ALTOONA — Bald Eagle Area had the fewest Northwest Regional Tournament qualifiers among the four Centre County wrestling
teams, but the Eagles can boast having the most champions.
Five BEA wrestlers qualified for the regional tournament, which returns Friday, March 4, to the Altoona Fieldhouse, but two of those captured titles Feb. 27 at the Fieldhouse: Seth Koleno at 132 and Josh Fye at 285. BEA also had a runner-up in Garrett Rigg, at 126.
“We hope that they have a little bit more in them in the next two weeks,” BEA coach Steve Millward said, “but both of those kids are hard workers in the room. They’re pretty focused on wrestling season. That’s a big deal to them. It makes it enjoyable for them to go through the season and hopefully get up on that medals stand in Hershey.”
Centre County teams had two other champions, seven runners-up and qualified 28 wrestlers who placed in the top four at their weights to the regional tournament, including eight apiece from Bellefonte and State College and seven from Philipsburg-Osceola.
Bellefonte, which finished third in the team standings, with 155 points, behind Mifflin County (185) and Central Mountain (169.5), was led by three-time champion Brock Port, who breezed to the 145-pound title. The Red Raiders also had three runners-up in Shafiq Blake (113), Aaron Witherite (132) and Chase Gardner (152).
“Overall, I believe we had a pretty solid tournament,” Bellefonte coach Mike Maney said. “We moved eight onto regionals which is the most we had in a few years and we had the second most finalists. We brought 13 guys and 11 placed in the top five. Obviously, in a tournament like this, you always want to move more on but overall I am pleased with our team effort.”
State College, which finished fourth in the team standings with 142.5 points, had a champion in Adam Stover at 113 and two runners-up in Cole Urbas (160) and fourth-seeded Pete Haffner (220).
P-O took sixth with 122 points and had two runners-up in Matt Johnson (120) and Dakota Weitoish (145). It was the second straight year Weitoish had to settle for second.
Port (31-1) had two pins and an 11-1 win over Weitoish in the finals. He had four takedowns, two nearfall points and an escape in the finals.
“Brock Port has earned all his accomplishments through a lot of hard work and dedication,” Maney said. “He is often doing two workouts a day and putting in a lot of time outside of the season. He had a solid tournament and capped it off with a major decision in the finals against a quality opponent. There are not too many three-time District 6 champions, so he is in rare company.”
“Weitoish was just sort of dominated,” P-O coach Tim McCamley said. “Port is that good. He’s going to be a tough one to beat. There are always other things we can do to see if we can solve that problem.”
Fye earned his second title and hiked his record to 25-0 with a fall in the semifinals and a 7-1 win over Hollidaysburg’s Hunter Gill in the finals. Fye notched three takedowns for the win.
“We’d like to see him be more active,” Millward said. “He’s a big guy, and if he gets that momentum going in the right direction, we think he’s capable of scoring more points. I know the competition is going to get much better over the next two weeks. It’s a matter of being positive, being in good position and not giving up sloppy points here and there.”
Stover, who reached the finals with a 4-1 decision over Altoona’s Curtis Dukes, beat Blake, 5-2, for the title. After a scoreless first period, Stover escaped and took Blake down. Leading 3-2 late in the bout, he got a takedown for the final points.
The top-seeded Koleno (22-5), who had a technical fall in his only other bout of the day, was up 5-1 on Witherite when he pinned the second-seeded Red Raider in 5:09.
Top-seeded Johnson dropped a 3-2 decision to Mifflin County’s third-seeded Noah Myers in the finals. Myers scored on an escape and takedown, while Johnson had an escape and penalty point.
“I think Matt had problems solving (Myers’) defense,” McCamley said. “He had real good defense, and we knew that. I guess that’s what we need to work on.”
Rigg (24-5) breezed to the finals with a pin and an 8-1 decision, but he ran into Altoona returning state runner-up Cole Manley, who picked up eight takedowns in a 21-9 win. It was Manley’s third title.
Gardner also ran into a buzzsaw in the finals in Mifflin County’s Hayden Hidlay, who pinned him in 49 seconds for his fourth district title.
Urbas knocked off P-O’s second-seeded Nick Patrick, 4-2, in the semis, but he was pinned by Mifflin County’s Trent Hidlay in 1:12 in the finals. It was Hidlay’s second title.
Haffner knocked off Central Mountain’s top-seeded Hunter Weaver, 3-2, in the semis, but he was taken down by Hollidaysburg’s third-seeded Noah Worley in overtime to lose, 3-1. Worley reached the finals by beating P-O’s second-seeded Micah Sidorick, 2-1.
The Little Lions had third-placers in Zachary Price (132), Dalton Barger (145), Ian Barr (152), Cory Dreibelbis (195) and Drew Linnes (285).
The Red Raiders had third-placers in Cole Stewart (106) and Dillon Kephart (182) and fourth-placers in Lukas McClure (160) and Maximillian Mondy (195).
The Mounties had third-placers in Bryce Bennett (126) and Patrick and fourth-placers in Levi Hughes (138), Ian Klinger (170) and Sidorick.
BEA also qualified fourth-placers Garret Giedroc (106) and Clayton Giedroc (120).
The District 6 wrestlers are joined this weekend at the regional by qualifiers from District 4-9, District 10 and District 8. To get to the PIAA Championships, the wrestlers have to place in the top three at every weight.
“Each match is important and exciting,” Maney said, “and I am excited for the opportunity for our wrestlers to compete and hopefully earn a trip to the state tournament.”
