Lebo wrestles up second in county tournament
Mt. Lebanon finished second overall out of 29 teams during the Allegheny County Wrestling Tournament. The Blue Devils rolled up 183.3 points and finished runner-up to champion North Allegheny, which had 243.5 points.
Other local clubs to finish in the top 10 included: South Fayette, fourth with 169 points; Upper St. Clair, seventh with a 115 score; and Bethel Park, eighth with 110.5.
The Blue Devils managed seven place winners, including two champions: Kellan Stout and Zeynull Zaynullayev.
Stout won the 182-pound weight class with a pin over Eliot King of North Hills in 1:25. Zaynullayev also won his final with fall. The heavyweight put Plum’s Stephan Turchick on his back in 5:17 to win the 285-pound weight class.
Kevin Kinyua finished runner-up at 120. He dropped a 5-2 decision to Mike Heinl of Shaler in the 120-pound final.
Sam White (126), Sean Perri (132) and Bakhtiyar Zaynullaev (195) all finished fourth while R.J. Fitzgerald escaped with eighth place at 145.
Other area champions included: Mike Carr at 132 and Corey Wilding at 145. A South Fayette senior, Carr decisioned Jake Hinkson of North Allegheny, 6-2, in the final. A senior from USC, Wilding won 5-0 over Eric Green from Plum in his championship bout.
Grant Fetchet claimed runner-up honors at 152. The South Fayette senior lost to Greg Bulsak of South Park, 4-0.
Michael Roper of Chartiers Valley was second to Layne Skundrich of North Allegheny. He lost the 220-pound title by a 3-0 decision.
Other top finishers included:
• Jared Walker from SF, third at 160.
• Mark Tharp from CV, fourth at 120.
• Brett Beltz from Keystone Oaks; fourth at 145.
• Paul Dunn from Bethel Park, fourth at 152.
• Andrew John of SF, fifth at 106.
• Vinny Palm of USC, sixth, 126.
• Nino Bonaccorsi of BP, fifth, 132.
• Shane Ging of SF, fifth, 138.
• Alex Gates of BP, sixth, 160.
• Eli Grape of USC, fifth, 170.
• Jake Walker of KO, sixth, 182.
• Jake Paris of CV, fifth, 195.
• Bryce Christoff of SF, sixth, 220.
• Chris Pauley of BP, sixth, 285.
• Jasper Wolf of SF, eighth, 113.
• Camden Anderson of KO, eighth at 120.
• Garrett Walnoha of USC, seventh, 138.
• Andrew Troy of USC, seventh, 152.
• Brooks Wilding of USC, seventh, 160.
• Jarrod Browne of USC, eighth, 195.
• Sam Gercak of BP, eighth, 220.
• Joe Kazalas of KO, eighth, 285.
Mt. Lebanon, Upper St. Clair, Peters Township, Canon-McMillan, South Fayette and Chartiers-Houston embark on WPIAL team tournament action Jan. 22.
Peters Township will host the Section 2 tournament. The Indians won the 2B division with a 5-0 record. They are 10-1 overall. Lebo and USC followed the Indians in second and third place in the league with 4-1 and 3-2 records respectively. Overall the Blue Devils are 9-4.
The Big Macs won the 4A title with a 5-0 record. They are 12-0 overall as they begin defense of their WPIAL and PIAA team titles. Canon-Mac travels to Montour for the Section 4 tournament.
The Section 1-AA tournament will be held at Burgettstown. South Fayette won the 1A title while the Blue Devils won the 1B division. Both finished 5-0 in their sub-divisions. The Lions are 15-0 overall.
Chartiers-Houston finished third in Section 1A with a 3-2 slate.
The section tournaments will decide seeds for the team tournaments, which begin Jan. 27.
The individual tournaments begin with sectional action, Feb. 15 for AA and Feb. 22 for AAA.
The WPIAL Class AA tournament will be held Feb. 21-22 at Chartiers Valley. The Class AAA championships, which also serve as the Southwest Regional, will be held Feb. 27-March 1 at Canon-McMillan.
The PIAA championships are set for March 6-8 at the Giant Center in Hershey.