Freshmen highlight field of regional champs
In any normal year, winning a PIAA Southwest regional wrestling title would be enough to punch your ticket to Hershey as a state qualifier.
This year has been anything but normal, though, and the road to Chocolate Town in 2021 is tougher than ever before. Now, one more challenge stands in the way of the 29 WPIAL wrestlers still alive in the Class 2A individual postseason — the inaugural PIAA West Super Regional, taking place Saturday at IUP’s Kovalchick Complex.
Although the PIAA tournament usually qualifies 20 wrestlers per weight class, that number has shrunk to eight per weight this year to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19. There are only 16 wrestlers still in contention per weight class — eight in the West Super Regional and eight in the East Super Regional. The top four finishers in each weight class will advance to the PIAA Class 2A championships on March 12.
Rather than making excuses or complaining, though, most of the WPIAL wrestlers coming off Southwest Regional titles last Saturday are viewing it as an exciting opportunity to make history.
“I think it will be fun. We’ve got a week to get prepared, so we’ll see who wins it,” said Bentworth freshman Chris Vargo. “I haven’t lost a match yet, so I’m riding high right now.”
Vargo (14-0 at 113 pounds) was one of three WPIAL freshmen to capture titles at the Southwest Regional, along with Burrell’s Cooper Hornack (24-1 at 106) and Frazier’s Rune Lawrence (24-1 at 172). All three are having spectacular starts to their high school career, with a combined record of 62-2 and
WPIAL and regional titles to their credit.
Hornack (24-1) eked out a 43 decision in the ultimate tiebreaker period against topseeded Landon Bainey of West Branch in the 106-pound finals, while Vargo won his title with a relatively one-sided 8-1 decision against Mount Union’s Bryce Beatty at 113.
“I think it’s pretty cool to be taking part in it,” Hornack said. “I don’t know if it’s ever going to come back again, so hopefully I can be the first and only [106-pound] super regional champ.”
In the 172-pound finals, Lawrence (24-1) came from behind to score a third-period pin against top-seeded Malachi Duvall of Penns Valley. Lawrence won despite sustaining an apparent knee injury while defending a takedown in the first period, although he said the knee felt fine after the match. The Powerade runner-up now has 16 pins in 25 matches in his debut season.
“I feel like it was just more in the moment it kind of hurt, but as [the match] went on, it didn’t hurt as bad,” Lawrence said.
Coming off his third regional title and looking stronger than ever after bumping up two weight classes to 126 pounds, South Park senior Joey Fischer (18-0) is on a mission to reach the top of the podium in Hershey after coming up just short last year.
Fischer, a two-time PIAA medalist and Clarion recruit, lost in overtime to two-time PIAA champion Gary Steen of Reynolds in last year’s 113pound state finals. He won’t have to worry about facing Steen this year, though, as the Penn State recruit is competing at 120 pounds.
“I hit the weights a lot this offseason,” Fischer said. “I got a lot bigger and moved up from 113. Every match I go out there, I feel really strong compared to a lot of the kids I’m wrestling. So I think that’s been a big help.
“I’ve gotten faster, I’ve gotten stronger, and I’ve definitely gotten more technical. So I’ve advanced in all three of those areas.”
While many athletes have felt the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic over the past year, Fischer certainly used the extra downtime to his advantage. Vargo, on the other hand, pointed to the extra rest going into his first high school season as a major benefit to his success.
“I had a lot of time off in the summer,” Vargo said. “Not many tournaments. So I think that really did help. I usually start getting burned out around this time of year. That time off really helped. I just wrestled to my full ability.
“I came here to do one thing, and that’s win that state title.”