Tournament features showdown at 195
Upper St. Clair’s Eli Grape is a returning champion at this weekend’s Allegheny County Tournament, which began this morning at Fox Chapel High School, but he is not seeded No. 1 in the 195-pound weight class.
North Allegheny’s Jake Woodley, a runner-up in the 182-pound weight class last year, was awarded the top seed because he went on to win WPIAL and PIAA titles.
It’s the only weight class that features two wrestlers who are No. 1 and No. 2 in the WPIAL Class 3A rankings.
“The 195-pound weight class features three PIAA qualifiers,” said Fox Chapel coach Ron Frank, who also serves as tournament director. “Jake Woodley was a state champion, Eli Grape was a place-winner and [Fox Chapel’s] Zach Carcy was a state qualifier.”
Woodley lost in last year’s Allegheny County finals to South Park’s Greg Bulsak, who went on to win a second PIAA Class 2A title.
“No other weight class at this tournament has three PIAA qualifiers,” North Allegheny assistant coach Dan Heckert said.
“Jake Woodley is one of the top kids in the nation at 195,” Upper St. Clair coach Josh Mollica said. “Eli has never wrestled Woodley, but he’s looking forward to the challenge.”
Grape is one of six returning county champions. PineRichland has three entries who have won a previous county title. Hunter Baxter is a three-time finalist and two-time champ who is entered at 132. Garret Burnham is entered at 138 after winning at 126 last year. Alex Salas won at 106 in 2015, placed second at 113 last year, and is now at 120.
The other returning champs are North Allegheny’s Jake Hinkson and Bethel Park’s Nino Bonaccorsi. Hinkson is a threetime finalist and two-time champ entered at 145. Bonaccorsi has moved to 182 after winning at 170 last year.
North Allegheny’s Luke Landefeld, also a returning county champ, scratched from the 132-pound weight class with a concussion sustained in a Jan. 11 match against Shaler.
Thirty-seven teams are entered in the two-day tournament, which is celebrating its 16th anniversary, but two regular participants decided not to enter this year’s tournament.
“It’s a big disappointment that South Fayette and West Allegheny are not coming,” Frank said. “But on the flip side, we have Quaker Valley making its first appearance. We could choose to wonder or worry about the teams not coming, but instead we’re going to celebrate the kids that are coming.”
The finals are scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday.
Postseason begins
The wrestling postseason officially begins Wednesday as the WPIAL will hold seven section tournaments to determine seeding for the upcoming WPIAL team tournaments. The top five teams from each section qualify for the WPIAL team tournaments.
At each of the section tournaments, the first-place finisher from each sub-section will wrestle the secondplace team from the other sub-section. The two winners face off to determine the section champion, while the two losers wrestle for third place. The first-place team from each A sub-section will serve as host for the four matches.
A match between the two third-place teams in each section will determine the fifth participant, with those matches being wrestled at different sites.
This year marks the ninth year the WPIAL has held section team tournaments. Only two teams have won eight consecutive section titles: Canon-McMillan and Burrell. North Allegheny has won six section titles during this stretch.
The results of the section tournaments will play a big part in the seeding for next week’s WPIAL tournaments. The winners of the seven tournaments will be among the top seeds in their class.
Escape the Rock
North Allegheny placed second in the 49-team Escape the Rock Tournament last weekend at Council Rock South High School. The Tigers had four wrestlers advance to the finals and a total of five medal winners.
Eric Hong and Jake Woodley won titles for North Allegheny, while Zach Stedeford and Jake Hinkson finished second.
Hong posted a 2-0 win over Josh Stillings of Pennridge in the 160-pound final. Stillings was a fourthplace finisher at last year’s PIAA Class 3A tournament. Woodley claimed the 195pound crown with a 5-3 win against Josh Borst of Virginia’s Sherando High.
Stedeford lost in the 138pound final with a 10-3 decision to P.J. Crane of Malvern Prep. Hinkson dropped an 8-7 decision to John Pipa of Harrisburg Bishop McDevitt. Pipa was a PIAA Class 2A runner-up last year.
Canon-McMillan also had two champs. Freshman Gerrit Nijenhuis claimed the 152-pound crown with a 3-0 shutout of Athens’ Kaidon Winters. Brendan Furman won the heavyweight title with a 4-3 victory over Seth Janney of Malvern Prep.
Canon-McMillan placed fourth in the team standings and matched North Allegheny with five medalists. Also placing for the Big Macs were Logan Macri (fourth at 120), Matt Oblock (sixth at 132) and Tim Hritsko (sixth at 138). North Allegheny’s other medalist was Derek Devine (seventh at 285).
Belle Vernon had three medalists: Jacob Dunlop (third at 113), Brock Godzin ( third at 152) and Zachary Hartman (third at 160).