Wildcats Finish Second at Districts
11 Advance to AAA NW Regionals Next Week
ALTOONA — Central Mountain didn’t return to Clinton County with the team title tonight, dethroned by a veteran Mifflin County team. But the Wildcats finished a solid second, saw all 13 entered wrestlers place from first to fifth, and 11 of coach Biff Walizer’s team earned a return trip to Altoona for next weekend’s Northcentral Regional tournament.
The team title went to Mifflin County, the Huskies crowning six individual winners, the first that has been done since Central Mountain’s state champion squad crowned the same number in 2010. The Huskies finished with 185 points, the Wildcats second with 169.5, Bellefonte third with 155 in the eight team field.
Central Mountain crowned one champ, returning state place-winner Geo Barzona at 106 pounds. Second at districts a year ago, Barzona ( 28-2) dominated this year, picking up a semifinal fall and a championship bout termination by a 20-5 score in 3:52 over Christian Fisher of Mifflin County.
The Wildcats got a second from Isaac Porter (25-6) at 195 pounds. The second-seeded Porter fell 5-0 in the championship bout to Mifflin County’s Trey Hartsock.
Two first-seeded Central Mountain wrestlers had to settle for third. One of them was Colton Weaver at 138 pounds. Weaver, now 26-8, was upset in the semifinals when he surrendered a late 5-point move and fell to Jarrell Kephart of Altoona by a 7-5 score. Weaver bounced back with a 3-2 win in his third place bout, avenging a dual meet loss to Philipsburg-Osceola’s Levi Hughes.
“Welcome to the post season, where anything can happen,” Said Biff Walizer, head coach of the Wildcats about the tournament, “We had some pretty good seeds but you can’t rest on what happened during the regular season. This is a whole new season. You’ve got to be ready to go when you step out onto the mat where anything can happen,” Walizer summed up.
The other was Hunter Weaver at 220 pounds. After losing to Pete Haffner of State College by a 3-2 score in the semifinals, he defeated P-O-s Micah Sidorick by a 3-1 score in the third place bout. The Wildcats had a third third-place finisher in Caleb Turner at 170 pounds; Turner is now 16-8 after a 7-2 win over P-O’s Ian Klinger.
Six Wildcats earned a return trip to Atloona with fourth place finishes: Seth Andrus (21-12) at 126 pounds; Logan Long (21-14) at 132 pounds; Asher Corl (13-13) at 145 pounds; Tanner Weaver (21-15) at 152 pounds; Greg Stahl (12-10) at 182 pounds; and Bryce Bitner (23-13) at heavyweight.
Getting 11 through, that’s a good number through to the next level,” Walizer commented, “That’s the goal here at Districts, is to move on to that next level. To have all those guys competing and still around with only a half-point behind Mifflin County going into the last round, it was great for so many to punch a ticket to the next round.”
Two other Wildcats placed fifth, just missing out in qualifying for the regionals. They were Cody Coleman (15-12) at 113 pounds and Brandon Miller (17-14) at 160 pounds.
Altoona’s Kephart was named the tourney’s outstanding wrestler. In addition to defeating the top-seed Colton Weaver, he also picked up wins over the fourth seeded Hughes and took the title with an 8-5 win over number two seed Dalton Long of Hollidaysburg.
Mifflin County champions included Noah Myers at 120 pounds and their top-seeded five-some of Hayden Hidlay, Trent Hidlay, Noah Stewart, Brandon Wilson and Hartsock. For Hayden Hidlay, it was his fourth D-6 title in a row.
Next weekend’s regionals will be a two day affair, beginning Friday, Mar. 4 at 5 p.m. and concluding Saturday at 6:15 p.m. Top three finishers at regionals qualify for the PIAA tournament the following weekend, Mar. 10-12.
Complete round-by-round results can be viewed and links for the audio broadcast archives can be found here: District 6 AAA Wrestling
