South Fayette falls in WPIAL wrestling team tournament
Joe Bastaroli puts Hunter Hebenthal on his back and awaits a decision from Mike Wandrisco on the fall, which eventaully came with 1:32 left in the third period. Despite the pin, Bastaroli and South Fayette were eliminated from the PIAA tournament when the Lions lost, 49-21, to Derry in the WPIAL consolation match.
South Fayette’s Colin Dunn tries to bridge out of a hold by Freedom’s ZJ Ward in their 113-pound bout Saturday at the WPIAL Class AA Team Wrestling Championships at Chartiers-Houston High School Saturday.
Mike Dedi attempts to squirm his way out of a pin but is felled by Dean Ward during South Fayette’s 38-30 loss to Freedom in the WPIAL team semifinals.
With only two seniors on his roster, South Fayette wrestling coach Rick Chaussard did a masterful job of getting the Lions into the Final Four of the WPIAL Class AA Team Tournament.
Getting there and winning, however, turned out to be two entirely different things.
On Feb. 4 at Chartiers-Houston, the inexperience of the Lions on the big stage finally caught up with them.
With a trip to the PIAA Championships on the line, South Fayette dropped a 38-30 decision to Freedom in the semifinals, then lost, 49-21, to Derry in the consolation match, ending the team portion of the Lions’ season.
“You look at Freedom, it’s the same lineup as last year,” said Chaussard, whose team had beaten Freedom, 40-28, during the regular season. “We have eight new starters that have never been here. I can tell them what it’s about, but until you experience it, you don’t know how they’re going to react. Looking at it, we went the wrong way.”
In both matches, the Lions dug themselves an early hole from which they were unable to climb out.
Against Freedom, South Fayette fell behind 13-0 through three bouts.
The match began at heavyweight, where the Bulldogs feature top-ranked Evan Sweesey, who recorded a pin. Freshman Thomas Young, who had not wrestled before this season, then upset SF’s Noah Broyles at 106 pounds and ZJ Ward earned a 16-4 major decision over Colin Dunn at 113 in a pair of bouts Chaussard had hoped would go the other way. Broyles had pinned Young earlier this season and Ward had only earned a regular decision in the previous meeting.
Another swing bout, Kodi Komara against Mike Cusick at 145 pounds – a rare meeting between two of the top wrestlers in their weight class – also was turned around on the Lions. Cusick, who had beaten Komara, 3-2, allowed a takedown with three seconds remaining in the third period to drop a 12-3 major decision.
Even pins by Eli Brinsky and Camden Hoover at 126 and 152 pounds, respectively, did little to stem the momentum Freedom built.
“(106), we were hoping for that one,” Chaussard admitted. “And the last time (Cusick) wrestled him, he beat Komara. Komara turned it around with a major.”
Things continued to go badly for South Fayette against Derry.
Though the Lions took an early 6-4 lead on a pin by Dunn at 113, Derry rattled off wins in the next four bouts, including pins at 120, 126 and 138, to grab a 25-6 advantage.
Cusick stopped the run with a 7-2 win over Dom Jellison at 145 and Michael Dedi followed with a pin at 152 to make it 25-15, but Colton Nemecheck turned a 4-3 third-period deficit into a 7-4 win with a late takedown and near-fall against Hoover at 160 to make the score 28-15.
Joey Bastaroli picked up a pin at 170 to close the gap to 28-21, but that was as close as South Fayette would get.
The Lions had reached the Final Four rolling to a pair of wins, 75-6 against Summit Academy and 52-22 against Beth-Center, in the opening and quarterfinal rounds of the tournament held at South Fayette. Jake Walker and Bastaroli record pins in both wins for the Lions.
Against the Bulldogs, Dedi, Dunn and Brinsky recorded falls while Broyles and Cort Blatz picked up key decisions. Broyles, Dunn, Blatz, Cusick, Hoover, Eamon Horowicz and Kirk Hegerty scored pins against Summit Academy. Quentin Franklin won a decision at heavyweight.
The Lions can begin prepping for the individual postseason tournament with the lessons learned in the team tournament.
“I hope so,” Chaussard said. “We can talk about it and learn and grow from our mistakes. That’s the best we can do at this point.”
Burrell continued its dominance over Class AA wrestling by whipping Derry, 44-18, and Freedom, 44-27, in succession for its 11th-straight WPIAL team title.
“No, it doesn’t,” said fourth-year Burrell head coach Aaron Frech when asked if winning every year gets old. “Each and every one is special. Each one is with a different set of guys. Each one is important to this program.”
While the PIAA team tournament runs through this week with the championships set for Feb. 11 at the Giant Center in Hershey, the quest for individual titles does not commence until Feb. 17 with section tournaments. The WPIAL AA championships will be held Feb. 18 at Canon-McMillan. The Top 7 finishers advance to the Southwest Regional to be held Feb. 24-25 at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. The PIAA championships are set for March 9-11 at the Giant Center in Hershey.