State College has perfect night in PIAA 3A Northwest Regional wrestling finals
A year ago, State College had nine regional qualifiers. Of those nine only three made it to the PIAA Championships.
This year, the Little Lions had eight regional qualifiers. Five of those wrestlers are headed to Hershey since they made the finals.
All five of those finalists in Hayden Cunningham (127 pounds), Pierson Manville (139), Asher Cunningham (145), Carter Weaverling (172) and Nick Pavlechko (285) came away with gold medals. Coach Ryan Cummins said he was excited to see how his guys would respond, and it’s safe to say they met expectations.
“We couldn’t be happier. It’s perfect. We couldn’t have planned that any better,” Cummins said with a laugh. “No, the kids did a nice job. They did what they had to do to win. We got five guys headed to states as champs.”
State College brought just eight guys, but with how the placement matches went, it still managed to finish second in the team race.
The Little Lions ended up with 140 points, which was 5.5 behind the champions in Central Mountain, who brought 10 wrestlers. State College was behind by 17 points after wrestling finished Friday night.
It was like watching Penn State with all of those champions.
“I’m happy with it. Bringing eight guys, is tough to get all those team points, but in the end it’s about getting guys from here to Hershey,” Cummins said of the team’s finish.
When it came to all of the finals matches, there was a common theme to them: rematch from last weekend’s District 6 finals.
The first one came with Manville’s match where he took on Central Mountain’s Dalton Perry, who is a Penn State commit.
Manville came away with a 1-0 win last weekend. This weekend, he blanked Perry again.
Neither wrestler scored in the first period. In the second period, Manville had a full period ride out like he did in the previous match, except this time he got called for stalling. He was also called for caution twice as he was anticipating the official’s whistle too quickly.
In the third period, Manville escaped as Perry gave him an optional start. The junior quickly snapped off a takedown with 1 minute, 45 seconds remaining, and rode Perry for the remainder of the match in a 3-0 win.
It was Manville’s second straight regional title.
“It’s really special. I’ve showed jumps from my freshman year. I had a lot of good guys that year. Last year and this year, I had good guys, but I improved, matured and got better. It’s really surreal and a great feeling that I won these two.”
Manville had some history on way to his crown.
When the junior started his day, he was in the semifinals and had 199 career victories under his belt. Before coming to Pennsylvania, Manville wrestled in Minnesota, where he was able to start his varsity career in seventh grade. He amassed 116 wins in two years of wrestling in Minnesota.
In the semifinals on Saturday, Manville pinned Cathedral Prep’s Brandon Byrd in 1:41 for win No. 200.
“I’ve been wrestling since I was five. I started my varsity career when I was in middle school in Minnesota,” Manville said. “I got my first 100 wins there. I got my 150th last year at Escape the Rock. It was even more special to share this (moment) with this whole community, in front of a lot of people that know me or I know.”
Asher Cunningham followed Manville in another rematch of a district final as he faced off with Central Mountain’s Griffin Walizer. It was the sixth time the pair had faced off this season.
The only time Walizer won was on Dec. 17 when Cunningham forfeited to Walizer in the King of the Mountain finals.
Last weekend, Cunningham had no problems beating Walizer, 9-5. On Saturday, Cunningham used a reversal early in the second period hold up in a 2-0 win.
It was Cunningham’s second straight regional title.
“We both kind of know what we are going to do, so I just try to stay focused. He has an opposite style of mine. He brawls, and I’m scrambly,” Cunningham said. “It’s a weird matchup that is normally going to end up one or two points. I was solid today, so I came out on top.”
The next repeat matchup was Weaverling’s as he took on Mifflin County’s Avery Aurand. Last weekend, Weaverling pinned Aurand.
This time around, Weaverling had to work for his first regional title.
He used a nice go-behind to secure a first-period takedown. After giving up an escape in the second period, Weaverling added an escape of his own for a 3-1 win.
Like he did last week, the senior pinned his way to the finals as he flattened Punxsutawney’s Grant Miller in 3:02 of their semifinals match.
“Putting in all the hard work and having it pay off, it feels really nice. It’s unreal,” Weaverling said of the title. “This is something I can cherish forever. Wrestling careers come to an end, so no better way to end it than in Hershey.”
Pavlechko’s match was the final repeat from a week ago, when he faced off with Mifflin County’s Peyton Kearns in the last regional final of the night.
The result was the same as last week too — Pavlechko sticking Kearns in 1:56. The junior built up a 6-2 lead before collecting that fall.
Pavlechko took the same route as last week too, which was by pinning his way to his second straight regional crown. In the semifinals, Pavlechko had a 4-1 lead when he pinned Selinsgrove’s Jack Peters in 1:22.
“It doesn’t really matter to me that much. It’s just another tournament, another wrestling match that I had to go out and prove myself,” Pavlechko said of the title. “Now, it’s time for states, and bring home some hardware. I’m looking forward to it a lot. I’m super excited.”
Hayden Cunningham was in the regional tournament for just the second time in his career as he missed the last two due to injuries.
The senior had no problems making the finals as he pinned his way there in just 46 seconds worth of wrestling. In the semifinals, he hit a pretty slick crossface cradle that he locked up while jumping over Hickory’s Mike Reardon’s hips to rock him back for the fall in 25 seconds.
