Latrobe’s Gabe Willochell, Mt. Pleasant’s Dayton Pitzer to miss WCCA wrestling tournament

By: Paul Schofield
Thursday, January 2, 2020 | 9:42 PM

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The Westmoreland County Coaches’ Association wrestling tournament this weekend will be missing two prominent wrestlers.

Latrobe senior Gabe Willochell, the No. 1 seed at 132 pounds who is fresh off an exciting win against two-time PIAA champion Alejandro Herrera-Rondon of Seneca Valley, has been scratched from the tournament because of a shoulder strain he sustained in the finals at Powerade.

Mt. Pleasant sophomore Dayton Pitzer continues to be sidelined while rehabilitating a leg injury. Pitzer was the 2019 WPIAL and PIAA Class AA champion.

“We just want Gabe to rest it,” Latrobe coach Mike Ciotti said. “We don’t want it to linger the rest of the season. If this was the WPIAL individual tournament, he’d wrestle.”

Also scratched from the tournament are Greensburg Salem senior Trent Patrick and Kiski Area heavyweight Stone Joseph.

The 67th annual tournament is set to begin at 4 p.m. Friday at Kiski Area. The finals are slated for 6 p.m. Saturday.

Hempfield and Kiski Area each had four wrestlers seeded No. 1.

The Spartans are sophomore Briar Priest (106), junior Ty Linsenbigler (145), senior Dillon Ferretti (220) and junior heavyweight Isaiah Vance.

The Cavaliers are Dom Giordano (120), senior Jack Blumer (160), senior Nick Delp (170) and sophomore Brayden Roscosky (195).

Norwin had three top seeds. They are senior Kurtis Phipps (126), junior John Altieri (138) and senior Ryan Weinzen (182).

Burrell had two top seeds. They are junior Ian Oswalt (132) and junior A.J. Corrado (152). The other top seed is Franklin Regional junior Carter Dibert (113).

A couple of weight classes to watch are 106, 126, 152 and 195 pounds.

Priest, who finished second at Powerade, will face tough competition from Kiski Area’s Antonio Giordano, Penn-Trafford’s Troy Hohman, Latrobe’s Vincent Kilkeary and Hempfield’s Ethan Lebin.

Phipps will be challenged by Franklin Regional sophomore Finn Solomon, Derry junior Ty Cymmerman and Mt. Pleasant senior Damien George.

Corrado has Greensburg Salem’s Ian Ewing, Latrobe’s Jack Pletcher, Kiski Area’s Sammy Starr, Norwin’s Chanz Shearer and Hempfield’s Trevor Verkleeren in the weight class.

The top wrestlers in 195 are Roscosky, Hempfield’s Justin Cramer and Belle Vernon’s Cole Weightman.

Past champions are Dibert, Oswalt, Linsenbigler, Delp, Blumer, Roscosky, Vance and Phipps.

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.

Tags: Belle Vernon, Burrell, Derry Area, Franklin Regional, Greensburg C.C., Greensburg Salem, Hempfield, Jeannette, Kiski Area, Kiski School, Latrobe, Mt. Pleasant, Norwin, Penn-Trafford, Southmoreland, Valley, Yough