Wrestling News & Views – Tom Elling February 27, 2025
This is the weekend to earn the chance to compete in the PIAA Championships. There is a new path for our local District 6 as they head to the SW corner to take part in what is now termed the Western Regional. Meanwhile, our Class AA teams will wrestler in the familiar Altoona HS Field House. Neither path will be easy.
District Six has been accorded top seeds in Braiden Weaver (121), Altoona; Dalton Perry (145), Central Mountain; Luke Sipes (160), Altoona; Asher Cunningham (172), State College; Avery Aurand (189), Mifflin County.
The tentative first round match-ups for Central Mountain are:
114 Gavin Heverly Vs. 9/10 Vs. 2 Hunter Chew Harbor Creek, 11th, 30 -5
121 Collin Bauman Vs. 8-2 Joseph Ntoko Obama Academy, 9th, 9-9
127 Aiden Kunes Vs. 9/10-2 Nolan Gummerson Harbor Creek, 10th, 19-12
133 Patrick Tarantella Vs. 7-6 A.J. Snatchko West Allegheny, 11th, 35-11
145 Dalton Perry, Vs. 7-7 Devin Junko Trinity, 10th, 31-13
189 Bryce Brungard Vs. 8-3 Elijah Lane Westinghouse, 10th, 4-10
285 Hayes Henry Vs. 8-3 Bryon Clark Obama Academy, 12th, 6-4
For the Red Raiders of Bellefonte:
127 Wyatt Long Vs 9/10-3 Joshua Dobson Punxsutawney, 10th, 24-11
139 Cameron Garcia Vs 9/10-2 Elijah Brosius Cranberry, 12th, 36-6
145 Andrew Gall Vs 8-3 Joshua Chung Obama Academy, 10th, 3-7
152 Ezra Swisher Vs 9/10-2 Ryder Say Meadville, 11th, 33-7
160 Noah Weaver Vs 8-3 Collins Soberl Obama Academy, 10th, 4-11
172 Jackson Long Vs 9/10-3 Domenic Bonyai Erie McDowell, 9th, 8-15
215 Jack McHail Vs 7-3 Roman Thompson Pittsburgh Central Catholic, 10th, 30-2
Bald Eagle Area is scheduled for the following:
Round II
114 Liam Purcell vs 7-1 Preston Bubash Elizabeth Forward, 9th, 26-2
121 Tanner Guenot vs 7-7 Drake Buzzard Avella, 11th, 28-19
133 Caden Judice vs 7-4 Mason Wright Beth-Center, 11th, 37-11
139 Dawson Lomison vs 7-5 Angelo Amelio North Catholic, 11th, 32-11
152 Alex Surovec vs 7-2 Jonah Erdely Frazier, 11th, 39-3
189 Caleb Close vs Winner of the 7-8 Aaron Supler McGuffey, 11th, 30-15 vs 5-3 Caleb Snyder Meyersdale, 11th, 29-12
In the NE AAA, Jersey Shore:
139 Louden Spotts vs 11-4 Trokon Kai Whitehall, 12th, 23-12
145 Mazden Lupton vs 2-2 Caleb Hoffman Wyoming Valley West, 12th, 32-6
152 Tobias Morgret vs 11-4 Ivan Bonilla Bethlehem Freedom, 12th, 24-6
160 Jonathan Dincher vs 2-2 Tristan Braxton Wallenpaupack, 10th, 33-10
172 Zeke Sechrist vs 12-2 James Taft Roman Catholic, 12th, 32-11
215 Slate Sechrist vs 12-3 Freddie DiNardo Roman Catholic, 12th, 24-9
Sugar Valley RCH has just one wrestler left:
139 Jarren McCloskey vs 4-7 Tommy Preston Canton, SO, 17-16
The Record-Online’s Joe Walker will be supplying updates on the AAA West Regionals Friday and Saturday. Check the following link: therecord-online.com.
Girls on the Mat
BEA’s Grace Crestani (190) breezed through her weight class, taking the title and securing a good seed for the Central Girls Regional at Milton this weekend. Her team took second in the District 5-6-9 tournament with 91 points. Northern Bedford soared to the team title with 133 points. Her teammates Eden Eveleth (106) and Addison Tice (112) were runners-up. Lily Spicer was 4th at 100-lbs.
The Lady Wildcats did well as they sent three to the finals. Austynn Falls (142), Kendall Wagner (170), and Ashlyn Miller (235) were all second and will continue their trek to be on the PIAA State Championships’ podium.
