Day one in the books for Centre County wrestlers

By Kenny Varner Jr.
- Tweet
- Pin It
Updated: March 10, 2022

By BRIAN CARSON

HERSHEY – Three Centre County wrestlers pushed through to the quarterfinals, with two still alive in the consolations on day one at the PIAA Class 3A Championships at the Giant Center on Thursday.

State College had Pierson Manville (138) and Nick Pavlechko (215), while Bellefonte advanced Jude Swisher (145) into the quarters with first-round victories.

Manville (35-3) pinned Nick Velde of Emmaus in 2:17 and will meet Connellsville’s Lonzy Velma in the quarterfinals. Pavlechko (29-3) majored Greater Latrobe’s Corey Boerio in round one and now faces Gettysburg’s Sam Rodriguez in the quarters.

Second seed Jude Swisher (39-1) survived a war with Hempfield Area’s Lucas Kapusta. Swisher picked up two nearfall points in the second tiebreaker to pull out the 4-2 overtime win. In the quarterfinals, the Penn recruit goes against Shermuhammad Sadriddanov of Council Rock North.

Little Lion freshman Asher Cunningham (33-7) lost his opening round match to Canon-McMillan’s Jacob Haupt 8-5, but bounced back with a 9-4 victory over Bethel Park’s Mark Kernan in the first round of consolations. His next opponent will be Carmen Cortese of West Chester Henderson.

Red Raider senior Adan O’Shea fell by a 6-3 score in the first round to Quakertown’s Collin Gaj. O’Shea stayed alive with a 5-0 win over Interboro’s Nate Shippey in the consolations. Next up is Hempfield Area’s Eli Carr in the second round of consolations.

Class 3A action gets underway on Friday with quarterfinals and second-round consolations at 2:15 p.m.

Class 2A

Four county wrestlers advanced to the quarterfinals, with another still alive in the consolations on day one of the PIAA Class 2A championships.

Lucas Fye (113), Coen Bainey (120), and Caleb Close (172) moved on to the quarters for Bald Eagle Area while Ty Watson advanced for Penns Valley. Noah Foltz of the Eagles is still alive in consolations.

Fye (31-8) pinned Curwensville’s Jacob Carfley in 3:55 and will meet Faith Christian’s standout freshman Gauge Botero in the quarterfinals. Going for his second state medal, Bainey (34-4)took care of Lancaster Christian’s Eric Howe by a 7-2 score and now gets Cole Householder of Brookville.

Close (39-11), just a freshman, posted consecutive 1-0 wins to advance. The first was over Lucas Miller of Northwest Lehigh in the pigtails, and the second came against Titusville’s Brock Covell in the first round. In the quarters, Close faces Canton’s Riley Packer.

Watson remained unbeaten at 38-0 with a fall in 2:48 over Line Mountain’s Mason Leshock in the first round. The Ram sophomore faces Evan Maggs of Notre Dame-Green Pond in the quarterfinals.

Foltz (32-10) won his pigtail match by a 16-1 technical fall in 4:32 over Collin Neal of Bermudian Springs. In the first round, the Eagle senior lost by a 10-0 major to top seed Cole Karpinski of Greenville. Foltz drops to the consolation second round against Connor Wrobleski of Wyoming Area.

Jack Darlington went 0-2 for Penns Valley and saw his sophomore season end with a 33-11 record. Darlington suffered a 10-4 loss to Trinity’s Major Lewis in the pigtails falling into the consolations, where he dropped a 12-2 major to Tyrone’s Korry Walls.

BEA scored 17.5 points on day one and sat in sixth place in the team standings.

Class 2A quarterfinals and the second round of consolations begin at 9 a.m.