Big Macs compete in PIAA team tournament
After finishing third in the WPIAL team wrestling tournament, Canon-McMillan began its quest for a PIAA title with a 63-15 victory over Carrick on the Raiders’ home mat.
Gabe Stafford (145), Tanner Rohaley (152), Matt Furman (170), Gerrit Nijenhuis (182), Ty Rohaley (195), Evan Miller (220), Jacob Gardner (126) and Jimmy Baxter (132) won bouts with pins for the Big Macs.
C-M moves on to face District 3 champion Gettysburg in the first round of the PIAA team tournament held at the Giant Center in Hershey.
The Big Macs slipped into the qualifier match against Carrick because of a semifinal loss against Seneca Valley in the WPIAL tournament.
C-M rebounded to beat Hempfield 41-16 in the consolation round to clinch its PIAA berth.
CV wins 2
In other wrestling action, Chartiers Valley defeated Mars 54-29 and Carrick, 60-13.
The Colts’ Brady Joling (106), Dylan Evans (126), Cody Trout (132), Christopher Beatty (145), and Murat Zaynullaev (182) picked up pins against the Planets.
Beatty, Zaynullaev, O’Malley, Sarasnick and Shabur Karimov had falls for CV against the Raiders.
The Colts’ Ashton Sadowski, Gavin Novak, and Evans won by forfeit, and Trout scored a tech fall. Joling won by major decision for CV and RJ Slizik also won a match by decision.
Lebo rebounds
Mt. Lebanon rebounded from its ouster in the WPIAL Class AAA team tournament by picking up back-to-back non-section dual victories against South Fayette 39-37 and Hampton 39-27.
They close out their regular season with dual meets against Mars and Fox Chapel before individual tournaments commence.
“Those will be four good duals against teams that are well-coached and we certainly need to be ready for them,” said Lebo head coach Marc Allemang. “Our goal now is to try and win out the rest of our season and improve in some of those areas. We always keep a few matches on our schedule in February for that very reason, so we can fine tune some things before sections.”
Individuals set
The quest for individual wrestling championships begin with the WPIAL Class AA sectional Feb. 14 and 15 at Canon-McMillan High School. Winners advance to the Southwestern Regional set for Feb. 21 and 22 at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Sectionals for Class AAA will be held Feb. 22 at Kiski, Connellsville, Fox Chapel and Chartiers Valley. Top finishers advance to the WPIAL and Southwestern Regional championships set for Feb. 28 and 29 at Canon-McMillan.
The PIAA championships will begin March 5 at the Giant Center in Hershey.