|
|||||||||||
 |
 |
||||||||||
 Proudly serving the Washington County Business Community since 1881. |
|
 |
|||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
PIAA
AA Championships! Bulldogs
Brenner & Rose win gold! Champions
Repeat! WPIAL sends five to AA Finals! Five WPIAL wrestlers are in the AA Finals Saturday, with another 13 in the consolation finals. Finalists include Damian Rose & Kurt Brenner of Freedom, Jeannette teammates Larry Hall & A.J. Graves, plus Aaron Jennings of Jefferson-Morgan. Six WPIAL AA wrestlers are in the third-place bouts, three more will wrestle for fifth, with four in the seventh-place consolations. When all is said & done, the WPIAL will bring home 18 AA medals, up from 11 last year. Returning AA Champs Advance to Quarters! Kurt Brenner (Freedom) led the class of returning champions at the PIAA AA Championships. Brenner scored a second-period fall to move to Friday's quarterfinals. Matt Dunn, Reynolds, Garrett Scott, Juniata Valley, Isaiah Britton, Loyalsock, and Scott Rendos, Brockway, all moved to the second round in defense of their 2003 PIAA titles. Jake Strayer, Forest Hills, a 2002 PIAA champion, also advanced to the quarterfinals Friday morning. Southwest AA Championships (Results) Kolat, Makara & STRAYER!!! Burrell's Joe Makara last year joined four-time PIAA champion Cary Kolat (Jeff-Morgan) as the only four-time champions in the 17-year history of the Southwest AA Regional. Now, just a year later, Forest Hills' Jake Strayer joins the group with the 9-0 major decision over Jake Snyder of Hyndman. Strayer won the 103 pound title twice, plus last year's 119 pound championship and is also a 2002 PIAA champion. Freedom's Kurt Brenner won his third Southwest Regional crown and is a two-time PIAA champion. Shane Datz (Southmoreland), A.J. Graves (Jeannette), and Adam Whetstone (Claysburg-Kimmel) all won their second Southwest AA crowns. Each was also a PIAA medalist last season. First-time Regional champions include Devon Maloney (Burrell-103), Shane Valko (Forest Hills-119), Garrett Scott (Juniata Valley-130), Thadd Westley (Tyrone-135), Donnie Ament (Mt. Pleasant-140), Aaron Jennings (Jeff-Morgan-145), Art Moss (Forest Hills-152), Wade Grimes (Everett-215), and Terry Tate (Tyrone-275). Of the fourteen champions, eight are underclassmen, including freshman Devon Maloney, sophmores Garrett Scott and Donnie Ament, and juniors Adam Whetstone, Shane Valko, Art Moss, A.J. Graves and Terry Tate. Todd Cessna, a 2003 champion, is also just a junior. Todd Cessna (Elderton) and Brock Scott (Juniata Valley) failed in their efforts to defend titles, Cessna losing in the finals, Scott winning the third-place consolation. Other returning PIAA medalists heading back to Hershey from this year's Southwest AA Regional include Larry Hall (Jeannette), Sal Lascari (North Star-2x), Tony Lascari (North Star), Mike Morgan (Beth-Center), Art Moss (Forest Hills-2002), Jon Neese (Marion Center), Josh Snyder (Hyndman), Shane Valko (Forest Hills), and Chuck Wiltrout (North Star-2002). Zach Holt (Mt. Pleasant),and John Maraldo (Charleroi) were returning medalists but failed to get to the consolation finals. The Goal=Advancement! The WPIAL AA schools have clinched 31 berths in the PIAA Wrestling Championships next weekend. District 6 has 29, District 5 claimed 10 berths. District 6 won seven individual championships, the WPIAL picked up six. Burrell led all schools in the tournament, moving six wrestlers on to Hershey. Burgettstown, Mt. Pleasant and South Side Beaver each advanced three, with two apiece moving to the PIAA championships from Beth-Center, Freedom, Jeannette, Southmoreland and West Greene. WPIAL schools with one wrestler each still alive in the PIAA Gold hunt: Avella, Chartiers-Houston, Derry, Elderton, Jefferson-Morgan, and Mars. Forest Hills won the Regional points championship, 103-99, over Burrell, and advanced five wrestlers to Hershey, three as regional champions.Tyrone picked up four Hershey tickets, Blairsville three. District 6 schools with two berths include Central Cambria, Claysburg-Kimmel, Juniata Valley, and Penns Valley. One qualifier each from District 6 schools Central, Marion Center, Mt. Union, Penn Cambria, Portage, Southern Huntingdon, and Westmont-Hilltop. District 5 wrestlers won just one title and advanced 10 wrestlers to the PIAA championships. Berlin Brothersvalley and North Star each picked up three qualifiers, Hyndman two, Everett and Meyersdale one each. WPIAL AA Championships Completed! (Medal Bouts) Larry Hall (Jeannette) wrote his name in the record books with his fourth WPIAL AA