High school wrestling notebook: Individual postseason starts Friday

By: Paul Schofield
Tuesday, February 14, 2023 | 8:42 PM

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There is no rest for the wrestlers in Class 2A.

The start of the postseason individual tournament gets underway around the state Friday.

WPIAL teams begin Saturday at three sites: Sections 1 and 2 at Burgettstown, Sections 3 and 4 at Keystone Oaks and Section 5 and 6 at Greensburg Salem.

The top six wrestlers from each site will advance to the WPIAL championships Feb. 24-25 at Chartiers Valley High School.

The returning WPIAL champions are Burgettstown’s Parker Sentipal (106), Bentworth’s Chris Vargo (120), Burgettstown’s Joey Sentipal (132), Laurel’s Grant MacKay (160), Frazier’s Rune Lawrence (172) and Burgettstown’s Joseph Baronick (285).

The Class 3A section tournaments begin Feb. 25. The three sites are: Sections 1 and 2 at North Allegheny, Sections 3 and 4 at Norwin and Sections 5 and 6 at South Fayette.

The Class 3A championships are March 3-4 at Canon-McMillan.

The returning champions are Latrobe’s Luke Willochell (106), Seneca Valley’s Tyler Chappell (113), Latrobe’s Vinny Kilkeary (120), Hempfield’s Ethan Lebin (126), Waynesburg’s Mac Church (132), Chartiers Valley’s Dylan Evans (152) and Waynesburg’s Rocco Welsh (172).

Proud coaches

Even though Canon-McMillan was the only WPIAL team to earn a medal at the PIAA team championships, all the coaches were proud of their teams’ performances at Giant Center at Hershey.

Canon-McMillan, Waynesburg and Hempfield won matches in Class 3A, and Burgettstown and Burrell were successful in Class 2A.

“It was quite a run for us,” Hempfield coach Vince DeAugustine said. “We just made too many mistakes in the quarterfinal match. But I’m proud how we competed. Hopefully, it will continue.”

Hempfield lost to Central Mountain, 31-28, in the quarterfinals. The Spartans dropped three last-second decisions.

Canon-McMillan had third place within its grasp before a last-second pin in the third-place match gave Central Dauphin the title.

Waynesburg was eliminated in a consolation semifinal by Canon-McMillan.

Simon, Held out

Waynesburg junior Joe Simon and Latrobe senior Wyatt Held will not be competing in the individual tournaments because of season-ending injuries.

Simon has been battling a knee injury that Waynesburg coach Kyle Szewczyk said will require surgery.

Simon wrestled for the Raiders in the WPIAL Class 3A championship match against Canon-McMillan and finished the bout on one leg.

Held injured his right elbow in the first round of the WPIAL team tournament against Norwin.

“I’m just sick,” Latrobe coach Mark Mears said. “I feel badly for Wyatt. He probably would have made the PIAA tournament.”

Returning to the Latrobe lineup is senior Nate Roth. He is 4-1 and will be competing in the individual tournament at 139 pounds.

Also returning from injury is Belle Vernon sophomore Kole Doppelheuer. He is 6-0 and will be competing at 145 pounds. He was injured during football season.

WPIAL junior championships

The WPIAL junior high championships will take place Friday and Saturday at Norwin.

The top teams include Connellsville, Kiski Area, Franklin Regional, Norwin, Canon-McMillan, North Allegheny, Derry and Butler.

The finals are slated for Saturday.

Paul Schofield is a TribLive reporter covering high school and college sports and local golf. He joined the Trib in 1995 after spending 15 years at the Daily Courier in Connellsville, where he served as sports editor for 14 years. He can be reached at pschofield@triblive.com.