Quaker Valley wrestler Logan Richey joins elite company

By: Ray Fisher
Sunday, February 19, 2023 | 11:01 AM

Quaker Valley senior Logan Richey joined an elite group of wrestlers at his school Feb. 1 with his performance at the WPIAL Class 2A team tournament.

Competing at 145 pounds, Richey recorded his 100th career victory via a pin at the 3:35 mark against Jefferson-Morgan’s Grant Hathaway. The talented QV grappler followed up his historic win with a 19-3 technical fall over McGuffey’s Reid Teagarden.

“Logan is mentally and physically one of our strongest wrestlers,” said QV coach Austin Heinl earlier this season. “He put in the work during the offseason.”

Richey became the fifth wrestler in program history — and second Richey sibling — to reach the coveted milestone.

His brother Justin, a 2022 QV graduate, finished with a 107-41 record with 55 falls in four years of competition. The Gettysburg recruit won one district title and two section crowns and had one runner-up finish in the section and at districts.

Another 2022 graduate, Patrick Cutchember, is QV’s all-time leader in wins with a 141-31 career record.

Cutchember finished first in the district and region last season, racking up a 44-6 record, and owns the team record for career pins (87) and pins in a season (26). He won two section titles, two district titles, finished as a district runner-up twice and was a section runner-up once in his career.

A Clarion wrestling recruit, Cutchember was a four-year letterman in wrestling, football and lacrosse.

“Patrick has to be proud of his career,” Heinl said. “He set a lot of records in our brief (team) history.”

Second and third place in career victories at QV belong to John Rocco Kazalas (2019) at 134-33 and Connor Redinger (2021) at 112-20.

Kazalas competed at Moon as a freshman but still hit the century mark at Quaker Valley with a 105-20 record over three years. Redinger also won 107 times in his first three seasons with the Quakers.

Logan Richey posted individual records of 21-11 as a freshman, 19-10 as a sophomore and 38-14 as a junior and was 24-9 heading into the WPIAL individual postseason. He had 11 falls and three technical falls to his credit.

“The season is going great,” Richey said after this year’s Powerade tournament. “I’ve had to jump over a lot of hurdles and work to catch up to everyone since I was out for six months due to knee surgery. Getting back into the swing of things has been great and I’m having a lot of fun this year.

“Powerade didn’t go as I imagined, but it was a good learning experience to see where I’m at with the rest of the country and to better prepare me for the postseason. This year, I want to be in the top three in the state.”

Richey held a 102-44 career mark and exactly half (51) of his victories were falls (44) or technical falls (seven). He placed second at 145 at this year’s Allegheny County tournament and was ranked No. 1 in Class 2A in his weight division in the Trib HSSN individual wrestling rankings.

Two other Quaker Valley wrestles quicky closing in on career win No. 100 are senior Brandon Krul and junior Jack Kazalas. Krul was 29-2 this season with 22 pins and 97-35 for his career. Kazalas was 25-2 and 93-18 overall.

“Having 100 wins has been a big goal for me for my high school career,” Krul said. “I really have been excited and working hard at this goal. I have dealt with failure in my past and not always winning big matches, but ever since my junior year, I was able to work with my failures and iron my craft.

“I think having this goal is not the end, though. It is just a step to my goal of being on top of the state podium. I’m hungry for that. Now, I just need to run with it.”

An accomplished musician, Krul attended Mars for two years then transferred to QV. He posted a 35-11 mark as a junior and opened this season with 13 consecutive wins before suffering two defeats in the nationally acclaimed Powerade tournament in late December.

Krul, ranked third at 127, won his next 15 matches and was crowned as a county champion.

Kazalas, younger brother of John Rocco, logged 28-8 and 40-8 records (20 pins) in his first two years with the Quakers.

“It feels pretty surreal to hit 100 as a junior, but that’s not the main goal for the season,” Kazalas said. “My main goal is to be a state champion. My expectations are to claim my first WPIAL, Southwest region and, ultimately, state title.”

Kazalas, ranked fifth at 121, qualified for the PIAA tournament last season for the second year in a row after placing fourth in the WPIAL at 113. He ended up eighth at the PIAA tournament. John Rocco Kazalas competed at QV from 2016-19 and earned two section titles, three third-place regional finishes and twice was a PIAA medalist. He won the first WPIAL title in program history as a senior.

One other QV grappler ranked in the top five in his weight class this year was freshman Bruce Anderchak, fourth at 107 pounds with a 26-8 record.

Quaker Valley qualified for the PIAA tournament for the third time last year. The Quakers lost a preliminary round match in 2020 and made it to Hershey in 2022 before dropping their first two matches.

QV wrapped up the best wrestling season in school history in 2021-22 with four individual medalists — Cutchember (189), Justin Richey (152), Logan Richey (120) and Kazalas (113) — at the PIAA Class 2A tournament in Hershey.

The Quakers won the WPIAL Class 2A team championship a year ago and finished 17-5 overall.

This season, QV captured its fifth consecutive section title, then lost to Burrell, 41-21, in the WPIAL team semifinals Feb. 4 at Chartiers-Houston.

The Quakers, who were 6-0 in Section 3-AA and 15-6 overall in the regular season, defeated Frazier, 46-27, in the consolation match.

The WPIAL Class 2A tournament will be held Feb. 24-25 at Chartiers Valley.

Tags: Quaker Valley