Wildcats Hunt For State Gold Starts Thursday

By Joe Walker

HERSHEY-The journey for a PIAA State Wrestling Title ends this week at the Hershey Giant Center, as six Central Mountain Wildcat wrestlers will be there to try and win gold in the boys Class AAA wrestling championships. 

The six Wildcats trying to earn their way to the top of the podium and a gold medal are Gavin Heverly (107), Aiden Kunes (121), Dalton Perry (139), Luke Simcox (145), Griffin Walizer (152) and Rocco Serafini (215). Perry and Simcox will be looking for their second gold medals. 

Freshman Heverly’s (35-10) first round opponent will be freshman Nolan Rice (37-8) of Connellsville. Rice was the third place finish in the Southwest Regional tournament. Heverly and Rice did not meet during the regular season. 

The Heverly/Rice winner’s opponent will be determined by the winner of the preliminary round bout of Connor Lagier (So, 33-9) of West Scranton and Alexander Diaz (Sr, 39-11) of Council Rock North. The winner of that bout will then face south central region champion Aiden Herndon (Fr, 37-5) of Cedar Cliff in the first round and the survivor will then face the winner of the Heverly/Rice bout in the quarterfinals. 

Heverly has lost to Herndon by a 3-1 score in the Mid-Winter Mayhem Tournament this season and lost a 4-2 overtime decision to Lagier in the same tournament. In the top half of the bracket with Heverly is northeast regional champion Nicholas Salamone (So, 32-6) of Easton. 

In the first round at 121 pounds, Freshman Kunes (35-13) will face northeast third place finisher Tyson Cook (Sr, 40-6) of West Scranton, who was a state qualifier last season. The winner of their bout will most likely face south central regional champion Myles Grossman (Fr, 39-7) of Gettysburg in the quarterfinals. 

In the top half of the 121 bracket with Kunes is returning state runner-up Mason Ziegler (Sr, 45-3) of Quakertown and Tyler Kapusta (Sr, 42-6) of Franklin Regional, who placed seventh in the state last season. In the bottom half of the bracket are returning state champion Keanu Dillard (So, 37-5) of Bethlehem Catholic and Luke Willochell (Jr, 38-7), who placed fifth in last year and a state runner-up two years ago. 

Perry (31-3) will be looking for his third medal in Hershey, as he won states as a freshman and won a third place last season. His first round opponent will be sophomore Blake Boyer (36-4) of Kennett, who was a state qualifier last season. In the quarterfinals the winner will most likely face either Seamus Mack (Sr, 34-2) of Hempfield or Blake Reihner (Sr, 45-4) of Trinity. Mack was sixth in last year’s states at 127 pounds, while Reihner was fifth at 139 pounds last season. 

In the top half of the 139 bracket, opposite Perry, is Jersey Shore senior Brock Weiss (30-0) and Maddox Shaw (Jr, 39-3) of Thomas Jefferson. Shaw was state runner up last year to Luke Simcox in a 1-0 match, while Weiss was a state runner-up in Class AA in 2022. Perry defeated Shaw 3-1 in the state semifinals in the 2022 semifinals and of course Weiss defeated Perry in the regional finals by a 9-8 score. 

Simcox will be looking for his second state title and fourth medal overall, he will face the winner of the preliminary bout between Kane Lengel (Jr, 31-7) of Kennett and Lucas Tirpak (Sr, 35-2) of Dallas in the quarterfinals. In the top half of the bracket with Simcox are southwest region champion Evan Petrovich (Jr, 37-6) of Connellsville and northeast regional champ Shane McFillin (Jr, 36-7) of Bethlehem Catholic. This season Simcox owns a 8-0 major decision over Petrovich and a 4-1 decision over McFillin.

In the bottom half of the bracket is State Colleges’ Pierson Manville (Sr, 23-1), who Simcox decisioned by a 3-2 ultimate tiebreaker score at the regional finals. Simcox is ranked first in the state now and Manville is ranked second, while also in the bracket with Manville is fourth ranked Gavin Carroll (Jr, 41-6 of Quakertown, who is the southeast region champion. 

Wildcat senior Walizer (152) may have one of the tougher weight classes in the tournament, as two returning state champions join two more returning state place winners and three other state qualifiers in the weight class. Walizer (35-9) will be looking for his state medal and his first round opponent is south central region runner-up Matteo Garcia (Jr, 47-13) of Wilson (West Lawn). 

The winner of the Walizer and Garcia bout will face returning state champion Collin Gaj (Jr, 41-3) of Quakertown in the quarterfinals. In the bottom bracket with Walizer are Eli Carr (Sr, 32-2) of Hempfield, who was fourth in the state last season and a pair of last season state qualifiers Wyatt Dillon (Sr, 37-8) of Central York and District 6 rival Parker Kearns (Sr, 35-7) Mifflin County. 

In the top half of the bracket you will find returning state champion Kollin Rath (Jr, 41-1) of Bethlehem Catholic, along with Altoona’s two time state place winner Luke Sipes (Jr, 33-5). Two-time state qualifier Sam Kuhns (Sr, 40-6) of Pennridge is in the top half of the bracket, Kuhns defeated Luke Simcox in the PIAA state team duals, while Sipes has defeated Walizer in the District and Regional finals. 

The final Wildcat to take the mat on Thursday will be senior 215 pounder Rocco Serafini (38-6), who will be looking for his first state medal. In the first round Serafini will face northeast region third place finisher Kurtis Grossman (So, 37-10) of Easton. The winner will most likely face south central regional champ Aiden Hight (Sr, 32-3) of Chambersburg in the quarterfinals. Hight owns an 8-4 win over Serafini in the King of the Mountain tournament. 

In the top half of the bracket with Hight and Serafini is returning state runner-up Dillon Bechtold (Sr, 38-0) of Owen J. Roberts. In the bottom half of the bracket is northeast region champion Caleb Marzolino (Sr, 34-2) of Abington Heights, who finished eighth in last year’s state tournament. Two other returning state qualifiers are southwest region champ Jake Conroy (Jr, 42-2) of Ringgold and Juliano Marion (Sr, 42-7) of Franklin Regional. 

All the Wildcats have first round matches and no preliminary bouts, thus if they win their first match and get into quarterfinals, they only have to win one more bout to be able to finish in the top eight, receive a medal and stand on the podium. Of course the more they advance in the championship bracket or the consolation bracket means the higher up that podium they get. 

The Wildcats could get all six on the podium at their weights and if they do, they will be a contender for the team race, as Bethlehem Catholic is the defending team champions. Teams that will also be in the hunt are Nazareth, Easton, Pennridge, Quakertown, Connellsville and the State College Little Lions, who look like they could have three finalists. 

Class AAA Wrestling Schedule: 

Thursday 4 pm – Preliminary Round and First Round 

Thursday 7 pm – Consolation First Round 

Friday 2:15 pm – Championship Quarterfinals and Consolation 2nd Round 

Friday 4:45 pm – Consolation Third Round 

Friday 9:00 pm – Consolation Quarterfinals

Saturday 9:30 am – Consolation Semifinals 

Saturday 11:30 am – Class AA, AAA and Girls 3rd, 5th & 7th place bouts Saturday 4:00 pm – Class AA, AAA and Girls Championship finals.