In the finals, Cunningham got to that crossface cradle multiple times in the first period, but Cathedral Prep’s Sammy Staab was able to free himself from being pinned. The Little Lions wrestler held a 9-2 advantage after one period of wrestling.
Cunningham tacked on another takedown in the second period, and gave up a stall point in an 11-3 major decision. It was his first regional crown as he finished third as a freshman.
“Freshman year was a lot better bracket. We had the state champ and state placer and another state finalist in that bracket,” Cunningham said. “It was a little bit tougher then, but I’ve also improved since then. I was just excited to wrestle at this tournament. It was a fun tournament for me. I’m excited I was able to perform the way that I did.”
State College had another semifinalist in Jacob Campbell (133), who made quite the splash this postseason. A week ago, he made the district finals.
This weekend, he was one win away from making the finals again, and his first trip to Hershey. However, he came up short.
He suffered an 8-1 loss to DuBois’ Brendan Orr, which kicked Campbell into the consolation semifinals. He was pinned by Shikellamy’s Isaac McGregor in 1:18.
Campbell got one last match as he faced off with Columbia Montour Vo-Tech’s Brady Moyer for fifth place. Campbell needed a takedown with 45 seconds remaining in sudden victory to earn a 8-6 win. It kept the Little Lions perfect in placement matches.
State College had two others in the consolation bracket to start the day in Mason Sanderson (107) and Nick Berrena (114).
Sanderson was able to make it another round as he topped DuBois’ Antonio Giambanco, 9-2. However, his season ended in the consolation quarterfinals to Williamsport’s Collin Nasdeo, 7-1.
Berrena trailed most of his match with Hollidaysburg’s Carson Krupka in the consolation second round. He did manage to tie the bout up, 5-5, with just over 30 seconds remaining. Krupka was able to escape with 4 seconds remaining for a 6-5 win, which ended Berrena’s season.
“They’re all underclassmen. This is great experience for next season,” Cummins said. “It will light a fire under them, to get them working in the offseason, so they can come here and move on next year.”
Notes: Penn State commit Cael Nasdeo of Williamsport earned the 121 pound title. He pinned his way to the finals, where he received a forfeit from Mifflin County’s Hunter Johnson.
PIAA Class 3A Northwest Regional
Saturday at Altoona
Team key: Altoona (A), Bradford (BF), Brashear (B), Carrick (C), Catherdral Prep (CP), Central Mountain (CM), Columbia Montour Vo-Tech (CMVT), DuBois (D), Hickory (HY), Hollidaysburg (H), Jersey Shore (JS), Johnstown (J), McDowell (M), Meadville (MV), Mifflin County (MC), Obama Academy (O), Perry Tradtional Academy (PTA), Punxsutawney (P), Selinsgrove (SG), Shikellamy (S), State College (SC), Taylor Allderdice (T), Westinghouse (WH), Williamsport (W)
Team scores: 1. Central Mountain 145.5, 2. State College 140, 3. Shikellamy 125, 4. Mifflin County 107.5, 5. Selinsgrove 102.5, 6. McDowell 101.5, 7. Hickory 96, 8. Williamsport 91, 9. Cathedral Prep 79.5, 10. Meadville 76.5
Finals
107: Braiden Weaver, A, dec. Brody Bishop, HY, 6-1; 114: Logan Sallot, M, tech. fall Alex Reed, S, 17-1 (4:53); 121: Cael Nasdeo, W, def. Hunter Johnson, MC; 127: Hayden Cunningham, SC, major dec. Sammy Staab, CP, 11-3; 133: Luke Simcox, CM, major dec. Brendan Orr, D, 15-3; 139: Pierson Manville, SC, dec. Dalton Perry, CM, 3-0; 145: Asher Cunningham, SC, dec. Griffin Walizer, CM, 2-0; 152: Luke Sipes, A, dec. Artis Simmons, M, 3-2; 160: Caleb Butterfield, M, dec. Gino Serafini, CM, 7-5 (SV); 172: Carter Weaverling, SC, dec. Avery Aurand, MC, 3-1; 189: Hadyn Packer, JS, pinned Tucker Teats, SG, :54; 215: Mason Rebuck, S, pinned Troy Peterson, M, 1:59; 285: Nick Pavlechko, SC, pinned Peyton Kearns, MC, 1:56
5th Place Match
133: Jacob Campbell, SC, dec. Brady Moyer, CMVT, 8-6 (SV)
Consolations Semifinals
133: Isaac McGregor, S, pinned Campbell, SC, 1:18
Semifinals
127: H. Cunningham, SC, pinned Mike Reardon, HY, :25; 133: Orr, D, dec. Campbell, SC, 8-1; 139: Manville, SC, pinned Brandon Byrd, CP, 1:41; 145: A. Cunningham, SC, dec. Carter Weaver, W, 11-8; 172: Weaverling, SC, pinned Grant Miller, P, 3:02; 285: Pavlechko, SC, pinned Jack Peters, SG, 1:22
Consolation Quarterfinals
107: Collin Nasdeo, W, dec. Mason Sanderson, SC, 7-1
Consolation Second Round
107: Sanderson, SC, dec. Antonio Giambanco, D, 9-2; 114: Carson Krupka, H, dec. Nick Berrena, SC, 6-5
This story was originally published February 25, 2023 at 11:16 PM.
