Wildcats Grapplers Looking For More Success
By Joe Walker
MILL HALL- It is time to get the resilite mats out, as the high school wrestling season is upon us and for the Central Mountain Wildcats it has the very good chance of yet another successful season. This will be season 26 for the Wildcat varsity grapplers and they will look to continue the streak of never having a losing dual meet season.
The Wildcats finished 13-1 last season and won a third place finish in the PIAA Class AAA Dual meet championships, losing only to eventual state champion Bethlehem Catholic. The Wildcats lost a lot of talent from last year’s squad, as two-time state champion Luke Simcox is now at North Carolina University, three-time state place finisher Griffin Walizer is at Lock Haven University and 100 match winner Rocco Serafini is playing football at Bloomsburg University.
Other seniors gone from last season are Caden Stoner, Wyatt Kramer, Slade Severino and Giovanni Tarantella. Tarantella fought through a shoulder injury for a lot of the season and missed some matches, but came back at the state duals and won some critical bouts to help the Wildcats earn that third place finish.
The Wildcats still return a lot of talent for the 2024-25 season and will be led by three time state place winner and Penn State bound Dalton Perry. The Bucktail senior enters the season with a career mark of 119-12, as he won a state championship as a freshman and a third place as a sophomore. Last season he added a state runner-up medal with a 34-4 record and brings 66 career wins by fall heading into this coming season.
The sophomore duo of Gavin Heverly and Aiden Kunes were both state qualifiers last season as freshmen and hope to return to Hershey this season. Heverly finished with a 35-12 mark, while Kunes was 35-15. Senior veterans Jacob Weaver and Bryce Brungard both had big seasons last year, as Weaver was 31-20 last year and has 78 career wins thus far, while Brungard finished with a 32-19 mark.
Patrick Tarantella added a 24-20 mark last season as a freshman. Junior Hunter Donley hopes to return sometime in January, after missing football with an injury, he compiled a 21-14 season last year. Senior Luke Annanea was 11-12 last season filling in at various middleweights for the Wildcats.
“We may not have as many big credential guys back, but we have the possibility to again have a balanced line-up again this season. The dual meet schedule will be tougher, as Bald Eagle Area, Mifflin County, Selinsgrove and Hollidaysburg all bring back a lot of good kids. We won’t be at the Powerade Tournament, but added the Coudersport Dual meet tournament, where they have some very good Class AA teams from District 10 entered and supposedly some high placing team from one of the western states was recently added, just not sure which one at this time.” commented head coach Bill Walizer about the 2024-25 dual meet season.
“We will be a little thinner in the middle weights this season compared to last season, so we brought up some freshmen to give us some more flexibility from 145 thru 160. We may get Hunter Donley back sometime in January and if so that will help. We have his younger brother
Hayes and Dakoda Packer-Edwards, both freshmen, up in those middleweights. We have a lot of bodies bunched up from 172 and 189, so there will be a lot of competition there and it will also give us a lot of flexibility in those upper weights”, continued Walizer.
The 2024-25 roster:
Cael Dorman (Soph, 107/114), Gavin Heverly (soph, 114/121), Collin Bauman (Jr, 121), Jagger Pardoe (Jr, 121/127), Aiden Kunes (Soph, 127/133), Luke Garman (Soph, 127/133), Brennan Rice (Soph, 127/133), Patrick Tarantella (Soph, 139), Dalton Perry (Sr, 145), Hayes Donley (Fr, 145), Luke Annanea (Sr, 152/160), Dakota Packer-Edwards (Fr, 152/160) and Hayes Miller (Fr, 160).
Jacob Weaver (Sr, 172), Jacob Nyman (Jr, 172), Dalton McDermott (Jr, 172), Tanner McCall (Fr, 172), Bryce Brungard (Sr, 189), Brody Hockenberry (Soph, 189), Kai Fravel (Soph, 189/215), Todd Caris (Fr, 189/215), Nick Lose (Jr, 215) and Hayes Henry (Fr, 285).
This will be Walizer’s 10th season at the helm of the Wildcats and has compiled a 113-20 record thus far and has a career mark of 252-85, which includes his years at Red Lion High School. He will again be assisted by former Wildcat head coach Doug Buckwalter, who compiled a 186-31 mark at the helm of the Wildcats and has a career mark of 307-88-3, which includes his years at Lock Haven High. Over the past 20 years the duo have led the Wildcats to an overall dual meet record of 299-51 as head coaches.
Walizer also has volunteer assistants in Steve Krouse, Mike Brown and Bryce Hanley, while Dylan Caprio serves the dual role as boys varsity assistant and Head Coach of the Lady Wildcats varsity squad. Owen Wilkinson will again be the head coach of Wildcats Junior High squad and will be assisted by longtime junior high coach Eric Coleman and Jacob Edwards.
A big change in the schedule this season is the elimination of the Northwest Regional Tournament by the PIAA, as Wildcats and the rest of District 6 will now be in the Western Regional Tournament. District 6, District 8 and District 9/10 will all have three qualifiers each for the regionals, while the big District 7 (WPIAL) will bring 7 qualifiers to regionals. The top 5 place winners will qualify for the Class AAA state tournament.
In the scoring category this season, takedowns will now be worth 3 points, and nearfall points will be awarded by referee 2-count is 2 points, 3-count is 3 points, 4-count is 4 points. A wrestler can get 5 nearfall points if after a four count is counted the bout is then stopped for an injury to the bottom wrestler or the bottom wrestler claims injury or bleeding is noticed on the bottom position wrestler.
The 15-point tech fall is still intact, but if a wrestler either takes down a wrestler to his back or reverses a wrestler to his back, the bout will not be stopped until the referee awards back points or a fall occurs.
Wrestlers will be considered still inbounds if either wrestler has one supporting point still inbounds, but that point has to be in contact with the mat. The 10-foot center circle is now an option for the wrestling mats.
“We will have the Christmas Holiday week off this year, as we will open the dual meet season on Thursday December 5th, when we host the Indians of Shamokin and then on Friday and Saturday Dec. 6-7 we will again be at the 22-team Tom Best Top Hat Tournament at Williamsport High School,” state coach Walizer..
The Wildcats travel to Bald Eagle Area on Tuesday, December 10th, then to Shikellamy on Thursday December 12th and wrap up their road tour when they travel to Mifflin County on Wednesday December 18th. They conclude their December schedule when they host the annual King Of The Mountain Tournament that is slated for Friday and Saturday the 20th and 21st at the Central Mountain gym.
