Wildcats Reclaim District Crown

Central Mountain Advances 12 to Regionals

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cm-wrestlingALTOONA – A hallmark of the Central Mountain wrestling team this season has been team balance and the Wildcats put its top-to-bottom lineup strength to good use Saturday in sweeping to the District 6 AAA title.

The Wildcats brought 14 wrestlers to the Altoona Field House and 13 of them placed, 12 in the top four to earn a return trip next weekend for the Northwestern Regional Tournament.

Central Mountain used its balance and bonus point strength early on to open up a commanding lead, advancing 10 wrestlers into the championship finals, three coming away with titles: senior Keanan Bottorf at 120 pounds; senior Demetri Probst, winning a second district crown, at 152 pounds; and junior Hunter Weaver at 220 pounds.

Seven others finished second: Geo Barzona at 106, Seth Andrus at 113, Colton Weaver at 132, Gavin Caprio at 170, Isaac Porter at 182, Loc Long at 195 and Bryce Hanley at 285.

Also advancing to regionals were Caleb Turner, third at 160 pounds, and Emery Watson, fourth at 138. Tanner Weaver just missed with a fifth place finish at 145 pounds.

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Central Mountain finished with 232.5 points to easily dethrone defending champion Mifflin County, second with 174.5 points, Bellefonte third with 153.5.

Wildcat coach Doug Buckwalter was selected district coach of the year and Mifflin County’s Hayden Hidlay the outstanding wrestler on the strength of his 11-2 championship bout win at 145 pounds over 3-time district champ Trevor Corl of Bellefonte. Central Mountain’s Hunter Weaver was the only wrestler to go 3-0 with three falls.

The Northwestern Regionals are Friday and Saturday in Altoona. General McLane, the District 10 champion with 12 qualifiers (including seven individual titlists) is expected to battle Central Mountain and Mifflin County for the regional crown.

The Huskies had three individual winners at the district level. The host Altoona Mountain Lions were the surprise of the tourney with four individual winners, good for fourth place in the team race.

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