Here are the final Centre County high school wrestling leaders

It’s hard to believe, but the 2022-2023 high school wrestling season came to a close on Saturday.

For the second straight year, Centre County had a finalist in the PIAA Championships. There wasn’t just one either — State College teammates Pierson Manville and Nick Pavlechko each suffered losses, but it was the first time since 2020 that there were multiple finalists.

The Little Lions had two other medalists in Hayden and Asher Cunningham. Bald Eagle Area had a trio of medalists in Lucas Fye, Coen Bainey and Caleb Close.

Penns Valley’s Ty Watson was the final medalist for the county.

Here’s a look at the final leaders for the 2022-2023 season.

Wins

A year ago, Close was in the top three for wins in a season. This year, he finished at the top with 42.

The sophomore now has 82 career wins after collecting 40 during his freshman campaign.

He added three victories during the PIAA Championships en route to a seventh-place finish. His 40th came when he topped Lackawanna Trail’s Robbie Schneider, 5-2, in the first round. Schneider finished fifth in the state last year.

Bainey was the only other county wrestler to get to 40-plus wins on the season. He has exactly 40 and finished second. He collected four during the state tournament with his 40th coming when he beat Conneaut’s Hunter Gould, 6-2, in the consolation semifinals.

Watson came up one win shy of getting to 40 on the year. His 39 victories ranks third in the county. The junior had three victories on the way to his sixth-place finish.

Several of the state medalists reached the 30-win milestone during the tournament:

Bald Eagle Area: Fye (32 wins) collected his 30th win in the first round by topping Mid Valley’s Matthew Almedina, 6-1.

State College: Manville (32) was the first of three Little Lions to get to 30-plus wins when he pinned Central Bucks South’s Jake Neill in 1:01 of their first round match for his 30th win; Pavlechko (32) edged St. Joseph’s Prep’s Maxwell Roy, 8-7, in the first round for No. 30; Hayden Cunningham (31) got his 30th win when he topped Seneca Valley’s Tyler Chappell in the quarterfinals to secure a podium finish.

Pins

Bellefonte’s Gage Long held down the top spot for all of the regular season. When the postseason came, others started to reel him back in.

Bainey was able to draw even with the Red Raiders senior as they each ended the year with 27 falls. Both wrestlers qualified for the PIAA Championships, but neither was able to secure any pins in the tournament.

Pavlechko and Watson did their best to try and get to the top with the other two, but came up short.

Pavlechko had a pin in the quarterfinals of Penn Trafford’s Joe Enick to secure a spot on the podium. He ended with 26 pins to finish third.

Watson had a pair of falls in the tournament to get to 25 on the year. He opened by pinning Kane’s Reece Bechakas in 3:32. He made the consolation semifinals by decking North East’s Steffan Lynch in 2:19.

Manville also had a pair of pins in the championships. He ended with 16 to finish tied for 10th in the county.

Major Decisions

Only three wrestlers managed to record a major decision in the PIAA Championships.

They were Pavlechko, Watson and Philipsburg-Osceola’s Caleb Hummel.

Hummel had the very first match of the tournament, and he opened with a flair. He racked up a 14-3 win over Montgomery’s Manny Stoltzfus.

Hummel’s five major decisions tied with four others for third in the county.

A pair of wrestlers in Fye and the Mounties’ Nate Fleck finished as the leaders at the top with seven major decisions.

Watson’s 12-0 shutout of Girard’s Story Buchanan secured him his second straight podium finish. He ended the season with three major decisions.

Pavlechko tallied his only major decision of the year when he hung a 10-2 loss on Carlisle’s Layton Schmick to reach the finals.

Technical Fall & Fastest Falls

There were no technical falls or fastest falls times added this week, so the leaders remained the same in each category.

Bellefonte’s Max Murray was an animal with pins this year, but it was more impressive in how quickly he took care of his opponents.

The senior had a fall in eight seconds over Littlestown’s Ethan Warner during the Neil Turner Memorial Holiday Classic at the end of December. The time lasted the rest of the year.

Murray had several weeks during the season where his name was recorded multiple times on the list.

Hummel and Murray’s teammate Noah Weaver finished at the top of the technical falls category as each wrestler managed to collect five on the season.

Leaders

Wins

Pins

Fastest Falls

Technical Falls

Major Decisions

Nate Cobler

Centre Daily Times

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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.