Chartiers Valley’s Sarasnick undefeated at NA duals
Josh Sarasnick won all five of his bouts and finished 5-0 during the North Allegheny Duals II. The Chartiers Valley junior registered four falls and a major decision in dual meet competitions against Highlands, North Hills, Upper St. Clair, Mars and Franklin Regional.
Sarasnick improved to 18-0 overall and is among the WPIAL’s best wrestlers at 215 pounds.
C.C. Beatty also went undefeated for the Colts during the duals. He picked up pins in all four of his matches.
CV sophomore Dylan Evans scored his 50th career win during the duals. Evans posted a 4-1 record with his lone loss, 1-0, coming to Franklin Regional’s Finn Solomon, who was the 2019 PIAA runner-up.
Brady Joling and Ashton Sadowski also finished 4-1 in the meet for the Colts.
Joling won all his bouts by falls. Sadowski’s lone loss came against Frankling Regional’s Carter Dibert, who the 2019 state champion and 2020 bronze medalist at 126 pounds.
Seniors Akhmad Kakhramonov and Ali Abu were recognized before the Colts’ 48-17 loss to Trinity. The match was the final dual before WPIAL team tournament action is scheduled to begin Feb. 17.
Individual sectional competition are set to start Feb. 20 with the South West AAA regional scheduled for Feb. 27 at Canon-McMillan.
The March 6 West Super Regional will determine the contestants for the PIAA championships set for March 13 at the Giant Center in Hershey.
Stout sixth
Mac Stout of Mt. Lebanon became a three-time place-winner when he finished in sixth place at the Powerade Wrestling Championships held at the Monroeville Convention Center.
The junior lost to Caden Rogers from Malvern Prep 4-3 in the semifinals and dropped into a consolation bout against Cael Crebs of Montoursville where he injured his elbow.
According to Mt. Lebanon head coach Marc Allemang, Stout defaulted back to sixth place so as not to cause further injury to the joint with the postseason quickly approaching.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Powerade was in January this year. Typically the event, which usually features the top wrestlers in the state and nation, is held in December at Canon-McMillan High School.
The Blue Devils posted a 2-1 record with the matches they were able to wrestle. Lebo beat Ringgold 48-24, and Central Catholic 43-24, but lost to Peters Township, 44-30.
Because of mask-regulations, Lebo was unable to compete against Bethel Park and Upper St. Clair, which do not enforce the use of face-coverings during live competition.
Previously, Ringgold beat USC 42-33 and BP 45-26 in section matches.
The Blue Devils hold out hope of clinching the second playoff spot in the sub-section behind Peters Township.
The WPIAL wrestling steering committee met Feb. 4 to determine teams and seedings for the team competition. Team playoffs were slated to start this week with finals set for Feb. 13.
Allemang cites strength of schedule as a factor in the Lebo’s favor during postseason action.
The Blue Devils competed well in the Seneca Valley and Kiski duals against those top squads like Canon-McMillan, Waynesburg and Quaker Valley.
“I know that our overall record might not be as great as the past few seasons, but we were focused on getting tough matches and making sure our kids saw the level of competition they will face and need to be able to compete against if they want to go deep into the individual tournaments at the end of the year,” said Allemang.
PT beats PH
With a 66-10 win against Penn Hills, Peters Township improved to 9-1 overall. It was the ninth straight win for the Indians since dropping a 58-12 decision to Burgettstown in their first match of the season.
Chris Cibrone (126) had the lone pin for the Indians, who won 10 bouts by forfeits.
The Indians finished Section 4B action undefeated with a 4-0 record. While they did not wrestle Ringgold, they posted victories against Mt. Lebanon, Upper St. Clair, 42-25, Bethel Park, 42-34, and Central Catholic, 49-21, to claim the sub-section title and enter the WPIAL team tournament.
WPIAL playoffs
The Section 4 AAA wrestling championships will be held Feb. 8 at Waynesburg.
Peters Township will battle Canon-McMillan while the host Red Raiders face Mt. Lebanon. Both matches begin at 6 p.m. The winners meet at 7:30 p.m. to decide the champion.
The WPIAL wrestling committee will meet Feb. 9 to determine seedings the eight-team tournament set for Feb. 10 at two sites to be determined. The team championships are scheduled for Feb. 13 with the winner advancing the PIAA tournament.