Five West Hills wrestlers punched their tickets to the PIAA Individual Championships by virtue of their performances in a pair of regional tournaments that concluded Saturday.
On the girls side, Montour’s Kristen Walzer and Moon Area’s Haley Smarsh both finished on top in their respective weight classes at the PIAA Girls West Regional at Mt. Lebanon High School.
On the boys side, Moon’s Cael Yanek came from behind in the final 30 seconds to capture gold at the PIAA Boys Class 3A West Regional at Canon-McMillan High School while teammates Bryce Thomas Liam Costa finished second and fourth, respectively.
The top five finishers in the boys meet earned berths in the PIAA Individual Championships, which will take place Thursday, March 5, through Saturday, March 7, at Giant Center in Hershey.
The PIAA Girls Championships will take place at that time at Giant Center.
Walzer, the top seed at 100 pounds, pinned Layla Colich of Sharpsville at 2 minutes, 45 seconds of their finals match. Earlier, Walzer blanked Julieth Flores of Connellsville, 3-0, and defeated Gabby Alcalde of Shaler by the same score in the semifinals.
Smarsh, also the No. 1 seed at 130 pounds, decisioned Saphia Davis of Plum, 9-2, in the final match. Smarsh won her first match by a 3-0 decision over Kyanne Eastlick of Reynolds, then topped Maizy Mikeska of Derry Area, 7-1, in the semifinals. Smarsh also defeated Davis at last week’s WPIAL Championships.
In the boys competition, Yanek, wrestling at 133 pounds, opened his run with a 17-2 win by technical fall over Gus Stedeford of North Allegheny in the quarterfinals Friday, and followed that with a 15-4 decision over Patrick Tarantella of Central Mountain in the semifinals.
Yanek then took on Braiden Weaver of Altoona in the finals and Weaver led 2-1 late into the final period. But with less than 30 seconds remaining, Yanek turned the tables and scored four quick points to come away with a 5-2 decision.
Weaver was assessed penalty points for locking hands and for false starts, which put Yanek on top, and an escape by Yanek and another false start penalty against Weaver provided the margin of victory for Yanek, who won gold at last week’s WPIAL championships.
Moon coach Mike Muraco said he and Yanek were thrilled with the outcome.
“The locked hands was crucial because (Cael) knew it was tied,” he said. “We were telling him, you just need a one-point escape, but (Weaver) false started again. At this point, (Cael) had enough – we told him to just be solid.
“It was a quality match. Chances are, we’ll see (Weaver) again next week.”
Thomas, wrestling at 107, won his first match by pin Friday and then followed with a 4-0 decision over Salvatore Colangelo of Franklin Regional, 4-0. On Saturday, Thomas edged West Allegheny’s Michael Johnson, 2-1, in the semifinals, to move into his finals match with Lee Dreshman of Canon-McMillan. The semifinal win was Thomas’ 100th career victory.
In the finals, Dreshman prevailed by a 7-3 decision.
Muraco said he was happy for Thomas in that he defeated Johnson – who had beaten Thomas several times earlier – and made it to the finals.
“That second place should get him a decent seed for next week,” Muraco said.
Costa, competing at 172, wrestled for third place against Franklin Regional’s Ethan Cartwright, but Cartwright prevailed 7-0.
Costa won his first match by technical fall over Easton Harris of DuBois, 15-0, but fell 4-3 to Cartwright in the quarterfinals later Friday. Costa rebounded to post a 19-4 win by technical fall over Logan Moore of Punxsutawney in the second consolation round.
Costa followed with a 7-0 win over Carter Morvay of North Hills in consolation round 3, which put him in the consolation semifinals against Sidney Hand of Penn-Trafford. There, Costa came away with a 9-0 major decision to put him in the third-place match.
Montour’s Jacob Chacon fell just short of advancing to the PIAA Championships, as he lost 16-10 to Nathan Klingensmith of Norwin in the fifth-place match at 145 and wound up sixth.
Chacon pinned Taylor Allderdice’s Kameron Thomas in 51 seconds of their first-round match, then lost, 16-1 by technical fall, to Aiden Kunes of Central Mountain.
Chacon came back to decision Cameron Timko of Thomas Jefferson, 11-5, in the second consolation round, then topped Jordan Rutan of Punxsutawney, 4-1, before losing 10-4 to Aiden Finnigan of Canon-McMillan in the fourth consolation round.
Montour’s Rook Smith, competing at 152, won his first match, 14-5, over Samson Deeb of DuBois but was pinned by Ezra Swisher of Bellefonte in the quarterfinals.
That dropped Smith into consolation round 2, where he stopped Daniel Cabiness of Obama Academy, 11-7. Smith then fell 5-4 to Derek Worstell of Upper St. Clair in consolation round 3.
Moon’s Michael Olszewski, competing at 189, won his first match by technical fall over Tom Gunther of Harbor Creek, 19-3, but Olszewski was pinned by Noah Williams of State College at 4:26 of their quarterfinal match.
That dropped Olszewski into consolation round 2, where he lost 12-8 to Mareahn Moss of McDowell.
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