Wildcats Ready for Powerful Powerade Tournament This Weekend
By Joe Walker
MILL HALL-The Central Mountain Wildcat wrestling team will be in the powerful 70-team Powerade Tournament at Canon-McMillan High School this Friday and Saturday. The 57th annual tournament welcomes 36 Pennsylvania PIAA teams, along with the two powerful private schools of Wyoming Seminary and Malvern Prep. There are 34 other teams coming in from the states of New York, New Jersey, Tennessee, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Florida, Illinois and Nevada.
Wyoming Seminary is the two-time defending champion and they welcome back three defending tournament champions and five number one seeds this year. The Wildcats finished 14th in last year’s 66 team event, as Dalton Perry finished second at 133 and Luke Simcox finished fourth at 139. Simcox is the number two seed this year at 139, while Perry is not entered in this year’s tourney, as he is still nursing a hand injury.
Simcox is the only Wildcat to seeded in the top 8 of their weight class, while locally the State College Little Lions have three seeded that high. Pierson Manville (145) and Nicholas Pavlechko (285) are number one seeds, while Asher Cunningham (160) is third seeded.
Simcox, Cunningham and Pavlechko were all champions in the King of The Mountain Tournament. Dominic Deputy of Chestnut Ridge is top seeded at 107, while Andrew Binni of Canon-McMillan is fifth seeded at 127. Deputy and Binni were both champions at the King of the Mountain Tourney as well.
This year’s Powerade will have 74 wrestlers that wrestled in their states championship finals last season and 46 of those won state titles in their respective states. This year’s tournament also has 45 wrestlers ranked in the top 20 of their weight class nationally, according to Floarena national rankings.
Returning PIAA state champions back in this year’s tournament are Ayden Smith and Vince Bouzakis both won state titles last year for Notre Dame (Green Pond). Bouzakis is wrestling for Wyoming Seminary this year. Two time defending PIAA state champion Nate Desmond is also at Wyoming Seminary after winning those two titles for Bethlehem Catholic.
Austin Johnson of Muncy won a state title last year for Muncy, while three-time champion Rune Lawrence of Frazier both are back. Both Johnson and Lawrence are battling injuries and their tournament status is unknown, but Johnson is seeded second at 215, while Lawrence is seeded third at 215 pounds.
Beside Central Mountain and State College, other local teams entered in this year’s tournament are Muncy, Montoursville, Altoona and Williamsport. Another District 6 team in the tournament is Class AA power Bishop McCourt (Johnstown), who was put on probation by the PIAA two years ago and are now off that probation and will be a real force in this year’s PIAA post season tournaments.
Tournament action gets underway Friday morning and then continues through Saturday. You can follow all the action by following the “Floarena” website.
The Wildcats will enter this year’s tournament with the following line-up: 107 – Fr. Gavin Heverly, 9-3
114 – Fr. Luke Garman, 6-4
121 – Fr. Aiden Kunes, 11-3
127 – Fr. Patrick Tarantella, 7-5
133 – No Entry
139 – Sr. Luke Simcox, 10-0
145 – Sr. Griffin Walizer, 10-2
152 – Jr. Luke Annanea, 4-4
160 – So. Hunter Donley, 7-5
172 – Jr. Jacob Weaver, 8-6
189 – Jr. Bryce Brungard, 12-4
215 – Sr. Rocco Serafini, 11-1
285 – Sr. Giovanni Tarantella, 10-3
The Top Seeds at each weight are:
107 – Dominic Deputy, Chestnut Ridge
114 – Davis Motyka, Wyoming Seminary (Kingston, PA)
121 – Nate Desmond, Wyoming Seminary
127 – Jax Forrest, Bishop McCourt
133 – Nick O’Neill, Malvern Prep
139 – Bo Bassett, Bishop McCourt
145 – Pierson Manville, State College
152 – Vince Bouzakis, Wyoming Seminary
160 – Alessio Peretin, Delbarton, NJ
172 – Ryan Burton, St. Joseph Regional, NJ
189 – Jake Dailey, Wyoming Seminary
215 – Jude Correa, Wyoming Seminary
285 – Nicholas Pavlechko, State College