Lily Spicer (BEA-100) vs Matilda Serrano, Greater Nanticoke; Eden Eveleth (BEA-106) vs Rose San Clementi, WAllenpaupack; Addison Tice (BEA-112) vs Jordan Rumsey, Wellsboro; Anna Lackey (State College-112) vs Ariahna Moore, Hughesville; Olivia Spotts (Jersey Shore-124) vs Natalie Yingling, West Branch); Ella Johnsonbaugh (Bellefonte-136) vs Emma Selfe, Crestwood; Austynn Falls (Central Mt-142) vs Lily Shymanski, WVW; Addison Dangle (Jersey Shore-155) vs Bailee Scott, Bellefonte; Isabella Gotshall (Jersey Shore-170) vs Dani Ordiway , Bradford; Kendall Wagner (Central Mt-170) vs Annalia Ward, Hazleton; Grace Crestani (BEA-190) a bye; Ashlynn Miller (Central Mt-235) vs Julia Scheuermann, Delaware Valley.
LHU Wrestling: Winning their last ten dual meets, the Bald Eagles secured the MAC East regular season title. Next up is the MAC Individual tournament at Trenton, N.J. (CURE Insurance Arena) on March 7-8. Scott Moore’s team faced a rugged schedule and ended up 14-5.
Penn State, with the win at Illinois, took yet another Big Ten Dual Meet title.
PSU recruit William Henckel (Blair Academy) took the National Prep title at 157. According to Blue-White Illustrated, another Nittany Lion top recruit, Marcus Blaze of Perrysville (Ohio), is doing something remarkable in his senior year. For the benefit of his team, he is jumping up from 138 to 150 as it gives his team the best chance to qualify EVERY member of his team for the Ohio state tournament. I wouldn’t bet against him winning the state title!
Next up for Cael Sanderson’s squad is the Big Ten Tournament at Northwestern (Evanston, Ill) on March 8th and 9th.
Mat Overtime:
Caden Rogers (son of former LHU All-American Mike Rogers and the former Danielle Vilello) was named EIWA ‘Wrestler-of-the-Week’ recently largely with his 2-1 win over #20-ranked Maximus Hale of Penn at 184. Caden is currently 12-5. His father Mike is the head coach at Franklin & Marshall (F&M). And his grandfather is former Lock Haven High matman Dan Vilello.
Bill Horlacher, a feature writer for the State College.com site, has penned another introspective article on wrestling, His interview and subsequent story on Jason Nickal, first year State College head coach, is well worth the read. Jason, the father of the well-known Bo Nickal, has had a remarkable journey – coaching in multiple states and very successfully.
A couple of ex-LHHS Bobcat wrestlers have some talented grandsons coming up. According to a family member, Dr Larry Cox has a couple of very solid wrestling grandsons in the West Shore area and Arnold Coleman’s grandson Hale this past week place in a qualfier that will propel him into the Keystone State tournament. Great to see the generational legacy continue. Larry’s father Dr. Ken Cox was the longtime coach at Lock Haven State, and Arnold is part of the very athletically-talented Coleman family.
My classmate at Lock Haven State College Ken Van Demark’s granddaughter Kalli Roskos took 1st place with a 3-2 on criteria at the NCWWC Women`s Region 2 qualifier. Kalli wrestles for Ursinus at 124lbs. She will compete in Nationals in Iowa.
LHU, coached by Matt Lackey, took the team title qualifying the following for Nationals: Jayleah Pletz (1st, 117), Azariah Moore (1st, 180), Alyssa Favara (1st, 207), Lindsay Laws (2nd, 180), Summer Batts (3rd, 103), Lily Sherer (3rd, 131), Marissa Rumsey (3rd, 145), Avry Ryhal (3rd, 160), Trinity Monaghan (3rd, 207), and Paige Jackson (4th, 138). The national tournament takes place at Coralville, Iowa (Xtreme Arena) on Friday and Saturday, March 7-8. The Lady Eagles scored 155.5 points, to slip by East Stroudsburg’s 148.5.
Tiffani Baublitz, wrestling for East Stroudsburg, captured the 160-lb gold. Tiff is from Warrior’s Mark.
Cheers to people like Jim Schuster (LHSC alum) and Tim amd Carol Wagner. Jim id funding LHU wrestling scholarships and the Wagners same for Bloomsburg. Ron and JoAnne Bowes have also been very generous supporters of LHU wrestling.
Even though the DUAL meet season has been completed, I still grind my teeth when someone calls it a ‘Duel’ meet. The latter may portray the picture of an actual duel- sans the pistols, but the term ‘dual’ comes from the early origins of the sport when there were fewer teams, thus teams scheduled twice in the same season- home and away. In my best Paul Harvey script.. now you know the rest of the story.
