Pair of Penn Hills wrestlers earn spots in WPIAL tournament

By: Josh Rizzo
Sunday, February 23, 2025 | 11:01 AM

Daemon Phipps flashed potential as a freshman for the Penn Hills wrestling team. The now-114-pound junior wrestler earned his spot at the WPIAL Class 3A championships for the first time by placing fourth at the Northern Section.

Phipps is one away from equaling his career high in wins. He was 24-10 on the season before entering the WPIAL tournament.

“He wrestled to his seed,” Indians coach Jeremy Packer said. “Hopefully, this is the building block and the start to him breaking through next year. I’m excited to see how he does at WPIALs.”

Phipps was one of two Penn Hills wrestlers to qualify for WPIALs. Bradley Repovich reached the 145-pound bracket by placing sixth at the Northern Section.

Packer said he would like to see Phipps continue to work on adding points to the scoreboard.

“He has improved on his feet,” Packer said. “He’s gotten the first takedown in every match he was in last Saturday. He has to sustain that and keep scoring for six minutes.”

Repovich, who is 9-13 this season, had to bounce back after getting pinned in his first match by Fox Chapel’s Calyx Kimbrough. Repovich was able to pick up two pins in the consolation bracket and beat Central Catholic’s Jyhir Hatten, 7-2, to reach the fifth-place match.

Repovich finished 3-20 last season and has shown major improvement. Before wrestling for the Indians last season, Repovich had never competed in team sports.

“He really caught fire at the end of the year,” Packer said. “He did pretty well at the Plum duals. He went from the 11th or 12th seed to placing in the top six. He figured some things out at the end of the year.”

Darnell Jackson (152 pounds) reached the blood round before bowing out. Jackson finished the season with an 18-11 record, second-best on the team behind Phipps.

Packer said he will have eight wrestlers returning next season and hopes to see more wrestlers make significant improvements. He noted that Repovich and Phipps already have discussed training through the summer to prepare for next season.

“I know they want to do freestyle this year,” Packer said. “They are feeding off each other. They are the ones in the room showing the work ethic. If they keep working and look to improve, I’m excited about their prospects for next season.”

Tags: Penn Hills