A Wildcat Wrestling Season Recap
By Joe Walker
MILL HALL-Another High School wrestling season is in the books and for the Central Mountain Wildcats, it was yet another very successful season. The Wildcats came away with a state champ, three state place winners, a third place finish in the state duals and then swept the Class AAA Coach of The Year and Assistant Coach of The Year.
The team finished the season with a 13-1 dual meet record and of course the third place finish in the state dual meet tournament, which was the highest place finish since the 2010 team placed third. The 2010 team also captured the state team championship in the individual tournament, as current Lady Wildcat head coach and boys assistant Dylan Caprio was a big part of the 2010 team.
The 2008 team also took a third place finish, while the 2009 team finished in fourth place. The 2011 team and last season’s 2023 team both fell in the consolation semifinals, but finished among the top six teams in the state. Wildcat wrestling has never had a losing dual meet season in the 25 seasons of exsistance.
We saw another individual state title come home to Central Mountain, as senior Luke Simcox won his second state championship and his fourth state medal overall. Simcox joins 2010 Wildcat grad Andrew Alton as the only two Wildcats to have two state titles in their career. Altons’ twin brother Dylan is the only Wildcat to capture three state titles.
In the category of four time state medal winners, Simcox joins the Alton twins as the only three Wildcat wrestlers to achieve the feat and the fifth in county history. The other two were 1961 Lock Haven grad and four-time state champ Mike Johnson of Lock Haven, along with 1980 Bald Eagle-Nittany grad Terry Williams who won three state titles and one state runner-up medal.
Simcox, who is North Carolina bound for college, finished his career with a record of 137-18, which puts him in fifth place on the all-time Wildcat win mark. He finished tied for sixth place on the all-time county win mark, as he shares that mark with his current head coach Biff Walizer, a 1994 Bald Eagle-Nittany grad, who finished with a 137-7 career record, number one win mark in Bald Eagle-Nittany history and also posted a 101 match win streak.
Senior Griffin Walizer and junior Dalton Perry both won their third state medals this past weekend, as Perry was a state runner-up and Walizer took a sixth place finish. The Wildcat duo became the third and fourth Wildcat wrestlers to win three state medals, joining 2010 grad Jordan Rich and 2012 grad Brian Brill. Rich may have become a four time place winner, but got hurt while winning his quarterfinal final round state bout and had to default out of the tournament his senior season.
Walizer finished his career with a 123-46 career record, which puts him in a tie for seventh place all-time on the Central Mountain win list, as he tied 2017 grad Geo Barzona, who finished with a 123-35 career mark. The duo are also tied for 11th place on the all-time county win list. Griffin and his dad Biff are the only father-son duo in the county history to have won three state medals each.
Wildcat junior Perry finished the season with a 34-4 record and upped his career mark to 119-12 with one more season to go. The Penn State bound Perrys’ 119 career wins put him currently in ninth place on the all-time Wildcat win list. He is currently tied for 15th place on the all-time county win list with 1990 Lock Haven grad and state champ Pete Rinella, who finished with a 119-9-1 record.
Perry finished the season with 66 career falls thus far, which puts him in fifth place all-time on the Wildcat list and in eighth place all-time on the county list. Of course he has a chance next season to climb higher and also become only the fourth four-time Wildcat state medal list and only the sixth in county history.
Although he did not medal at Hershey, senior Rocco Serafini still turned in a very good career for the Wildcats, as he finished with a career mark of 105-45, which ranks 16th on the all-time Wildcat list and 28th on the County list. The Wildcat senior became the fourth Wildcat to win three District 6 titles, joining Andrew Alton, Brian Brill and Luke Simcox, while Dylan Alton is the only Wildcat to win four District 6 titles.
Serafini is heading to Bloomsburg University to play linebacker for the Huskies. The senior Wildcat like Griffin Walizer wrestled almost the whole season in a weight above his normal weight and in most matches was giving up 15-20 pounds difference. Team leaders do that for their team and Serafini definitely was a team first wrestler, as like any wrestler wanting to succeed individually, but he also considered his team’s needs as well.
Two Wildcat freshmen made their way to the PIAA state tournament, as Gavin Heverly and Aidn Kunes both won District and Regional titles. Heverly finished the season with a 35-12 record and Kunes finished with a 35-15 record. Both are not the first wrestlers to go 0-2 in the first trip to the state tournament, but like many, they have three more years to succeed after their inaugural experience at Hershey. Heverly did become the sixth wrestler in Wildcat history to finish with nine major decision wins in a single season.
If a team is going to succeed as a team, you have to have a lot of good wrestlers and the Wildcats had a good balanced team. They had wrestlers who finished with a lot of wins and then there are those who only got on the mats a few times, but there were times the team needed them to take the mat in a match to help the team win the dual meet.
The senior members of the team were Caden Stoner (114, 7-15), Wyatt Kramer (189, 6-7), Slade Severino (215, 1-0) and Giovanni Tarantella (285, 17-10). Tarantella missed a lot of matches due to a shoulder injury and despite still hurting he stepped up big time at the state duals tournament to win a bunch of critical bouts to help the team finish third. Stoner stepped into the line-up for the injured freshman Luke Garman (7-4), while Kramer and Severino took the mats in important line-up switches to help the team to win dual meets.
The Wildcats have a lot of wrestlers coming back, joining the foursome of Perry, Heverly, Kunes and Garman. The returnees include Jacob Weaver (31-20), Bryce Brungard (32-19), Hunter Donley (21-14), Patrick Tarantella (24-20), Carnell Noone (16-8), Luke Ananea (11-12), Jacob Nyman (5-6), Nicholas Lose (2-4), Collin Bauman (20-27) and Mario Serafini (0-3).
Of course the coaching staff has a lot to do with a team’s success and the Wildcats have a very good staff, which is led by Head Coach Biff Walizer, who had guided the Wildcats to a 13-1 record this season and 113-20 in his nine year reign. Of course his number one assistant is Doug Buckwalter, who previously guided the Wildcats to a record of 186-31 in his 11 years as Wildcat head coach..
Other important members of the staff are Dylan Caprio, Steve Krouse, Mike Brown and Brad Lloyd. Dylan is also the head coach of the Lady Wildcat girls team. Krouse, Brown and Lloyd are all volunteers.
Walizer was voted the Class AAA Coach of The Year at this year’s state tournament, while Buckwalter was voted as the Assistant Coach of The Year. Buckwalter won the Coach of The Year award during the 2010 season, while Caprio won Assistant Coach Of The Year at last season’s state tournament.
Even though this story is about the boys team, you can not forget about the success of Lady Wildcat sophomore Kendall Wagner winning an eighth place finish at this year’s first ever PIAA State Girls championships. Wagner finished with an impressive record of 20-7 this season and a career mark of 45-16.
The Bucktail sophomore not only is excelling at wrestling, she is also a standout on the Lady Bucks successful basketball squad. What is more impressive is that she is playing both sports at the same time. While other athletes have played two sports in the same season, those numbers are very limited, but she is the first to wrestle and play basketball at the same time.
