwood-Antis (BA), Cambria Heights (CH), Central (C), Central Cambria (CC), Claysburg-Kimmel (CK), Forest Hills (FH), Glendale (G), Huntingdon (H), Juniata (J), Juniata Valley (JV), Marion Center (MC), Moshannon Valley (MV), Mount Union (MU), Penn Cambria (PC), Penns Valley (PV), Philipsburg-Osceola (P-O), Richland (R), River Valley (RV), Southern Huntingdon (SH), Tyrone (T), United (U), West Branch (WB), Westmont Hilltop (WH)
Team scores: 1. Bald Eagle Area 103, 2. Penns Valley 84, 3. Huntingdon 78, 4. Tyrone 76.5, 5. Mount Union 68, 6. Bellefonte 65, 7. United 63, 8. Philipsburg-Osceola 57.5, 9. Penn Cambria 55, 10. Forest Hills 54
Quarterfinals
107: Caleb Hummel, P-O, dec. Griffin Tinsman, MC, 8-2; Jacob Sombronski, U, dec. Wyatt Long, B, 2-0; 114: Alex Gladfelter, H, pinned Cameron Garcia, B, 2:54; Jack Darlington, PV, pinned Ty Biesinger, C, 1:30; Josef Garshnick, U, pinned Kayson Tice, BEA, 3:24; 121: Lucas Fye, BEA, major dec. AJ Chilcote, MU, 8-0; Gideon Bracken, U, dec. Ezra Swisher, B, 7-5 (SV); Brayden Lisowski, PV, dec. Logan Rumberger, T, 4-1; 127: Coen Bainey, BEA, pinned Jackson Long, B, 2:38; Ben Gustkey, P-O, dec. Colton Henning, U, 6-4; 133: Colten Shunk, PV, pinned Elijah Harper, SH, :42; Nate Fleck, P-O, dec. Connor Maney, BEA, 8-2; 139: Taylor Smith, J, pinned Max King, PV, 1:03; Noah Weaver, B, dec. Eric Mykut, H, 3-0; 145: Gage Long, B, dec. Mason Reese, BEA, 12-8; 152: Ty Watson, PV, pinned Caden McCully, U, 4:19; Jeffre Pifer, BEA, dec. Kaden Barnhart, RV, 5-0; Marcus Gable, P-O, major dec. Max Murray, B, 8-0; 160: Zeke Dubler, G, def. David Martin, PV; 172: Caleb Close, BEA, pinned Harrison Mummah, J, 1:32; Kyle Scott, T, pinned Nash Irwin, B, 5:20; 189: Addison Shawley, B, pinned Chase Stuchal, RV, 4:13; Cameron Dubbs, BEA, dec. Britton Spangle, G, 4-3; 215: Kollin Brungart, PV, pinned Gage Gardner, BEA, 7:45
Consolation Third Round
107: Liam Purcell, BEA, dec. Conner Myers, PV, 9-4; 114: Sam McDonald, P-O, pinned Connor Szarka, WH, 1:19; 127: Remington Fleck, T, dec. Zach Rummel, PV, 1-0; 133: Jake Wilson, CC, major dec. Gavin DuFour, B, 9-0; 139: Alex Surovec, BEA, pinned Devin Knier, SH, 4:39; Hunter Schnarrs, WB, dec. Haydn Kephart, 8-3; 145: Marshall Eckenrode, CH, dec. Chase Fleshman, PV, 4-2; Ian Phillips, P-O, pinned Caleb Leidy, SH, 2:28; 160: Matt Rowles, P-O, dec. Vincent Hoover, JV, 11-7; Shawn Knepp, BEA, pinned Javier Lopez, J, 2:11; Grady Garrison, B, def. Carter Yingling, WB; 172: Eth Fetterolf, PV, pinned Zack Dick, JV, 1:35; 189: Brandon Corl, PV, major dec. Joe Nibert, WH, 10-2; 285: Eric Clark, BEA, pinned Jeremiah Baron, SH, 1:57; Ryvan Audi, R, dec. Landon Hess, PV, 3-1
Consolation Second Round
