Wildcat wrestling starts at Top Hat Friday

CM wrestling

BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP — The Central Mountain wrestling season begins at 5 p.m. Friday at the annual Tom Best Memorial Top Hat wrestling tourney in Williamsport and the Wildcats are hoping their team balance will be enough to push last year’s second place finish into first place this year.

You go 14-1 in dual meets in each of the last two years, you might think you’ll do well with that kind of finish again. But a veteran Central Mountain wrestling team is looking for more, hard at work to try and improve on its outstanding performance the last two years. With 10 returning letter-winners, the Wildcats are seeking to turn a series of second place finishes a year ago into championships this season. These include 2016-17 runner-up finishes at the Top Hat and Conestoga Valley tournaments and the District 6 team and individual tourneys.

22 teams are at the Top Hat and Jersey Shore took the title a year ago but the Bulldogs lost a number of grapplers to graduation. Wrestling begins Friday at 5 p.m. and concludes with first, third and fifth place bouts Saturday at 4:15 p.m. Pre-seeding has been posted for the tourney and the Wildcats’ top seeds are 4-year starters Geo Barzona and Colton Weaver, both accorded second seeds.

The tourney will be aired on WBPZ-AM and streamed on therecord-online.

As for this year’s team, second-year head coach Biff Walizer said, “There are some juniors and seniors motivated to bump those runner-up finishes up one spot.”

There is a mix of solid senior experience in 4-year starters Barzona (2-time state place-winner; 34-5 a year ago) and Weaver (31-11) plus Caleb Turner (19-10) along with a good number of additional returning lettermen in sophomores Cody Coleman (15-12) and Dalton Bechdel (5-7), juniors Seth Andrus (22-14), Logan Long (23-16), Asher Corl ((13-13) and Tanner Weaver (21-17) and senior 2-year letter-winner Brandon Miller (17-14).

Walizer said the squad most likely have four, potentially five, new faces in the starting lineup. 106 will be sophomore, Johnny Shreffler. The coach said Shreffler “finally hit a growth spurt and helped himself out by spending a lot of time in the weight room in the off-season which helped him put on nearly 20 pounds from last season.” Another newcomer who may see starting time at 132 will be freshman Seth Reese. Starting the season out at 195, Walizer said, will be one of two wrestlers in the starting lineup who make the trip down from Bucktail High School every day, sophomore Tanner Riggle likely stepping in at 195 (middleweight Long the other Buck through the co-op program between the two schools). Walizer said junior Mahlik Houtz will be able to step in and contribute right away at 220 pounds. Senior Richard Thompson has been patiently waiting for his time to come when he could finally take the reins at 285. Walizer said, “It looks like Richard’s time has come and he is eager to make all the hard work he has put in over the last two years pay off.”

Walizer said he expects there to be a lot of competition in District 6 AAA this season. He noted Bellefonte was a very close match last year and they have a mix of solid returners along with some newcomers who will be able to win right away at the varsity level. Quoting the coach, “Mifflin County, Bald Eagle Area, Philipsburg-Osceola and Altoona will also have a mix of very successful returners and solid newcomers. I also expect Hollidaysburg and State College to be much improved.”

After this Friday and Saturday’s annual Tom Best Memorial Top Hat Wrestling Tournament at Williamsport High School, the first Central Mountain dual meet will be Wednesday, Dec. 14 at Selinsgrove and two days later, Friday and Saturday, Dec. 16 and 17 Central Mountain will host its own powerful King of the Mountain tourney.

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