Lady Wildcat Wrestlers Ready For Second Season
By Joe Walker
MILL HALL – It will be the second year of official PIAA High School Girls wrestling in the 2024-25 season and the Central Mountain Lady Wildcats look to build on last season’s inaugural season. The Lady Wildcats of second year head coach Dylan Caprio welcomes back five returnees from last season’s squad.
Leading the returnees is Bucktail junior Kendall Wagner, who posted a 20-7 record last season on her way to an eighth place finish in the PIAA state championships. Wagner is 45-16 in her career thus far, as she placed fourth in the state two years ago, but it was a non-PIAA certified sport then. Wagner is a standout basketball player for the Lady Bucks of Bucktail and will do dual sport again this winter season. In her spare time Wagner is also a very good softball player for the Lady Bucks in the spring.
Other returnees from last season are sophomore Austynn Falls, who posted a 22-8 record as a freshmen and placed sixth in the regionals last year. Three junior returnees are Ashlyn Miller who finished 18-13, Emma Scarborough-Perez was 12-8 and Kennedy Metzger finished 10-17 during their sophomore seasons. Scarborough-Perez has a career mark of 24-25 so far.
Caprio welcomes five rookies this season, as freshmen Haiden Johnson and Mallory Wunder are joined by sophomore Kaitlyn Scarborough-Perez and a pair of seniors in Adrian Samaniego and Jacey Tripp to round out the 10 lady squad. Other dual sport girls for coach Caprio, as Tripp also plays basketball for the Lady Wildcats and Wunder is a member of the Lady Wildcat swim team during the winter season.
“We have 10 girls this season and some are like Kendall (Wagner) as they are dual sport girls, but really athletic girls. Of course we look for Kendall to have a great season again and Austynn had a good year last season and just missed making it to the state tournament and of course hopefully we can get her there this season. The other three returnees got a lot of experience last season and we are looking for them to take the next step this season,” commented Coach Caprio on the Lady Wildcats.
“We do not have as many dual meets this season, as we entered into more tournaments for the girls. With the sport being just in its second season officially, the girls don’t always get that many matches in dual meets. By getting into more tournaments right now, I feel we can get the girls a lot more actual matches to help build their confidence and improve their talents. Like the a lot of the boys tournaments we can enter multiple girls at the same weight, thus we can get all 10 girls entered and wrestling,” continued Caprio.
“We open the season with Shamokin on December 5th and we are still wrestling Bald Eagle Area with the boys on December 10th. We will be entered in the Boiling Springs Duals Tournament on Saturday, December 7th, while we will again host the Queen Of The Mountain Tournament on Sunday December 22, the day after the boys King Of The Mountain Tournament. We wrap up December at the Clearfield Tournament on Saturday the 28th” added Caprio
The girls will again have the 13-weight classes again this season and they are 100, 106, 112, 118, 124, 130, 136, 142, 148, 155, 170, 190 and 235. With just the 10 lady squad and one weight having three girls, the Lady Wildcats may forfeit some weights again during dual meets. The Lady Wildcats posted a 5-9 dual meet record last season.
The following is a roster with listed weights for the Lady Wildcats:
Adrian Samaniego (112-118); Emma and Kaitlyn Scarborough-Perez both (118-124); Kennedy Metzger (130-136); Austynn Falls (136-142); Mallory Wunder (142-148); Kendall Wagner (170-190) and the trio of Ashlyn Miller, Haiden Johnson and Jacey Tripp are at 235. Former Bald Eagle-Nittany wrestler Dan Scarborough will be assisting Caprio with the girls program.
There are a lot of changes this season in scoring, as takedowns are worth three points and nearfall points are based on the referee counting, 2 count (2 pts), 3 count (3 pts) and four count (4 pts). A wrestler can get five nearfall points if she takes a wrestler to their back by takedown or reversal and an injury happens or the bottom wrestler says they are hurt. But the referee must have made a four count before the fifth back point can be awarded.
Wrestlers will still be ruled inbounds if either wrestler still has just one supporting point touching the inbounds part of the mat. The 10-foot center circle is now an option to be one the mat.
