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What a busy wrestling weekend. So much to digest that I could never recap it all in a single column.
Locals for Central Mountain, Bald Eagle Area, Bellefonte and Jersey Shore had success and will send a combined total of 12 to the PIAA wrestling championships today at the Giant Center in Hershey.
Central Mountain qualified four, including Class AAA Northwest Regional champions Dalton Perry (126 pounds) and Luke Simcox (132). Taylor Weaver (138) took a runner-up slot, while Griffin Walizer battled for a third-place title at 145. Weaver claimed his 100th career win with his first of three wins. Only Weaver is a senior.
Bellefonte will send two to the big show. Jude Swisher won the 145-pound title; his teammate Aiden O'Shea placed 3rd at 132. Both are seniors. O'Shea joined Weaver in achieving his 100th career victory.
BEA, out of the Class AA Southwest Region, qualified four: Lucas Fye (113, second), Coen Bainey (120, second), Caleb Close (172, fourth) and Noah Fultz (189, fourth).
Down District 4 way, Jersey Shore will send two to Hershey as Brock Weiss (120) and Hadyn Packer (189) both took second.
If the brackets are settled by today (there have been multiple changes early this week) the first round pairings for our locals will be:
Fye vs. Jake Carfley (Curwensville); Bainey vs. Eric Howe (Lancaster Catholic); Weiss vs. Chase Bell (Reynolds); Close vs. Lucas Miller (Northwestern); Fultz vs. Collin Neal (Boiling Springs); Packer vs. Kade Werner (Bishop McDevitt).
Complete brackets can be found on pawrsl.com. Fans who don't make the pilgrimage to Hershey can follow on the Flo Arena website. I will also be tracking our locals and reporting on my Facebook page: Tom's Wrestling Page.
To the collegiate level, Lock Haven University took the team title at the Mid-American Conference tournament in Athens, Ohio, with 123.5 points. The Bald Eagles crowned two champions in Anthony Noto (125) and Ben Barton (157). They also qualified Dashawn Farber (fifth at 149), Ashton Eyler (runner-up at 165) and Isaac Reid (second at 285). To top off a great weekend, Scott Moore was named the MAC Coach of the Year.
Penn State was narrowly toppled for the team title at the Big Tens. The Lions had champions in Roman Bravo-Young (133), Nick Lee (141), Carter Starocci (174), and Max Dean (197). Aaron Brooks (184) was second. The Nittany Lions qualified nine for the Division I NCAA Championships in two weeks (March 17-19) in Detroit. Those nine are Brady Berge (157), Greg Kerkvliet (285), Beau Bartlett (149), Drew Hildebrandt (125). Creighton Edsell (165) did not get an at-large bid. He showed a lot of moxie and came up with some big wins for the Nittany Lions. The Wyalusing native will be missed.
MAT NOTES
* David Carr, brother of LHU assistant Nate Carr Jr., won the Big 12 title at 157. It was his third consecutive Big 12 tournament title.
* Nate Schon, the talented Selinsgrove wrestler, who won a state title last season, is gray-shirting this year and plans to red-shirt the next.
* A much-overdue tip of the headgear to Joe Miller, the PA announcer at Central Mountain. Sometimes we overlook how professional he is, especially when we go to other venues and we have no idea of the two competing wrestlers.
* Former Bald Eagle-Nittant two-time state champ Scott Bair is the swimming coach for Central Mountain. He has been quite successful (no surprise), but part of his success is having two talented daughters on the team: Camryn and Madison. They teamed with Ana Persun, and Hannah Brian to place in several events. Camryn won the gold in the 50 free. (Check piaad6.org for all of the swimming results.) By the way, the Bair girls' uncle is Robbie Weikel, a former Bellefonte and LHU wrestler, and a coach at LHU.
Another tidbit on the swimming team (boys this time) is Leisher Gugino. His great grandfather was the famous Pittsburgh Pirate sportscaster Albert Kennedy "Rosey" Rowswell. .
* Swithcing to basketball. Congratulations to the Wildcat boys team for their 51-45 win over Hampton in the PIAA Class 5A playoffs. It too some 3-point shooting by Cayde McCloskey and solid play from Jack Hanna and Ashton Probst. It also gave them a boost when the wrestling team showed up after practice in singlet to root their brothers on. Good luck to all of the athletes as they attempt to place high in the states.