TYRONE — Eight Centre County wrestlers advanced to the championship finals of the first Laurel Highlands Tournament on Jan. 6 at Tyrone High School.
But that’s when it got rough for the local wrestlers as they wrestled nationally ranked opponents in the finals.
Wrestlers from Bald Eagle Area, Penns Valley, Philipsburg-Osceola and Bellefonte went 1-7 in the championship bouts.
The only winner was P-O’s Marcus Gable, who captured the 145-pound title when he won by injury default over Bishop McCort’s Sam Herring in 2:00.
“It feels good to win, but not the way I did win,” Gable said. “I was pressuring back into him whenever he was in the crab position. I was lifting up his ankle to get a Peterson (roll) and his ankle gave out.”
BEA’s Tanner Guenot (107), Lucas Fye (127) and Caleb Close (189); Penns Valley’s Jack Darlington (121) and Colten Shunk (133); P-O’s Caleb Hummel (114); and Bellefonte’s Ezra Swisher (139) all had to settle for second place with losses in the finals.
Bald Eagle Area, which had 10 wrestlers place in the top eight, did finish third in the team standings of the 20-team tournament with 166 points. Penns Valley (122.5) finished eighth. P-O (104.5) was 10th, while Bellefonte (80.5) was 11th.
Bishop McCort easily won the team title by 72.5 points, 245.5-173, over Chestnut Ridge. The beastly Crimson Crushers went 8-0 in the semifinals and 7-1 in the finals.
Herring actually had a 4-1 lead over Gable when he suffered an ankle injury at the end of the first period. Herring used all of his injury time before Gable’s hand was raised. Gable had a pin, technical fall and major decision in his first three bouts.
“Marcus is getting a lot of tests this year,” P-O coach Justin Fye said. “This is the third finals he’s been in so far, and he’s wrestled quality competition. It’s unfortunate to see an injury to have to end it because we’d like to see how we can do. Herring is a tough wrestler. Marcus put together a good tournament and was dominant in getting to the finals.”
Guenot (two pins and a 2-0 semifinal win over Bellefonte’s Wyatt Long) was in one of the closest finals bouts of all the Centre County wrestlers who lost. The freshman suffered his first loss, a 3-0 decision to Chestnut Ridge returning PIAA Class 2A runner-up Dominic Deputy.
Deputy earned a takedown out of a long first-period scramble, added an escape in the second and defended a Guenot takedown attempt in the third to preserve the shutout.
Close (two pins and an injury default) dropped a 6-3 decision to Huntingdon/Williamsburg’s Andrew McMonagle, who was later voted the Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament.
McMonagle drew first blood against Close, a returning District 6 and southwest regional champ and two-time state placer, with a second-period reversal and 3-point nearfall.
Close escaped and got a takedown in the third period, but McMonagle escaped and avoided danger late to win.
“We’re both scrappers,” McMonagle said. “We’ve trained together all summer, and I think that’s a big part of how close our matches are. I feel like it’s going to be the same all year. I feel like this is going to be the district, regional and state championship.”
In a matchup of returning state qualifiers, Chestnut Ridge’s Easton Mull pinned previously unbeaten Hummel in 1:45. Hummel had two decisions to get to the finals.
“Caleb is coming back from an injury,” Fye said. “Mull is real good, but Caleb really hasn’t practiced for two-and-a-half weeks or so. That’s not an excuse for putting ourselves in bad positions, but if we wrestled that match again, we could do a little bit better.”
Bishop McCort wrestlers then flexed their muscles in the next four bouts. Lincoln Sledzianowski (121), Jax Forrest (127), Mason Gibson (133) and Bo Bassett (139) all won by technical falls and combined to score 75 points.
Sledzianowski rang up an 18-3 technical fall over Darlington (two pins in his first two bouts) in 4:21. Forrest rolled to a 19-4 win over Fye (two pins and a technical fall) in 2:41. 2021 state runner-up and Penn State commit Gibson recorded a 22-7 technical fall over Shunk (pin, major decision, decision) in 1:48.
Bassett rang up a 26-9 technical fall over Swisher in 1:40. Swisher had a technical fall and two decisions to reach the finals.
BEA’s had seven other placewinners in Gage Gardner (fourth, 215), Dawson Lomison (fifth, 133), Mason Reese (fifth, 145), Shawn Knepp (sixth, 172), Gavin Guenot (seventh, 121), Connor Maney (seventh, 139) and Eric Clark (eighth, 285).
Penns Valley had five other placers in Ty Watson (third, 152), Ethan Fetterolf (fourth, 160), Landen Hess (seventh, 285), Ty Steiger (eighth, 189) and Brandon Corl (eighth, 215).
P-O had five other medalists in Averi Gable (fourth, 107), Colton Chapman (seventh, 160), Matt Rowles (seventh, 172), Ace Foster (eighth, 121) and Nate Fleck (eighth, 152).
Bellefonte had three other placers in Long (third, 107), Noah Weaver (third, 145) and Luke Hockenberry (seventh, 189).
BEA was scheduled to host P-O on Jan. 9, visit Penns Valley on Jan. 11 and wrestle in the Mid-Winter Mayhem on Jan. 12-13 at IUP’s Kovalchick Convention Center & Athletic Complex.
Penns Valley was to wrestle on Jan. 9 at Huntingdon before wrestling BEA. After wrestling BEA, P-O will host the Mountaineer Duals on Jan. 13.
Bellefonte will wrestle in the Southern Tier Memorial Tournament on Jan. 12-13 at The First Arena in New York.
LITTLE LIONS WIN TWICE
State College earned wins over Williamsport, 62-9, on Jan. 2 at home and at Cumberland Valley, 40-21, on Jan. 4 to improve to 4-3.
The Little Lions got pins from Johnathan Coates (121), Nicholas Berrena (127), Asher Cunningham (160), Xavier Zeruth (172) and Nick Pavlechko (285) against Williamsport.
They had no trouble against CV, getting pins from Izaiah Vasquez (107), Noah Young (114), James Whitbred (133) and Pavlechko (285). Pierson Manville (152) and Cunningham (160) won by technical fall.
The Little Lions, whose Jan. 6 match at Bishop McDevitt was postponed, are scheduled to wrestle in the Jan. 13-14 Escape the Rock at Council Rock South.
