Three West Hills high school wrestlers captured the gold Saturday at the WPIAL boys and girls wrestling championships.
Montour’s Kristen Walzer and Moon Area’s Haley Smarsh won titles at the WPIAL girls tournament, held at Mt. Lebanon High School, and Moon’s Cael Yanek struck gold at the Class 3A boys tournament at Canon-McMillan High School.
Tigers teammate Liam Costa also reached the championship match but came up short and finished second at 172 pounds.
Two other West Hills wrestlers placed third in Moon’s Bryce Thomas at 107 and Montour’s Jacob Chacon at 145.
Moon’s Michael Olszewski finished fourth at 189 and Montour’s Rook Smith placed sixth.
All six boys will advance to the PIAA Class 3A West Regional at Canon-McMillan Friday and Saturday, Feb. 27-28.
The top five finishers in each weight class next weekend will advance to the PIAA Individual Championships.
Moon coach Mike Muraco praised the efforts of Smarsh and his four other wrestlers who are advancing.
“They all improved from last year,” he said. “They wrestled tough and competed. All four are a product of what happens when you wrestle and compete in the offseason.”
Montour coach Zac Tourney was proud of his team’s efforts.
“I think Kristen and the boys wrestled really tough,” he said. “Jacob Chacon wrestled really great placing third.”
Walzer and Smarsh will move on to the PIAA West Regional at Mt. Lebanon Saturday, Feb. 28. The top four finishers in each weight class at the West Regional will advance to the PIAA Individual Championships.
Walzer, competing at 100 pounds, registered three straight pins – all in less than a minute – before posting a 12-0 major decision over Araceli Clem of Canon-McMillan in the championship match.
Smarsh, at 130, won all four of her matches by fall and spent a total of just 3 minutes, 17 seconds on the mat in bringing home her third straight WPIAL championship. Her finals win came over Saphia Davis of Plum in 45 seconds, marking the second straight year she stopped Davis in the finals.
Yanek, seeded No. 1 at 133, won his first match by technical fall over Plum’s Brennan Overcash and followed with an 18-6 major decision in the quarterfinals over Trinity’s Jacob Wright.
Yanek then decisioned Canon-McMillan’s Jonathan Emma, 7-4, in the semifinals before decisioning Evan Tolliver of Ringgold in the championship match.
Costa, seeded No. 2 at 172, pinned John Hunter of Canon-McMillan to get things started and then blanked Riley Shaffer of Norwin, 15-0, in a match that ended by technical fall at 3:46 of their quarterfinal tussle.
Costa continued his winning ways Saturday in the semifinal by blanking Carter Morvay of North Hills, 7-0, but he was pinned by No. 1 seed Zachary LaBryer of Thomas Jefferson at 3 minutes, 58 seconds of their finals match.
At 107, Thomas opened with a 17-1 win by technical fall over Connellsville’s Jeremy Gray, then posted an 8-0 major decision over Norwin’s Luca Butera in the quarterfinals.
Thomas fell 9-1 to Lee Dreshman of Canon-McMillan in the semifinals but rebounded to defeat Riley Smith of Seneca Valley by major decision, 11-1, in the consolation semifinals before decisioning Parker Jennings of Trinity, 5-0, in the third-place match.
Montour’s Chacon opened his run at 145 with a 14-1 major decision over Thomas Jefferson’s Cameron Timko, then pinned Zach Hill of Seneca Valley at 5:55 of their quarterfinal match.
That put Chacon in the semifinals against Kai Vielma of Connellsville, and Vielma prevailed by technical fall, 23-3.
Chacon shook off that setback and pinned Devin Junko of Trinity in 2:55 in the consolation semifinals and then pinned Aidan Finnigan of Canon-McMillan in the third-place match.
Olszewski, at 189, claimed a 20-4 technical fall victory over Ringgold’s Caden Smith in the opening round, then decisioned Teagan Barr of Trinity, 5-3, in the quarterfinals.
Olszewski then lost by technical fall to Mario Hutcherson of Kiski Area in the semifinals but pinned Musabek Sadyrbekov of Chartiers Valley in the consolation semifinals before falling by a 10-6 decision to Canon-McMillan’s Bryce Collins in the match for third place.
Montour’s Smith won his opening match at 152 by decisioning Dominic Roland of Kiski Area, 5-1, but fell 4-1 in the quarterfinals to Griffen Reid of North Allegheny.
Smith then won two consolation round matches before losing to Noah Curren of Norwin in the consolation semifinals and falling 7-2 to North Allegheny’s Griffen Reid in the battle for fifth place.
Other Moon wrestlers competing Friday and Saturday (weights and records in parentheses) were Hayden Seymour (114, 1-2), Karsten Kirchner (121, 1-2), Landon Lower (127, 0-2), Zachary Regotti (145, 0-2), Maximus Gould (160, 0-1) and Khalil Razipour (215, 1-2).
Other Montour wrestlers competing Friday and Saturday were Damon Nelson (121, 0-1) and Jacob Halbedl (1-2).
In the Class 2A tournament, held at Chartiers Valley, Carlynton’s Dom Cisnero Torres split his first two matches at 189 before being pinned by Laurel’s Jack Miles in the second consolation round.
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