Mt. Lebanon enjoys team tournament ride
While South Fayette, Peters Township and Chartiers Valley did not mount much of a challenge in the WPIAL Class AAA team wrestling tournament, Mt. Lebanon put up a fight before succumbing to Waynesburg, 38-30.
“Looking at the other first-round matches, ours seemed to be one of the most competitive,” said Marc Allemang. “It was an exciting dual for the fans with back-and-forth battles for both teams.”
Though SF and CV won preliminary matches against Indiana and Hampton, the Lions and the Colts lost big to No. 1 Kiski, 65-6, and Hempfield, 53-12, in their respective first-round bouts. Franklin Regional eliminated the Indians, 54-30, in the preliminary round.
Meanwhile, the Blue Devils won six of the weight classes and had opportunities in other bouts to turn defeat into victory.
Luke Stout and Nathan Hoaglund pinned their opponents while Elliot McGregor won by forfeit. A tech fall from Sean McKinney and a major decision by Mickey Kail gave Lebo bonus points.
Jackson Gray posted one of the bigger wins at 145. In the third period, he escaped, took down Trey Howard and earned near-fall points to score a 5-3 victory.
“It was a great win. A gritty, never lose focus, stay-the-course victory,” Allemang said.
Allemang was also pleased with Michael Freilino. A first-year wrestler, who also played football, the senior lost 4-2 but did a good job of staying off his back and keeping the Red Raiders from scoring bonus points.
As Waynesburg went on to beat Hempfield in the quarterfinals, the Blue Devils were left with the harsh reality that they could have been in the Elite Eight had they not left points on the table.
“That’s the one big takeaway,” Allemang said. “We had opportunities to get a little more in some matches and we didn’t capitalize. We wrestled hard but that extra bonus point here and there adds up.”
So do pins. Lebo landed on its back five times in the match.
“As always, you can’t beat good teams if you are giving up falls,” Allemang said.
Nevertheless, Allemang was “proud” of his wrestlers and pleased with Lebo’s first of many future forays into the team tournament.
“Before the match, I told them to enjoy this and enjoy being here with your team competing,” Allemang said.
“We want to be in the WPIAL playoffs each and every year and obviously we want to move forward through the bracket. But, I don’t want them wrestling with a lot of pressure or nerves. They got to this point because they work hard, they listen, they challenge each other in the room, and I didn’t want them to lose sight of that.”