The second season for area wrestlers begins this Friday on the mats at Tyrone Area High School.
Due to the large number of teams in the District VI-AA field, after many years without, the district has again been split into two sections. Teams in the Eastern Section include Tyrone and Bellwood-Antis, along with Central, Claysburg-Kimmel, Glendale, Huntingdon. Juniata Valley, Mount Union, Moshannon Valley, Penns Valley, Southern Huntingdon and West Branch.
Tyrone drew four top seeds in T. J. Albright (112), Brice Mertiff (160), Heath Walk (171) and Terry Tate (275). For the Eagles, Albright (29-6) is a sophomore who has already recorded 67 victories (67-22). Mertiff (27-6), a senior, has been hampered by injuries in each of the last two years, but has 89 career wins (89-44). Walk (22-7), a junior has also suffered through injuries, but has a 43-15 career record. Tate (34-0, with 26 falls) set the Eagles’ career win (136-24) mark earlier this season and is pushing to lock up the pin record as well.
Other Tyrone seeds include 103- freshman Anthony Romano (13-8) fourth seed, 119- junior Robert Waite (22-6) third seed, 125- freshman Shayne Tate (8-22) 10th seed, 130- junior Josh Hunter (13-22) fourth seed, 135 – senior David Miller (34-4) second seed, 140- junior Sam McCloskey (13-19) sixth seed, 145- sophomore Jacob Smerekar (16-15) fifth seed, 152- sophomore Justin Schopp (14-18) fourth seed, 189- sophomore James Updike (7-16) seventh seed, and 215- sophomore Donnie Conrad (9-16) 10th seed.
Albright and terry Tate were first seeds for the 2004 District VI Tournament, Walk was second, Mertiff third, Miller fifth and McCloskey eighth.
Bellwood-Antis’ highest seeds were Eli Colyer (119) and Dwayne Cherry (189) who received fourth seeds and Brandon Beech (130) and Josh Ervine (140) who have been seeded fifth.
Seeds and records for the Blue Devils include: 103- freshman Donnie Partner (6-18) ninth seed, 119- junior Eli Colyer (16-8). a fifth seed, who has a 33-17 career mark, 125- sophomore Ricky Shawley (11-11) seventh seed, 130- junior Brandon Beech (15-13) fifth seed, 135- sophomore Ronnie Wilson (9-16) ninth seed, 140- junior Josh Ervine (17-9), who is 48-33 in three years as a varsity starter, fifth seed, 145- junior Dustin Harris (8-19) 11th seed, 152- senior Ron Colyer (7-17) ninth seed, Garett Wyland (2-7) eighth seed, and Dwayne Cherry (14-7) fourth seed.
Romano will wrestle Pete Mykut (17-11) of Huntingdon in the quarterfinals, whom he knocked off 6-3 in the dual meet. Albright will get Huntingdon’s Phil Brown (3-24), whom he has pinned twice this year. Waite will meet Penns Valley’s Lucas Stover (16-13), a pin victim of Waite’s in the dual meet, in the quarters. Shayne Tate will wrestle Ricky Shawley of Bellwood-Antis in a pigtail match with the winner taking on Tyler Myers (23-10) of Penns Valley. Myers has defeated both area wrestlers this year. Josh Hunter will wrestle Brandon Beech from Bellwood-Antis in quarterfinal action. David Miller actually had more seeding points than top seed Garrett Scott, but Miller and the Tyrone coaching staff all thought Scott, (25-0) a two-time defending PIAA state champ, should have the first seed. Miller will wrestle the winner of the pigtail match between Nick McConaughy (2-12) of Mount Union, and Greg Myers (10-12) of Penns Valley. Miller has pinned McConaughy, but hasn’t wrestled Myers.
McCloskey will battle Tom Ayers (6-20) of Juniata Valley in a pigtail match at 140, with the winner wrestling third seed Justin Berrier (25-2) of Southern Huntingdon. Smerekar will wrestle Derrick Johnson (3-22) of Juniata Valley, in a pigtail, with the winner getting fourth seed Ron Queen (11-12) of Moshannon Valley. Schopp wrestles Penns Valley’s Matt Orndorf (9-5) in the quarterfinals. Mertiff will wrestle a quarterfinal match against the winner of a pigtail involving Garett Wyland of Bellwood-Antis and Delwyn Fry (0-3) of Glendale. Walk will take on the winner of the pigtail between Tom Phillips (5-19) of Juniata Valley, and Claysburg’s Mike Snyder (7-21) in a quarterfinal matchup. Updike will wrestle Andy Ody (0-12) in a pigtail with the winner meeting second seed Brian Murarik (15-4) of Moshannon Valley. Conrad will face Central’s David Douglas (15-14) in a pigtail with the winner wrestling second seed Josh Heaster (20-5) of Juniata Valley. Terry Tate will meet the winner of the pigtail between Mike Wilson (6-11) of Mount Union, and Joe Gongloff (16-7) of Huntingdon in an all-Huntingdon County pigtail. Tate pinned Gongloff in the dual meet.
Bellwood-Antis wrestlers and their match-ups include: Partner wrestles a pigtail with Terry Hickman (4-15) of West Branch with the winner going against top seed Doug Ritchey (11-3) of Central. Eli Colyer will meet Vance Myers ( 17-11) of Huntingdon in the quarterfinals. Colyer has pinned Myers twice this season. Shawley wrestles a pigtail against Shayne Tate. Beech gets Josh Hunter in the quarters. Wilson wrestles a pigtail against Dustin Banks (5-16) of Southern Huntingdon with the winner going against Garrett Scott in the quarterfinals. Ervine will face Preston Shawver (18-12) of Penns Valley, who decisioned Ervine 10-0 in the dual last Saturday in the quarters. Harris wrestles Mike Harkless (10-11) of Mount Union in a pigtail match with the winner going against third seed Dolan Mosser (22-11) of Claysburg-Kimmel. Harkless won the dual meet by fall. Ron Colyer will wrestle a pigtail bout with Scott Ellis (1-8) of West Branch, with the winner meeting top seed Chris Banks (20-10) of Huntingdon. Wyland wrestles Delwyn Fry (0-3) in a pigtail and the winner gets top seed Mertiff. Cherry tops off the opening round action for the Blue Devils by wrestling a quarterfinal match against Miles Lamborn (14-10) of Central. Cherry has pinned Lamborn twice this year.
Other top seeds include 103- Doug Ritchey (11-3) Central, 119- Adam Whetstone (28-1) Claysburg-Kimmel, 125- Jason Foor (21-6) Southern Huntingdon. 130- Donny Clark (28-1) West Branch, 135- Garrett Scott (25-0) Juniata Valley, 140- Nathan Owens (23-7) West Branch, 145- David Sunderland (26-0) Southern Huntingdon, 152- Chris Banks (20-10) Huntingdon, 189- Kane Bjalme (18-9) Penns Valley and 215- Trey Rogers (24-3) Mount Union.
The Western Sectional will take place at Penn Cambria High School this weekend and include wrestlers from Blairsville, Cambria Heights, Central Cambria, Forest Hills, Ligonier Valley, Marion Center, Northern Cambria, Penn Cambria, Portage, Richland, Somerset, United and Westmont-Hilltop. The top five qualifiers from each section will wrestle for district titles at Tyrone, Friday and Saturday, Feb. 25-26.
