Seventeen competitors from three West Hills area high schools – including four seeded among the top 5 in their respective weight classes — will go mining for the gold this weekend at the WPIAL Boys Wrestling Championships.
Five wrestlers representing Carlynton will battle at the Class 2A tournament, which gets underway at 5 p.m. Friday at Chartiers Valley High School.
Twelve more wrestlers – nine from Moon Area and three from Montour – are scheduled to compete at the Class 3A tournament, which also starts at 5 p.m. at Canon-McMillan High School.
Friday’s action will include preliminary round matches – known as the pigtail round — the round of 16, quarterfinals and the first consolation round. Action will resume at 10 a.m. Saturday with the second consolation round. Consolation finals and championship finals are scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m.
The top seven wrestlers in each weight class in Class 3A and the top eight finishers in each weight class in Class 2A will qualify for the PIAA Wrestling Regionals. Class 3A qualifiers will wrestle at the PIAA West Regional at Canon-McMillan and Class 2A qualifiers will compete at the PIAA Southwest Regional at Altoona High School.
Both tournaments will take place Feb. 28-March 1.
Henry Barbisch, a Bishop Canevin student competing at Carlynton, is the highest-seeded West Hills area wrestler. The senior standout is seeded No. 2 behind West Greene’s Colin Whyte at 285 pounds.
Barbisch, who placed fourth at last year’s WPIAL Tournament, brings a record of 28-8 into Friday’s competition.
Liam Costa of Moon Area is seeded No. 3 at 160 pounds; the sophomore is 32-7 on the year. Lonzy Vielma of Connellsville is the top seed.
Two of Costa’s teammates are seeded fifth in their weight class – Bryce Thomas at 107 pounds and Cael Yanek at 133.
Thomas, a sophomore, is 29-10 while Yanek, a junior, is 26-3. Nicholas McGarrity, a Peters Township sophomore, is the No. 1 seed at 107 while Luke Willochell of Latrobe is No. 1 at 133.
Other West Hills seeded wrestlers are Braiden Sudor (30-8) of Carlynton, ranked No. 6 at 215; Jermell Lindsey (17-10) of Carlynton, ranked No. 8 at 172; Rook Smith (32-6) of Montour, seeded sixth at 160; and Michael Olszewski (31-8) of Moon, ranked eighth at 172.
Both Sudor and Lindsey competed in last year’s WPIAL Tournament.
Two other Carlynton wrestlers are scheduled to compete in Ethan Moldovan (133) and Dom Cisnero-Torres (189). Also representing Montour will be Jacob Chacon (139) and Jacob Halbedl (285). Moon’s remaining competitors are Karsten Kirchner (114), Elijah Thomas (145), Tavis Lindsay (152), Owen Bereznay (189) and Khalil Razipour (215).
Carlynton coach Ed White is optimistic that the Cougars’ contingent can continue their seasons beyond this weekend.
“I think all five of them have a good chance to advance to the Southwest Regional,” he said. “They just need to wrestle smart and not get caught up in the moment.”
Montour coach Zac Tournay said at this point in the season, anyone who’s still competing has talent, and there will be tough matchups in every weight class. He said the three Spartans wrestlers “are well-prepared and have to come ready to wrestle.”
“I always tell my wrestlers that seeds are just numbers and anyone can be beaten, so as long as they are determined to wrestle their best, they all have the opportunity to make it to the regional tournament. We’re hoping that all three make it.”
Tournay said Rook has wrestled against the Nos. 3, 4 and 5 seeds earlier this season. He beat Moon’s Costa 5-2 in the MAC Tournament but lost to Costa on two other occasions. He also fell to No. 4 seed Aidan Buggey of North Allegheny and Brock Evans of Waynesburg, the No. 5 seed.
“All those matches were close, and he’s hoping to have another shot this weekend and to be on the winning end of those matches,” Tournay said of Rook.
Moon coach Mike Muraco said he’s looking forward to seeing what his team can do.
“At this point, anything can happen,” he said. “We are excited for all our qualifiers — it is a great accomplishment to make it to the WPIAL Tournament. You always want to finish as high as possible and win the tournament, but at this point, it it is about making it through to the next round, which is the Regional Tournament.
“A higher finish helps with seeding for next week, but getting on the podium is the goal. There are going to be a lot of close matches.”
Muraco said Bryce Thomas has competed against the top four seeds in his bracket and came up short, but he added that he’s been wrestling very well recently. “We feel he is peaking at the right time, so anything can happen,” he said.
Muraco said Yanek lost close matches to both the No. 3 and 4 seeds and there’s a good chance he’ll see one of them — if not both — again this weekend.
“It will be a close, tough match,” he said. “Cael had an awesome month of wrestling in January and has continued to wrestle well in February. He has been working hard and fine-tuning his skills for this postseason. Cael is one who makes improvements from his past mistakes.”
Muraco said Costa lost to the No. 2 seed at the County Tournament earlier this season in what Muraco called “not hs best match that day.”
“I’d like to see the match closer this time, assuming they meet again,” he said. “Liam is really skilled and has the technique to be in every match.”
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