107: Purcell, BEA, pinned Bailey Wilt, C, 2:08; 127: Rummel, PV, pinned Joel Micklow, RV, 2:00; 139: Surovec, BEA, dec. Adam Blauser, RV, 9-5; Ha. Kephart, P-O, pinned Julian McMahon, JV, 2:37; 145: Fleshman, PV, pinned Nick Parks, WB, 4:05; 189: Dom Moore, MV, dec. Trevor Cort, P-O, 7-6; 285: Cade Krouse, U, pinned Dom Davis, P-O, 1:13; Clark, BEA, pinned Tommy Kitchen, CH, 1:47; Hess, PV, pinned Waldims Benitez, C, :22
Second Round
107: Korry Walls, T, pinned Purcell, BEA, 1:12; Gaige Sholly, H, dec. Myers, PV, 2-0; Hummel, P-O, tech. fall Bryce English, WB, 15-0 (4:06); W. Long, B, dec. Noah McMath, SH, 8-6; 114: Garcia, B, pinned Szarka, WH, 5:51; Alex Gladfelter, H, pinned McDonald, P-O, 1:48; Darlington, PV, pinned Devin Blauser, RV, 2:28; Tice, BEA, pinned Isaiah Chyr, PC, 3:38; 121: Swisher, B, tech. fall Roman Faulds, MV, 17-1 (2:50); Lisowski, PV, pinned Layton Munyon, PC, 2:26; 127: Bainey, BEA, pinned Ryder Krise, G, :57; J. Long, B, pinned Brodie Soler, CK, 2:57; Gustkey, P-O, pinned Kyler Cromwell, SH, 5:02; Jacik Hess, dec. Rummel, PV, 11-4; 133: Shunk, PV, pinned DuFour, B, 1:38; Maney, BEA, pinned Gage Pierce, RV, 3:54; Fleck, P-O, major dec. Dom Peruso, H, 10-2; 139: King, PV, major dec. Killian Johnson, CC, 9-0; Weaver, B, tech. fall Ha. Kephart, P-O, 15-0 (4:48); Liam Cornetto, MC, tech. fall Surovec, BEA, 24-9 (5:32); 145: Reese, BEA, pinned Zach Vereshack, G, 1:48; G. Long, B, pinned Cohan Wallace, T, :33; Cole Claycomb, CK, pinned Phillips, P-O, 5:19; Gage Heilbrun, MC, major dec. Fleshman, PV, 10-0; 152: Watson, PV, pinned Mike Distefano, WH, :58; Pifer, BEA, pinned Kolben Alley, BA, :53; Murray, B, pinned Nick Noon, FH, 2:14; Gable, P-O, pinned Christian Hoops, SH, 1:18; 160: Martin, PV, pinned Aiden Gallaher, U, 3:31; Austin McCloskey, PC, major dec. Rowles, P-O, 8-0; Deegan Rittenhouse, MU, pinned Knepp, BEA, :46; Mark Lattieri, CK, dec. Garrison, 4-2; 172: Close, BEA, pinned, Camdyn Wenerick, C, 1:12; Kory Marsalko, FH, pinned Fetterolf, PV, 3:50; Irwin, B, dec. Zack Travis, U, 4-3; 189: Josh Ryan, MU, pinned Cort, P-O, :44; Shawley, B, pinned David Schweitzer, CC, 1:16; Kelton Bonnell, J, dec. Corl, PV, 9-6; Dubbs, BEA, pinned Landon Erdman, H, 3:36; 215: Brungart, PV, pinned Tyler Wilson, WB, 1:06; Gardner, BEA, pinned David Baker, RV, 1:35; 285: Haiden Inch, MU, dec. Hess, PV, 4-3; Brad Miller, RV, pinned Clark, BEA, 1:01
First Round
107: Purcell, BEA, pinned Keaton Brooks, PC, 1:17; 127: Rummel, PV, pinned Cole Blanchetti, R, 4:40; 139: Ha. Kephart, P-O, dec. Blauser, RV, 3-2; Surovec, BEA, pinned McMahon, JV, 1:17; 189: Cort, P-O, pinned Noah Rice, SH, 3:38; 285: Clark, BEA, pinned Davis, P-O, 3:43
This story was originally published February 17, 2023 at 10:50 PM.
