A-K Valley wrestling notebook: Local wrestlers earn top seeds at Powerade

By: Greg Macafee
Tuesday, January 26, 2021 | 6:41 PM

Purchase Photo Options

Wrestling teams around the WPIAL might’ve had to wait a little longer, but the annual Powerade wrestling tournament, which includes some of the best high school wrestling teams in the country, is finally here.

Fifty-five teams will converge on the tournament’s new location at the Monroeville Convention Center on Friday and Saturday for two days of nonstop wrestling.

When the seeds were released Tuesday, four A-K Valley wrestlers found themselves at the top, or towards the top, of their weight classes.

Burrell’s Ian Oswalt and AJ Corrado nabbed top seeds. Neither Corrado (160) nor Oswalt (138) has won the tournament before, but both came close to winning a state championship last year as they both earned runner-up finishes in Hershey.

So far this season, Corrado and Oswalt are undefeated and have recorded a combined 12 pins in 15 matches. Other than one forfeit, all of Oswalt’s victories have come via pin. Corrado earned a 2-1 decision over North Allegheny’s Collin McCorkle at the North Allegheny Wright Automotive invitational earlier this year, and he also recorded a technical fall victory over Penn Trafford’s Wesley Stull on Monday.

Kiski Area’s Brayden Roscosky (189) also earned a top-three seed after placing fifth at Powerade last season. Roscosky has built a record of 8-1, and his only loss came against the top seed in his weight class, Mt. Lebanon’s Mac Stout. The two faced off at the Cavalier Duals this past weekend, and Stout earned a 12-2 major decision.

The Cavalier senior has also recorded five pins, two technical falls and a 5-4 decision over Seneca Valley’s Liam Volk-Klos.

Roscosky’s fellow Kiski Area senior Sammy Starr earned the fifth seed in the 172-pound weight class. Starr has earned a record of 9-1 this season with his only loss coming against Waynesburg’s Luca Augustine, who is the No. 1 seed in his weight class.

Seven of Starr’s nine victories this season have come via pin. He also earned a 5-0 decision over Commodore Perry’s Gage Musser and recorded a 16-1 technical fall victory over Hampton’s Jayden Resch as well.

His loss to Augustine this weekend came by a 4-3 decision.

The best of the best

This season has been full of ups, downs, and tons of schedule changes, and after several adjustments to the original group of invited teams, Kiski Area athletic director John Peterman was able to put together quite the dual meet tournament this weekend.

With the likes of top-ranked teams like Class AAA No. 1 Waynesburg, No. 2 Seneca Valley, No. 4 Canon McMillan, and No. 5 Franklin Regional in the field, along with Kiski Area at No. 7, the best of the best competed against each other on Saturday.

Kiski Area won two of its matches, beating Mt. Lebanon (48-14) and Mars (54-18), but lost to Penn Trafford (39-26), Seneca Valley (33-28), and Waynesburg (66-6). Along with Starr and Roscosky, sophomore 126-pounder Ryan Klingensmith had a solid day, going 4-0 with three pins and a 9-1 major decision over Seneca Valley’s Evan Vetter.

The Cavaliers wrestled without 160-pounder Enzo Morlacci and heavyweight Stone Joseph.

Comeback kids

The Burrell Bucs traveled to Brookville High School for the Ultimate Duals over the weekend and split with Brookville and Chestnut Ridge, who were both among the best in the state last year.

After going down 32-12, the Bucs made a late push in the last four matches to earn a 36-32 victory over the tournament hosts. Nicholas Salerno (132), Aaron Edwards (138) and Ian Oswalt (145) all picked up pins to pull the Bucs within two and then Brookville had to forfeit the final match at 152 pounds and the Bucs earned the victory. AJ Corrado (160) also picked up a pin in the win.

The Bucs lost to Chestnut Ridge, which placed third at last year’s state tournament, by three points in their second match. Cole Clark (189), Cooper Hornack (106), Oswalt and Corrado picked up pins in the loss.

Both of Corrado’s pins came in less than a minute.

On Monday, Burrell completed another come-from-behind victory. After the first four matches, Burrell trailed Penn-Trafford, 19-0. But the Bucs won the next eight matches before having to forfeit the heavyweight class and earned a 40-25 win.

Greg Macafee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Greg by email at gmacafee@triblive.com or via Twitter .

Tags: Burrell, Kiski Area