By ALTHEA HELMS
ALTHEA HELMS
For The Centre County Gazette
Editor’s Note: Althea Helms is a student at Bellefonte Area High School. Helms was selected to receive a Press Forward PA Wilds scholarship to cover high school wrestling events.
ALTOONA — Bellefonte High School’s Varsity Wrestling team — both boys and girls — traveled to Altoona for the District 6 Wrestling Championships on Saturday, Feb. 21. Winners at this match also qualified for the PIAA Boys 3-A West Regional or PIAA Girls Central Regional tournament.
Top three boys’ finishers qualify for regionals. Bellefonte seniors Jackson Long –189lb and Wyatt Long –139lb, as well as junior Luke Hockenberry – 215lb, placed first as District 6 3-A Champions.
“I’ve been training harder and harder each day to make sure that I am the best possible version of myself for this post season run,” Wyatt Long said. In the final, he wrestled Hayes Donley from Central Mountain, winning in a 7-0 sweep. For him, winning districts is just one step closer to states.
“I’m happy it’s paying off finally,” Hockenberry said. After training for an entire off-season and in-season, he had high expectations for himself. Hockenberry competed against Central Mountain wrestler Todd Caris in the finals, triumphing with a fall at 4:46.
Jackson Long faced off with Noah Williams from State College in the finals, winning 6-5. Like Hockenberry, he said having three district champions from Bellefonte is pretty “cool.”
Seniors Ezra Swisher – 152lb, Jack McHail – 172lb, and sophomore Andrew Gall – 145lb, all finished as runners-up. Junior Quinn Park – 160lb, and freshman Colin Harter – 107lb, placed third. All of these athletes solidified their spot at Canonsburg in the west regional tournament scheduled Feb. 27-28.
Girls wrestling
The girls’ team allows the top five finishers to advance to the PIAA Girls Central Regional Tournament.
Bellefonte sophomores Bailee Scott – 155lb, earned third place and Ella Johnsonbaugh – 142lb earned fifth, and secured their spots at the central regional tournament on Feb. 27.
“I feel great; I worked very hard this year to get to the place I am at now,” Johnsonbaugh said. In Johnsonbaugh’s round against North Star’s Alyssa Kostyk, she came out on top with a 3-0 takedown, earning her fifth place. Scott went head-to-head with Chloe Holloway from Southern Huntingdon for the third-place spot, ultimately winning 6-0.
Along with these regional qualifiers, two others just missed the mark to advance.
Sophomore Blake Glace – 121lb, came in fourth, and from the girls’ team sophomore Carly Bair – 124lb finished sixth. Although just out of the standard, both competitors showed admirable performances, hopefully fueling them for next year.
“With the work that the wrestlers put in, we expected all 13 guys, but the number that did qualify was pretty high. We’d like to take more next year, but a pretty solid performance,” Head Coach Mike Maney said. Overall, the varsity team placed third out of seven teams, with nine athletes going on to represent Bellefonte at the PIAA Boys AAA West Regional or PIAA Girls Central Regional tournament.