championship, an impressive 11-2 win over Josh Bable (South Side Beaver). Kurt Brenner (Freedom) and Shane Datz (Southmoreland) each won their third WPIAL titles, while Jason Makara (Burrell) and Justin Poole (Southmoreland) were scoring their second championships. Adam Smetana (Mars) won the 103 pound title, remaining undefeated, now at 30-0 heading to the Southwest AA Regionals in Johnstown. Derry freshman Troy Dolan needed overtime to beat defending WPIAL champion Zach Holt (Mt. Pleasant) for the 112 pound championship. Holt teammate Lee Vanella moved up from fourth a year ago to the 119 pound championship. Mt. Pleasant's Joe Geary won his first title, improving from third to first. Freedom's Damian Rose,a junior, has his first title, stepping up from third to second, now to first. Donnie Ament (Mt. Pleasant) and Todd Cessna, both two-time finalists, won their first championships, taking the 140 pound and 152 pound titles. A.J. Graves (Jeannette) finished third twice, but won the 160 pound championship. Charleroi senior John Maraldo is thought to be the first AA wrestler to battle from the "pigtail" bouts all the way to a championship. Maraldo, a sixth-place PIAA medalist, and Jeff-Morgan's Rob Haines (3rd place-140) are the tournament's only four-bout winners. WPIAL AA Section Tournaments Completed Out with the old, In with the new. 2004 will likely be remembered as the year Section champions DID NOT repeat, as least for a good number of them. As many as 12 returning champions could not add additional gold medals to their trophy cases this weekend. Section
1-AA Medal Bout Results (at Yough) Section
2-AA Medal Bout Results (at Burgettstown) Section
3-AA Medal Bout Results (at West
Greene) WPIAL AA Wrestlers Seek Additional Hardware Returning 2003 WPIAL Champions: Zach Holt, Mt. Pleasant Nick Schepis, Carlynton Larry Hall, Jeannette (three-time) Jason Makara, Burrell Kurt Brenner, Freedom (two-time) Shane Datz, Southmoreland (two-time) Justin Poole, Southmoreland Returning
2003 SW AA Regional Champions: Returning
2003 AA PIAA Medalists: AA Listen Links Archives via NSN Sports PIAA
AA Championships Friday,
March 5 Saturday,
March 6 Southwest
AA Regional, Feb. 26 WPIAL
AA Championships, Feb. 20-21 Section
2-AA, Burgettstown, Feb. 14 11:30 am--Quarterfinals/Semifinals, Consolations--Listen Here! 7:00 pm--Consolation, Championship Finals--Listen Here! |
PIAA
AAA Championships! WPIAL sends six to AAA Finals! In what has to be described as a disappointing performance, the WPIAL AAA wrestlers claimed only six spots in Saturday's Championship Finals, including both berths at 160 pounds. Returning PIAA champion Jarrod King of Connellsville will face Mickey Moran of Shaler in that bout. Coleman Scott, Waynesburg, will seek his third title, facing returning champion Charles Griffin of Reading at 125 pounds. Donnie Jones of Greensburg Salem is in the 140 pound final, looking for his second title. He'll face Jay Morrison, Whitehall. Andrew Sherry, Pittsburgh Central Catholic, takes on returning champion Joey Ecklof, Northampton, in the 145 pound final. And Scott McKillop, Kiski, sees Ecklof teammate, returning champion Jon Oplinger in the 215 pound final. Eight WPIAL wrestlers are in the third-place bouts, five in the fifth-place consolations and nine will wrestle for seventh. When all are tallied, the WPIAL will bring home 28 AAA medals from Hershey! Returning AAA Champs All Advance Coleman Scott (Waynesburg) seeks his third PIAA AAA Championship. But also in the 125-pound bracket, Scott has returning PIAA titlist Charles Griffin, Reading. Other returning 2003 PIAA champions include Donnie Jones, Greensburg Salem, arrod King, Connellsville, and Northampton teammates Joey Ecklof, Josh Haines, and Jon Oberlin. 2002 champion Mike Rogers of Easton is in the 152-pound bracket. All returning champions won their opening bouts and are in the quarterfinals. WPIAL AAA Championships Coleman Scott wins fourth title We should have known Coleman Scott of Waynesburg was something special. As a freshman, Scott beat PIAA champion Jeff Breese in the finals for his first WPlAL title. Now, three years later, Scott has finished this part of his high school career, never having lost a match in the WPIAL Championships. With Saturday's win over Matt Nelson (Shaler), Scott becomes just the 13th member of the WPIAL Four-Timers Club. Scott joins Larry Hall (Jeannette) as four-time WPIAL Champions. Scott led Waynesburg's trio of champions, being joined by Chris Neidermeier and Mark Throckmorton on the top of the awards platform. Greensburg Salem's Donnie Jones and Andrew Haile