CANONSBURG – On Friday evening, the West Class AAA Regional officially kicked off at Canon-McMillan High School. Central and Bellefonte were in attendance, each having eight wrestlers striving to keep their championship bracket runs alive.

Of those 16 wrestlers, three made it to championship semifinals. Central Mountain juniors Patrick Tarantella and Aiden Kunes made it at 133 and 145 respectively. And Bellefonte senior Ezra Swisher made it at 152.

Kunes saw little resistance on the way to his second regional semifinal appearance, tech falling No. 28 Zach Hill (Seneca Valley) and No. 20 Jacob Chacon (Montour) in that order to finish Day One 2-0.

In his tech fall over Hill, Kunes worked a pair of takedowns in both the first and second period and turned Hill twice to wrap up the match in under three minutes.

He then carried that momentum into a slightly tougher matchup, scoring 11 first-period points in route to a third-period tech fall. Ranked No. 3 in the state, he’ll face No. 8 Nathan Klingensmith (Norwin) in Saturday’s semifinal.

Tarantella took a six-point move late in the first period the distance in his lone match on Friday, defeating No. 21 Landon Lynn (Connellsville) by 8-3 decision to advance to his first regional semifinal.

Following that six-point move, the junior notched two second-period escapes before riding Lynn out through the third. Ranked No. 10 in the state, Tarantella will face No. 8 Cael Yanek in Saturday’s semifinal.

Swisher also finished Day One 2-0, tech falling Central Mountain’s Luke Garman early in the second to start before pinning No. 16 Rook Smith (Montour) deep in the third period.

In that latter match, the Bellefonte senior looked off a tense situation, holding a just 4-1 lead heading into the third. He stayed poised despite it, controlling the period before throwing Smith down to the mat and pinning him. Ranked No. 5 in the state, he’ll face No. 9 Michael Ruane (Franklin Regional) in Saturday’s semifinal.

Apart from its semifinalists, Central Mountain has four wrestlers with one tournament stock left heading into Saturday. Collin Bauman (121), Gavin Heverly (127), Dalton McDermott (160) and Todd Caris (215) finished their days 1-1 to keep their chances at a medal alive, with Bauman bouncing back from a tight opening loss.

For Bellefonte, six wrestlers – Collin Harter (107), Wyatt Long (139), Andrew Gall (145), Jack McHail (172), Jackson Long (189) and Luke Hockenberry (215) – remain alive in consolations.

Hockenberry went toe-to-toe with No. 2 Cooper Roscosky (Kiski Area) in the 215 quarterfinals, securing a late reversal to fall three points short of an upset in a 5-3 decision – Roscosky’s 150th career win. McHail and Long’s quarterfinal losses were also by decision, and Harter fell by 8-0 major against top-seeded Lee Dreshman (Canon-McMillan).

Action at Canon-McMillan resumes at 9 a.m. on Saturday.