County wrestlers set for District 6 Class AAA tournament

When the command comes over the PA system for wrestlers to clear the mats in the Altoona Fieldhouse Saturday morning, five Centre County entrants will be wearing the target that comes from being the No. 1 seed in their weight class in the District 6 Class AAA tournament.

Bald Eagle Area leads the contingent with two top seeds, returning champions Seth Koleno at 132 and Josh Fye at 285. Koleno was the 126-pound winner in 2015. Bellefonte’s Brock Port is back to defend the crown he won at 132 a year ago, wrestling at 145 this time around, while State College’s Adam Stover is the first seed at 113 after finishing third a year ago, and Philipsburg-Osceola’s Matt Johnson has the top seed at 120 after placing fourth at 112 last year.

It will be wrestling for breakfast with quarterfinals scheduled for 9:30 a.m. The semifinals and the first consolation round go at noon and the consy semifinals are set for 2:45 p.m. Consolation bouts for fifth and third and the championship finals are scheduled for 6 p.m., all being contested at the same time.

Mifflin County leads the eight-team field in top seeds with five — Hayden Hidlay at 152, Trent Hidlay at 160, Noah Stewart at 170, Brandon Williams at 182 and Trey Hartsock at 195. Hayden Hidlay, Stewart and Hartsock are returning champions.

Central Mountain boasts three top seeds — Geo Barzona at 106 where he was second last year, Colton Weaver at 138 after taking second last year, and Hunter Weaver, who is defending his 220-pound crown.

Altoona’s Cole Manley is the other top seed, jumping to 126 after winning at 106 a year ago.

Other BEA wrestlers seeded among the top four are Garrett Giedroc, fourth at 106, Garrett Rigg, second at 126 and Coby Bainey, third at 138.

Bellefonte has five wrestlers seeded second — Cole Stewart at 106, Shafiq Blake at 113, Aaron Witherite at 132, Chase Gardner at 152 and Dillon Kephart at 182.

In addition to Stover, the Little Lions have high seeds in Dalton Barger, third at 145, Cole Urbas, third at 160, Cory Dreibelbis, third at 195 and Pete Haffner, fourth at 220.

For P-O, Dakota Weitoish is second seeded at 145, Nick Patrick is second at 160 and Micah Sidorick is second at 220. Levi Hughes is the fourth seed at 138.

The top four place winners Saturday will advance to the Northwestern Regional tournament at Altoona next weekend.

The 2016 class of inductees into the District 6 Hall of Fame are: Shad Benton, Central; Neil Conklin, Lock Haven; Curt Hoover, Tyrone; Andy Hull, Bald Eagle-Nittany; Bill Krebs, Bellefonte; Mike Lingenfelter, Central; Bill Morrisey, Tyrone; Jack Straub, State College; Jim Torsell, Bellefonte; Lester Weiser, Hollidaysburg; and Greg Wykoff, Huntingdon. The retired coaches in the district also selected former official Ed Conklin and retired Tyrone Daily Herald sports editor Len Slother for induction.

This story was originally published February 26, 2016 at 5:27 PM with the headline "County wrestlers set for District 6 Class AAA tournament."