Central Mountain Foursome Heading to State Tournament
By Joe Walker
HERSHEY – It is time for the best boy and girl wrestlers in the state to converge at the Giant Center in Hershey this week for their shot at being able to stand on top of the podium on Saturday night as the best in the state.
Central Mountain will send a foursome to Hershey this week, as Senior Dalton Perry and sophomore Aiden Kunes will represent the Wildcats boys team, while junior Kendall Wagner and sophomore Austynn Falls will represent the Lady Wildcats program.
Perry will be making his fourth trip to the PIAA state Class AAA tournament, as he captured a state title his freshman year, he finished third as a sophomore and was a state runner-up last season. The Bucktail senior will take his 39-3 record this season and a career mark of 158-15 with 96 falls into the tournament with hopes of another state title.
Perry will also look to become just the sixth wrestler in Clinton County history to be a four-time state place winner. He will be joining Lock Havens’ Mike Johnson (1958-61), Bald Eagle-Nittany grad Terry Williams (1977-80), Central Mountain brothers Dylan and Andrew Alton (2007-10) and last year Wildcat grad Luke Simcox (2021-24). Ironically, although he wrestles for Central Mountain, he would be the first Bucktail student to place four times.
Perry will await the winner of the first round match between Northeast regional fourth place finisher Jared Gonzalez (20-14) of Notre Dame Green-Pond and Southeast fifth place finisher Ryan Hayes (39-10) of Methacton in the Round of 16. Also in the upper bracket of the 145 pound weight class with Perry is Cornell commit Michael Turi (38-2) of West Scranton, the junior has placed seventh each of the last two seasons.
Kunes, who is currently 36-10 on the season and was the fifth place finisher from the new Western Regional, has a first round match with Northeast Regional fourth place finisher Noah Fenner of Easton, as the Rover sophomore is currently 30-10 on the season.
The winner of that bout will move into the round of 16 and will meet Southeastern regional champion junior Quinn McBride of Pennridge, who is currently 29-7 on the season and placed sixth in last season’s state tournament.
In the girls tournament, Lady Wildcat and Bucktail junior Kendall Wagner will be looking to become a three-time state place winner, as she was fourth two years ago when it was a non-sanctioned PIAA sport, but then last season came away with an eighth place finish in the first year of PIAA sanction. Wagner also excels at Basketball and Softball for the Lady Bucks.
Wagner will take a 25-7 record into the state tournament after placing second at the Central Regional tournament. In the round of 16 she will meet Western regional third place finisher Hannah Hornick, as the junior from Seneca Valley is 23-10 on the season and was a state qualifier last season.
The winner of their bout will face the winner of South Central region champion Angela Imorhoa (29-3) of York Suburban and Southeast regional fourth place finisher Alisa Williams (32-8) of Panther Valley. Imorhoa was a sixth place finisher in last season’s state tournament.
Falls will be making her first trip to the PIAA state tournament, as the Lady Wildcat sophomore placed second in the Central Regional tournament and is currently 29-4 on the season. She will face Grace Nasman (30-7) of Upper St. Clair, as the freshman, was the third place finisher in the Western regional.
The winner of their match will face the winner of Southeast regional champion Jenny Gautreau, as the freshman from Owen J. Roberts is 34-4 on the season and her opponent Dakota Dengler, as the freshman from Northern Lebanon is 29-9 on the season.
Wrestling gets underway Thursday at 9 am with the start of the Class AA boys championships and then at 2 pm the girls state tournament gets underway. The Class AAA boys championships have a 4:30 start time on Thursday.
