WVU coach’s son set to face top seed
HERSHEY, Pa. — Wyatt Henson grew up in West Virginia and doesn’t have a book on all the top wrestlers in Pennsylvania.
“Things aren’t too different here and every state has its good guys, so it doesn’t really faze me,” the Waynesburg freshman said. “When I was there, I would always wrestle nationally, so I saw a lot of guyslike they have here.”
It took a little more work than usual but the 120-pound Henson, son of West Virginia University head coach and Olympics silver medalist Sammy Henson, took a 5-4 double-overtime decision against eighth-seeded Cameron Enriquez of Stroudsburg in the opening round of the PIAA Class 3A wrestling tournament at GiantCenter.
On Friday, the freshman will face top-seeded Doug Zapf of Downingtown West in the quarterfinals.
Then again, if it was up to his father, he might not be at thismeet at all.
“He has taught me basically everything I know, but when I first started out, he really didn’t want me to get into the sport,” Henson said. “He wanted me to get into football andbaseball.”
Wyatt’s older brother, Jackson wasn’t as fortunate. The senior dropped his openingmatch at 138 pounds, 4-0, to Zach Ortman of Parkland, then was rolled out of the tournament with a 4-0 loss to Hollidaysburg senior Nathan Swartz.
West Allegheny sophomore Jordan Watters had a busy day in his state debut. The 133-pounder won a preliminary round match against Ben Tirpak of CathedralPrep, 8-2, then knocked off the Southeast Regional champion, Maximino Mendez of Council Rock South, 3-2, on a two-point takedown with one second left to move into the quarterfinals.
He wasn’t the only WPIAL wrestler to pull an upset in this weight class. Hempfield junior Kyle Burkholder also had to go through a preliminary round match and jumped out to a 3-0 lead, then held on to defeat South Central Regional champion Will Betancourt of Manheim Central. Upsets also abounded in the 126-pound classification as Latrobe sophomore Gabe Willochell beat second-seeded Ed Scott of DuBois, 6-4, on a twopoint reversal and a threepoint near-fall with 12 seconds remaining in the second period. Hopewell’s Jacob Ealy knocked off Northeast Regional champion Kenny Herrmannof Bethlehem Catholic, 11-8, with six points in the thirdperiod.
Class 2A
Christian Clutter won the WPIAL title at 170 pounds, then finished a disappointing fourth at the PIAA Southwest Regional qualifier. To add to the ignominy, the McGuffey seniorhad to go through a preliminary round match at the statetournament.
In the end, it was all worthwhile as Clutter pulled off one of the few upsets in 2A when he outlasted third-seeded Union City junior Gavin Henry, the Northwest Regional champion, 5-1, to make it into the quarterfinals in the 170-poundweight class.
Mount Pleasant senior Alex Miscovich was on the other side of that coin. After winning the 132-pound Southwest Regional title Miscovich, seeded fourth in the weight class, was eliminated in the first round in a 6-3 loss to Matt Peters of Northwest Lehigh. Miscovoch, who has never placed at the state meet, had a 3-0 lead in the bout with a second-period near-fall, but could notfinish it off.
Miscovich with wrestle Trent Schultheis of Freedom inthe second round of the consolation matches on Friday. The two met in the WPIAL championship and Schultheis took home the title with a 5-3 victoryat Canon-McMillan.
Of the seven Southwest Regional champions from WPIAL, six made it to the quarterfinals.
Jefferson-Morgan senior Gavin Teasdale, who is on a quest to become the first fourtime state champion for the Rockets and just the 13th in state history, moved within three wins of his goal when took only 2:08 to notch a technical fall at 126 pounds against Avery Barrett of Midd-West. In the Friday quarterfinals, the Penn State recruit will take on sophomore Kenny Kiserof Saegertown.