were the only other teammates to win titles. In fact, of the 21 AAA schools with wrestlers advancing to the PIAA championships, 11 had WPIAL titlists. WPIAL dual meet champion Connellsville advanced five wrestlers to Hershey, Waynesburg and Trinity each had four. Canon-McMillan, Greensburg Salem, Kiski Area, and Shaler moved three wrestlers ahead. Top Seeds Hold Service! To be seeded first or second in the WPIAL AAA Championships is recognition of outstanding performance during the year. Ten of the 14 championships were won by the number one seeds, three more by the number two seeds, and the final title went to the 275 pound third seed. Of the 28 berths in the AAA finals, 23 were held by wrestlers seeded either first (11) or second (12). Nine of the 14 finals Saturday night put number one against number two. Only two wrestlers not seeded in the top four places were in the finals, Jason Weslager, Belle Vernon at 112, and Jim Prentice, Penn Hills at 171. The 171 pound bracket was most affected by the early round action. It is the only bracket where two of the original top four seeds didn't make the semifinals. Rick Haarbauer (Baldwin) was second seed, but beaten by Jim Prentice (Penn Hills) 2-1 in Friday's quarterfinals. The number three seed, Jason Doppelheuer (Connellsville), was dropped into the consolations by Trinity's Joe West, 7-3, then lost his first consolation bout and was eliminated. WPIAL AAA Championships Returning Champs! Seven WPIAL AAA champions return: Coleman Scott, Waynesburg (three-time), Sean Clair, Plum, Donnie Jones, Greensburg Salem, Jared Mowl, Moon, Jarrod King, Connellsville (two-time), Mickey Moran, Shaler, and Scott McKillop, Kiski. All but one of them, Moran, is seeded first in his weightclass entering the tournament. Moran is seeded second at 160 pounds, behind King. The other top seeds went to Chris Neidermeier (Waynesburg-103), Spencer Kahrig (Trinity-112), Ashtin Primus (Connellsville-130), Tom Picarsic (Penn-Trafford-135), Mike Catalano (Canon-McMillan-145), Kyle Deliere (Canon-McMillan-171), Andrew Haile (Greensburg Salem-189), and Zach Herbert (North Allegheny-275). Overall, Connellsville & Trinity each had four wrestlers seeded either first or second. Canon-McMillan, Greensburg Salem, Kiski Area, Penn-Trafford, Shaler and Waynesburg each had two. Hall, Scott join the Four-Timers! Jeannette senior Larry Hall joined one of the most exclusive clubs with his WPIAL AA Finals win over Josh Bable (South Side Beaver). He became just the 12th wrestler ever to win four WPIAL Individual titles. Then, a week later, Waynesburg's Coleman Scott won his fourth title, beating Matt Nelson (Shaler). Prior to this year, two wrestlers had never joined this faternity in the same year. Andy Puchany, Canonsburg won four consecutive WPIAL individual wrestling championships from 1936-1939. Waynesburg's James Conklin started his four-year run the next season. Canonsburg's Donald Haney (1947-1950) and Manuel Pihakis (1949-1952) soon followed. It was another 36 years before John Dasta, Penn Hills '88, joined the club. Since then John Richey (Connellsville '91), Cary Kolat (Jefferson-Morgan '92), Mark Angle (Canon-McMillan '95), Shawn Whyte (West Greene '98), Troy Letters (Shaler '01), and Joe Makara (Burrell '03) have won four individual WPIAL championships.WPIAL AAA Section Tournaments Completed! Section 1-AAA Medal Bout Results at Hempfield Returning PIAA champion Donnie Jones (Greensburg Salem) and PIAA runnerup Tom Picarsic (Penn-Trafford) each won their third 1-AAA titles. Jacob Zeoli and Andrew Haile (Greensburg Salem), and Scott Morgan (Norwin) all picked up their second gold medals. Penn-Trafford's Nick Padezan is a four-time section finalist, but won the title only in his freshman year. Latrobe advanced 10 wrestlers, Penn-Trafford nine, and Greensburg Salem eight. Section
2-AAA Medal
Bout Results
at Connellsville Section
3-AAA Medal Bout Results at Shaler Section
4-AAA Medal Bout Results at Gateway Section
5-AAA Medal Bout Results at McGuffey Section
6-AAA Medal Bout Results at Mt. Lebanon WPIAL AAA Wrestlers Seek Additional Hardware Returning 2003 WPIAL Champions: Coleman Scott, Waynesburg (three-time) Sean Clair, Plum Donnie Jones, Greensburg Salem Jared Mowl, Moon Jarrod King, Connellsville (two-time) Mickey Moran, Shaler Scott McKillop, Kiski Returning
2003 AAA PIAA Medalists: AAA Listen Links Archives via NSN Sports PIAA
AAA Championships Saturday,
Mar. 6 Friday,
March 5 WPIAL
AAA Championships, Feb. 26 Section
6-AAA, Mt. Lebanon, Feb. 21 Other Info Links |
||
|
Copyright 2004 The Washington Broadcasting Company |