Peters Township’s McMillon wins tournament title
Donovan McMillon puts an opponent on his back. The Peters Township junior captured the 182-pound weight class in the Fred Bell Tournament.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Peters Township’s Donovan McMillon, bottom, puts an opponent on his back. The Peters Township junior captured the 182-pound weight class in the Fred Bell Tournament held in Grove City.
Donovan McMillon captured the 182-pound weight class championship of the Fred Bell Wrestling Tournament held at Grove City. The Peters Township junior won a decision over Teddy Race from Kane, 8-1, in the title bout.
McMillon pinned his first three opponents: Nate Ransom from Northwestern in 32 seconds; Dakota Woofcock from Cranberry in 42 seconds and Griffen Buzzell of Leadville in 1:25. McMillon won a 12-4 major decision over Vito Pilosi of Slippery Rock to advance to the championship match.
McMillon’s teammate, Bryce Wilkes, also placed in the tournament.
The senior pinned Nate Digello from McDowell to finish fifth in the 126-pound weight class.
After picking up falls in his opening rounds of action against Ashton Roeder of Sharpsville in 20 seconds and Nate Digello of McDowell in 25 seconds, Wilkes fell to eventual champion, Suds Dubler of Glendale, in the quarterfinals. Wilkes wrestled back with a forfeit, fall and decision to earn a spot on the podium.
Peters Township finished in 13th place out of 38 teams in the tournament with 88.5 points.
Glendale won the team title with a 177 score and three individual champions. Kane finished in second with 150.5 points while DuBois followed with 133.5 points.
PT ousted
Peters Township fell to Pine-Richland 42-39 in the WPIAL team wrestling tournament, despite a forfeit win from McMillon and a fall from Wilkes. PT trailed, 24-6, before rallying with pins from Bill Kail in the 138-pound bout and Ethan Spangenberger in the 195-pound match to close the gap to 42-33. With one bout remaining, Wilkes got the six-point win, but that was not enough to close the gap.
“We knew going in that everyone we needed to get a pin, got a pin for us to have a shot,” said Peters Township head coach Derrick Evanovich. “We knew we were strong where they were weak. So we needed someone not to get stuck or someone to get a pin where we didn’t expect.”
Peters Township has only two seniors and two juniors on the roster so the experience of competing was important.
“Just getting to the playoffs, it’s where you want to be,” said Evanovich.
Observer-Reporter staff writer Joe Tuscano contributed to this article.