Here are Centre County high school wrestling highlights, leaderboards through Jan. 14

Mother Nature threw a wrench into things in this week’s high school wrestling action.

Bald Eagle Area and Penns Valley were the lone teams to see any dual action as both teams were expected to have two duals this past week. The Eagles came away with a 34-29 win over the Rams.

BEA — along with Bellefonte, Philipsburg-Osceola and State College — then saw tournament action this weekend.

The Eagles traveled to Indiana University of Pennsylvania for the Mid Winter Mayhem. They had one champion and finished sixth as a team with 121.5 points. Bishop McCort won with 252.5 points.

The Red Raiders headed north to Elmira, NY, for the Southern Tier Memorial. They had a top-five finish in fourth with 141.5 points, and one champion. Tioga (NY) won the event with 260.5 points.

The Mounties stayed home and hosted the Mountaineer Duals. They had a 4-2 record and finished second. P-O beat Punxsutawney (49-21), Johnstown (67-6), Greencastle-Antrim (69-6) and Midd-West (46-24). The Mounties had heartbreaking losses to Altoona (33-31), who won the event, and Tyrone (35-34).

The Little Lions headed east to Council Rock South High School for Escape the Rock, which ended on Sunday. They had two champions and finished 10th as a team with 83 points. Malvern Prep won with 199 points.

As for the girls during the week, only BEA had competition, traveling with the boys to the Mid Winter Mayhem. Returning state placewinner Angelina Grieb got her first action of the season as she had been out recovering from an injury.

She made the finals with a pair of pins. She suffered a loss in the finals, but the Lady Eagles finished tied for 14th with 35 points. Norwin won the team title with 94 points.

Grieb’s teammate Eden Eveleth became the third county wrestler to get to 10-plus wins. She pinned Montgomery’s Sadie Wagner in 2:57 of their consolation semifinals match for No. 10. Eveleth also jumped into a tie for second in the county with seven falls as she had two in her tournament run.

Here’s a look at the movement this week on the boys’ side:

Wins

As previously mentioned, there were four Centre County wrestlers that secured an individual tournament title.

Those wrestlers were State College’s Asher Cunningham and Nick Pavlechko, BEA’s Caleb Close and Bellefonte’s Noah Weaver.

Close and teammate Lucas Fye each had a big week. Closed collect seven wins this week. Fye tallied eight and finished third at the Mid Winter Mayhem.

They both were able to collect their 100th career victories, too.

Fye pinned Butler’s Sullivan Stutz in 1:34 of their first round match. Close also used a pin for No. 100 in the first round against Thomas Jefferson’s Zach Labryer in 1:43.

The pair were also part of seven county wrestlers to go over 20-plus wins this week.

Fye beat Parkland’s Blake Dergham, 7-0, in their consolation fifth round match. Close had a 10-1 major decision over Plum’s Julien Sepelyak in the third round. Fye’s 24 wins leads the Eagles as Close is one behind.

Cunningham had five wins en route to his title. He pinned Faith Christian Academy’s Cael Weidemoyer in 1:13 in the finals. Cunningham’s 28 wins lead the county.

Pavlechko had four wins in his title run. He edged St. Joseph Regional’s Rocco Dellagatta, 3-1, in the finals. His 25 wins are second in the county.

Weaver collected four wins to claim this title. He topped Tioga’s (NY) Deakon Bailey, 4-0, in the finals.

Here are the other wrestlers to get to 20-plus wins:

Bald Eagle Area: Caden Judice (21 wins) pinned Fort LeBoeuf’s Brady Bowers in 4:06 of the consolation fifth round

Bellefonte: Wyatt Long (22) pinned Chambersburg’s Ben Hoover in 1:52 of the consolation fourth round; Ezra Swisher (22) pinned Tottenville’s (NY) Joseph Lamberti in 3:03 of the second round; Weaver (21) defeated Tioga’s (NY) Tyler Roe, 7-2, in the semifinals

Philipsburg-Osceola: Marcus Gable (21) pinned Greencastle-Antrim’s Braden Eckert in 1:34

Here are the wrestlers to get to 10-plus wins:

Bald Eagle Area: Eric Clark (11 wins) received an injury default from Central Mountain’s Giovanni Tarantella in the consolation second round

Bellefonte: Luke Hockenberry (13) received a forfeit from Elmira’s (NY) Kritian Knox in the consolation second round; Cameron Garcia (11) snuck by Elmira’s (NY) Jonathan Guyette, 5-2, in the quarterfinals

Philipsburg-Osceola: Nate Fleck (14) received a forfeit against Punxsutawney; Connor Guenot (13) shut out Johnstown’s Nick Taranto, 9-0; Matthew Rowles (13) pinned Johnstown’s Devin Barrett in 2:23; Ace Foster (12) pinned Midd-West’s Ronnie Johnson in 3:57

Pins

Close and Bellefonte’s Jackson Long each had four pins this week.

Long was getting his first taste of action as he was recovering from an injury suffered during the football season. He had five wins during the Southern Tier Memorial Tournament, with four of them being falls.

Long’s quickest pin came in the tournament opener over Spencer-Van Etten Central’s (NY) William Horyczun in 1:27.

Close had one during the Penns Valley dual and three in his title run. His fastest was 1:31 of Parkland’s Armando Fernandez in the second round.

Close now has 15 pins on the year, which is second in the county. He’s chasing Pavlechko, who now has 18 falls.

Pavlechko had a pair of pins during his tournament. His fastest was a 36-seconds victory of Conwell Egan’s Connor Horger in the second round.

Swisher, Marcus Gable and Averi Gable each had three pins a piece this week.

Bellefonte’s Wyatt Long was the lone county wrestler to get to 10-plus this week. He has 11, but his 10th was sticking Spencer-Van Etten Central’s (NY) Brennan Zimmer in 1:26 of the second round.

Major decisions

Close and Judice were the lone county wrestlers to secure multiple major decisions.

Close is up to four on the year, which is tied for the county lead with Marcus Gable. Close’s first was the win over Sepelyak. His second was an 8-0 shutout of General McLane’s Magnus Lloyd in the semifinals.

Judice’s came in the second round (14-4 over Hollidaysburg’s Landon Krupka) and in the consolation quarterfinals (10-0 over West Allegheny’s Caiden Harbert). Judice has three major decisions, which is tied with six others for second in the county.

Fastest falls & technical falls

Weaver has continued to pile up technical falls. He added two more this week to get to eight on the season.

Weaver outscored his opponents 31-0 and used back-to-back technical falls to make the semifinals.

Marcus Gable added another technical fall to get into third in the county by himself with three technical falls. He topped Midd-West’s Charley Paige, 16-1, in 5:54 of wrestling.

There were three new times added to the fastest falls list: Averi Gable pinned Greencastle-Antrim’s Kahl Cordell in 16 seconds; Penns Valley’s Conner Myers stuck BEA’s Michael Wesley in 18 seconds; Rowles put Midd-West’s Finn Dressler on his back in 24 seconds.

Boys’ Leaders

Wins

Pins

Fastest Falls

Technical Falls

Major Decisions

Girls’ Leaders

Wins

Pins

Fastest Falls

This story was originally published January 14, 2024 at 7:14 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.