Confidence builds as wins pile up for Burrell wrestlers

By: Greg Macafee
Tuesday, January 6, 2026 | 11:01 AM

Before moving into the new year, the Burrell boys wrestling team ended 2025 on the right foot with an undefeated performance at the Wheeling Park Duals in West Virginia to move to 9-1 on the season.

During the two-day tournament, the Bucs were shorthanded and gave up 12 points in forfeits during each match. Still, they won all eight of their matches, seven of which came by double digits.

“It gives us a lot of confidence, and the nice thing about it is the confidence we got was because we were short two men,” coach Steve Ansani said. “We forfeited 12 points each match, just from sickness. A couple of guys were just sick.

“We just wrestled our style, our Burrell style. Good technique, well-conditioned and in-your-face wrestling.”

Burrell kicked off its tournament on Day 1 with four dominating wins by an average of 46.5 points. The Bucs only lost six individual matches that weren’t decided by a forfeit or injury default.

They were just as dominant on Day 2.

The Bucs beat Peters Township (46-30) along with three teams from Ohio: Waynedale (40-36), Claymont (44-32), and Canfield (48-30). Waynedale is ranked third in Division III and finished third at the OHSAA state tournament last season.

Burrell edged out the Golden Bears with a four-point victory, picking up two victories each via decision, technical fall, pin and forfeit. What stood out to Ansani was his team’s versatility in implementing match strategy and adjusting weight classes when needed.

“We did really well. Our guys wrestled really hard,” Ansani said. “Like I said, we were down 12 points, and that comes with match strategy and if you’re going to bounce people up a weight or not. Our whole team, if we need to, we can bump up a weight or keep them where they are at. We’re pretty flexible in that way.”

Ultimately, individual success leads to team success in wrestling, and the Bucs had five wrestlers go undefeated during the two-day tournament, and two finished with just one loss.

Seniors Cam Baker, Julian Bertucci and Jacob Stewart, whom Ansani described as the team’s leaders this year, finished with 8-0 records alongside juniors Ayden Kuhn and Ben Catullo. Junior Cadyn Crawford and sophomore Antonio Perkins, who is coming off a special football season, finished 7-1.

Baker and Stewart have only lost one match this season, and Bertucci has produced a 14-2 record. All three have also recorded five or more pins, which is what Ansani was looking for from his senior class.

“That’s exactly what we expected them to do, and we’ll continue that through the regular season and into the postseason,” Ansani said.

After such a successful start to the season, the Bucs are in a good spot, Ansani said, but there are still things to work on. Ansani said he wants his team to continue to build its conditioning so it can continue to put pressure on its opponents.

However, he also believes tournaments like the Wheeling Park and Brookville duals are good opportunities for his team to come together and prepare for the stretch run of the season.

“We’re right where we want to be,” Ansani said. “One of the reasons we went to this tournament was to get our team meshing — we have the Brookville Duals coming up as well. We just wanted to get the guys meshing, so we’re in gear for the team playoffs.”

The Bucs now turn their attention to the new year, where they’ll face off against Valley on Wednesday before heading to the Westmoreland County Coaches Association tournament at Greensburg Salem on Saturday. Wrestlers from 14 teams around the WPIAL will be competing, giving the Bucs another chance to prove themselves.

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

Tags: Burrell