TJ’s Finnerty wins historic title
HERSHEY, Pa. — Thomas Jefferson and Belle Vernon are known as two of the WPIAL’spremier football programs and two of the most heatedrivals in the area.
Saturday night, the schools took that rivalry to the mat for allthe marbles.
In the PIAA Class 3A 215pound championship match, Thomas Jefferson senior Brian Finnerty outlasted Belle Vernon senior Cole Weightman for a 6-5 decision that brought the Giant Center crowd to its feet. Finnerty is the first state champion wrestler in school history for the Jaguars.
“I have so much respect for Cole,” Finnerty said. “I prefer to have a WPIAL kid in the finals against me, because that justshows how tough we are.”
Weightman held a 5-3 lead with less than a minute remaining, but Finnerty (44-1) scored a 2-point reversal right afterWeightman got called for a locked-hands violation. The 1-point violation gave Finnerty a 6-5 lead with less than 30 seconds remaining. Weightman nearly escaped to tie the match as time expired, but Finnerty maintained control just long enough to secure thewin.
An IUP football recruit and Post-Gazette Fabulous 22 selection, Weightman (13-3) wrestled the entire tournament with a torn meniscus in his left knee, often limping his way back to the center of the mat and struggling to walk under his own power. Weightman upset two of the top seeds in the tournament before coming up just short in the final.
“If I had another week, I think I could have won this thing,”Weightman said.
Finnerty wasn’t the only first-timechamp for his school on Saturday, as West Allegheny junior Ty Watters (37-3) became the Indians’ first PIAA champion with a 7-4 win in the 145-pound final against Franklin Regional senior Finn Solomon — a returning PIAA champion and three-timefinalist.
The two wrestled four matches this season, with each winning two. Solomon won the most recent bout in the final in the ultimate tiebreakerperiod, 5-4.
At 120 pounds, Latrobe junior Vinny Kilkeary (46-2) claimed his second state title with an ultra-impressive 12-3 major decision over Dover’s Mason Leiphart, who entered the final with a record of 37-0. Waynesburg junior Mac Church (38-2) joined Kilkeary as a two-time champ shortly after, defeating Central
Dauphin’s Matt Repos, 3-1, in the132-pound final.
Church’s Raiders teammate Rocco Welsh (48-1) captured his first state title in dominant fashion at 172 pounds. After finishing as a 126-pound runner-up as a freshman and 152-pound runner-up as a sophomore, Welsh leftno doubt as he steamrolled the competition in this weekend’stournament.
After winning his first three matches with a pair of technical falls and a pin, Welsh routed Interboro’s Dom D’Agostino via 24-8 technical fall in the 172-pound final.
One of the tournament’s feel-good moments came when Chartiers Valley junior Dylan Evans (35-4) took down Cathedral Prep’s Kaemen Smith in the final seconds of the 152-pound final for his first state title. Evans jumped into the arms of his father — Chartiers Valley coach Bill Evans — after the dramatic 32victory.
Following Evans’ win, Connellsville senior Jared Keslar (38-3) claimed his first state title at 160 pounds with a 7-5 decision against Central Dauphin’sRyan Garvick.
The WPIAL had seven gold medalists out of 13 weight classes in Class 3A. Overall, the WPIAL had 34 wrestlers earn medals in Class 3A to go with15 place-winners in 2A.