A-K Valley wrestling notebook: Seven wrestlers earn top seeds for sectionals tournament
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Tuesday, February 18, 2020 | 5:42 PM
Kiski Area’s Jack Blumer wrestles South Fayette’s Praicen Long in the 160 weight class Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2020 in WPIAL wrestling at Hempfield Area High School.
WPIAL Class AAA wrestlers will compete in their section tournaments Saturday, and seven from the Alle-Kiski Valley were seeded first in their respective weight class.
Kiski Area leads the way with five No. 1 seeds: Sammy Starr (152 pounds), Jack Blumer (160), Nick Delp (170), Jared Curcio (182) and Brayden Roscosky (195).
While Delp is going for his third straight section title, Blumer and Roscosky are looking for their second in a row.
All five have eclipsed the 20-win mark this season, and Blumer takes a 30-1 record into Saturday.
The Cavaliers aren’t the only ones nab top seeds.
In Section 3, Knoch’s Guy Deleonardis (160) earned a top seed with an 18-0 record, and Logan Harmon (20-3) is a No. 1 seed for Armstrong, which has a co-op agreement with Apollo-Ridge.
Fox Chapel earned a pair of No. 2 seeds in Alex Wecht (160) and Ed Farrell, who captured the 220-pound Allegheny County Championship this season. Knoch’s Eli Reese is seeded second at 285.
Plum sophomore Vince Citrano is the No. 3 seed in Section 1 at 113. Citrano has a 21-1 record with his only loss coming against Penn Trafford’s Boaz Chishko in the 120-pound match. Citrano is seeded behind Franklin Regional’s Carter Dibert, who won a state title last year at 106, and Hempfield’s Ethan Berginc.
The WPIAL Class AAA Section 1 tournament is at Kiski Area, and the Section 3 tournament takes place at Fox Chapel.
Three-time champion
Burrell’s Ian Oswalt captured the third WPIAL Class AA title of his career Saturday at Canon-McMillan.
The Burrell junior defeated Burgettstown’s Shane Kemper by a 6-0 decision in the 113 final as a freshman.
Last season, Oswalt beat Beth-Center’s Jimmy Gwyer by a 1-0 decision.
This year, Oswalt had his most dominant performance yet as he pinned Highlands’ Jrake Burford in 1 minute, 35 seconds.
Oswalt and teammate AJ Corrado, the WPIAL champion at 152, earned No. 2 seeds for the PIAA Class AA Southwest Regional at IUP this weekend. Oswalt won a regional title last season.
Alignment changes
The WPIAL revealed new wrestling sections Monday, and they put more emphasis on geography and less on competitive balance. Several A-K Valley teams were affected.
Highlands will move up to Class AAA. The Golden Rams will join a section with Armstrong, Fox Chapel, Hampton, Indiana and Kiski Area.
Knoch will drop to AA. They will be in a section with Burrell, Riverview, South Allegheny, Summit Academy and Valley.
Plum moves into a section with Franklin Regional, Gateway, Penn Hills, Penn-Trafford and Woodland Hills.
Greg Macafee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Greg by email at gmacafee@triblive.com or via Twitter .
Tags: Armstrong, Burrell, Fox Chapel, Highlands, Kiski Area, Knoch, Plum
