PIAA Individual Wrestling – Day One Recap

By: Bruce Markey
Thursday, March 6, 2014 | 10:45 PM

The WPIAL could not have opened the tournament much better in AAA at Hershey on Thursday, with a whopping 31 of 42 wrestlers advancing in the winners bracket and another six wrestlers winning in the consolations to give the WPIAL 37 of 42 wrestlers still alive after day one. The wrestlers advancing into the quarterfinals were:

• 106 – Devin Brown, Franklin Regional
• 113 – Spencer Lee, Franklin Regional
• 113 – Luke Landefeld, North Allegheny
• 120 – Luke Pletcher, Latrobe
• 126 – Sam Krivus, Hempfield
• 126 – Dalton Macri, Canon McMillan
• 126 – A.C. Headlee, Waynesburg
• 132 – Tyler Smith, Franklin Regional
• 132 – Cameron Coy, Penn Trafford
• 132 – Ty Buckiso, Peters Township
• 138 – Vincenzo Joseph, Central Catholic
• 138 – Michael Kemerer, Franklin Regional
• 145 – Josh Maruca, Franklin Regional
• 145 – Solomon Chishko, Canon McMillan
• 145 – Jarod Verkleeren, Belle Vernon
• 152 – Paul Dunn, Bethel Park
• 152 – Jake Shaffer, Latrobe
• 152 – Josh Shields, Franklin Regional
• 160 – Austin Bell, Belle Vernon
• 160 – Jonathan Avon, North Hills
• 170 – Kyle Coniker, Central Catholic
• 170 – Noah Wilps, Chartiers Valley
• 182 – Kellan Stout, Mount Lebanon
• 182 – Zack Zavatsky, Latrobe
• 182 – Clay Byerly, North Allegheny
• 195 – Andrew Phipps, Norwin
• 195 – Cole Macek, Montour
• 220 – Dylan Davis, Latrobe
• 220 – Tyler Worthing, Kiski Area
• 285 – Shane Kuhn, Kiski Area
• 285 – Zeynul Zaynullayev, Mount Lebanon

The WPIAL did a very good job of winning the close bouts as well as the matches they were expected to win. The one toss up match was at 106, where Gage Curry of North Hills dropped a hard fought 5-2 decision to Connor Sheehan of Solanco. Franklin Regional’s Devin Brown meanwhile had to use a late escape and takedown in the third period to come back and defeat Zurich Storm of New Oxford 8-7.

At 113, Luke Landefeld used a reversal in the third period to win 4-2 over Travis Smith of Nazareth. Tyler Smith of Franklin Regional had an early takedown hold up to win 2-1 over Alex Wolfe of Cumberland Valley. Bethel Park’s Paul Dunn used a takedown and 3 back points at the buzzer at 152 to come back and win 9-8 over Elijah Brown of Easton. Latrobe’s Jake Shaffer at 152 meanwhile picked up a tight 6-5 victory.

Central Catholic’s Kyle Coniker only needed 12 seconds of overtime to win 6-4 over Ben Swarr of Garden Spot at 170. Also at 170, Noah Wilps of Chartiers Valley used a third period escape and takedown to win 3-2. Andrew Phipps of Norwin at 195 went to double overtime, using a reversal to win 3-1. Dylan Davis of Latrobe had to ride the final 30 seconds in the ultimate tiebreaker to defeat Antonio Pelusi of Lasalle at 220 by a 3-2 score. Pelusi had choice in the ultimate tiebreaker and decided to go on the bottom.

Half of the wrestlers who did fall into the consolations bounced back to remain alive after day one. Only five WPIAL wrestlers were eliminated on Thursday. Those who won in the consolations were:

• 106 – Gage Curry, North Hills
• 120 – Brendan Hasson, Belle Vernon
• 138 – Joey Alessandro, Hempfield
• 160 – Dominic Scalise, Latrobe
• 195 – Zach Smith, North Allegheny
• 220 – Fred Mantsch, Hempfield

In AA, the WPIAL did not open as strong but certainly had a good showing in Hershey with their 35 wrestlers. After day one, the WPIAL stayed effective in advancing just over 50% of their kids in each round. In the preliminaries, the WPIAL advanced 18 kids to the quarterfinals. Advancing in the quarterfinals were:

• 113 – Austin McDermitt, Burgettstown
• 113 – Austin Griffiths, Southmoreland
• 120 – George Phillippi, Derry
• 126 – John Demaske, Jefferson Morgan
• 132 – Mike Carr, South Fayette
• 138 – Jason Miller, Jefferson Morgan
• 138 – Jake Wentzel, South Park
• 145 – Corey Falleroni, Burrell
• 145 – Jason Nolf, Kittanning
• 152 – Steve Edwards, Burrell
• 160 – Jared Walker, South Fayette
• 170 – Bill Bowlen, Jefferson Morgan
• 182 – Terrell Fields, Valley
• 195 – Marcus Davenport, Valley
• 220 – Jake Tample, Avella
• 220 – Jacob Robb, Kittanning
• 285 – Jake Beistel, Southmoreland
• 285 – Allan Beattie, Burrell

Of the 18 kids to advance, a few had to sweat out victories. At 113, Austin Griffiths of Southmoreland rode Chase Drawbaugh of District 3 Trinity in the final period to win 1-0. At 145, Corey Falleroni of Burrell went to double overtime to secure a 5-3 win over Hunter Harner of Tri Valley. At 170, Bill Bowlen of Jefferson Morgan got a takedown in the final seconds of the third period to tie the match at 6 and then scored the winning takedown in overtime to win the match 8-6. At 182, Terrell Fields of Valley had to ride out Colton Dull of Bermudian Springs in the third period to win 2-1. Finally at 285, Jake Beistel of Southmoreland had to ride Gene Ringer of Reynolds in the 30 second ultimate tiebreaker period (Ringer had choice and chose bottom) to win 3-2.

In the consolations, the WPIAL advanced 9 of 17 kids into Friday’s second consolation round. Advancing in the consolations were:

• 106 – Hunter Neely, Bentworth
• 126 – Patrick Dewitt, Valley
• 138 – Richie McGinnis, Chartiers Houston
• 145 – Tony Welsh, Beth Center
• 152 – Grant Fetchet, South Fayette
• 160 – Ryan Zalar, Jefferson Morgan
• 160 – Nico Brown, Beth Center
• 170 – Derek Hull, Chartiers Houston
• 195 – Brad Grinnen, Ellwood City

Wrestling picks back up for AA Friday morning at 9:00 AM with the quarterfinals and second round of consolations getting under way. The kids will then come back for an evening session at 6:30 PM, where the semi-finals, third round, and fourth round of consolations will take place. In AAA, wrestling gets back underway tomorrow at 1:30 PM with the quarterfinals and second round of consolations. Listen to all of the wrestling action here on the MSA Sports Network.