Thad Westley and Terry Tate and all district champions received byes in the opening round of the Southwest Regional that begins Thursday afternoon at the War Memorial in Johnstown.
Senior Thad Westley (33-4 and 121-25 career) will wrestle the winner of the first round match between Josh Shields (29-10) of Burrell, and Brett Shaffer (29-9) of Central Cambria. Thad won by tech fall over Shaffer in the Penn Cambria Tournament, but did not meet the Red Devil 135-pounder at last weekend’s District Tournament.
Junior Terry Tate (37-1 and 94-22 career) will meet the winner of the first-round bout between Brock Strayer (13-15) of Northern Bedford, and Glen Lowe (22-4) of Avella.
T. J. Albright, 33-11 as a freshman, will face District VII runner-up Dustin Brodmerkel (24-8) of South Side Beaver at 103. The winner of their match will wrestle District VII champ Adam Smetana (30-0) of Mars Area.
Senior 130-pounder Dane McCloskey (31-7) will wrestle Ray Culp (22-9) of Chartiers-Houston in the opening round, with the winner going against District V champ Sal Lascari (32-4) of North Star.
Junior Brice Mertiff (17-7) will face Jeff Halvelka (30-7) of Burgettstown at 152. The winner will advance to wrestle the winner of the Jeremy Knott (29-5) of Claysburg/Michael Young (9-5) of Bedford, match. Mertiff pinned Knott in the District Team Duals championship and edged the Claysburg senior 2-1 in the consolation rounds at Districts.
Sophomore Heath Walk (20-6) will wrestle Mike Myers (25-6) of Jefferson Morgan in the first round. The winner will move on against the winner of the Robert Horner (25-7) of Cnemaugh Township/Zach Baer (18-11) of Somerset match.
Weigh-ins will take place at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday afternoon, Feb. 26, with the preliminary round of wrestling beginning at 3 p.m. Quarterfinals and consy pigtails are set for 5:30 p.m. Consolation preliminaries will begin at 8 p.m. with an estimated finish time of 10 p.m. for the first day.
Semifinals and consolation quarterfinals will start at 12 noon on Friday. Consy semifinals will begin at 2:30 p.m. Consolation finals for third and fifth place will begin at 6 p.m. with championship finals set for 7:30 p.m.
District Six Southwest Regional matchups
Weight Seed Wrestler Class (School) Record
103 6-4 T. J.. ALBRIGHT 9 (TYRONE) 33-11 vs. 7-2 Dustin Brodmerkel 11 (South Side Beaver) 24-8, 5-3 Brooks Emerick 11 (Hyndman) 20-9 vs. 6-3 Ryan Jacoby 9 (Moshannon Valley) 26-5, 6-2 Bill Moore 10 (Blairsville) 27-5 vs. 7-5 Kevin Courtwright 9 (West Greene) 23-9, 7-3 Devon Maloney 9 (Burrell) 32-7 vs. 6-5 Cody Myers 9 (Southern Huntingdon) 26-7, 6-1 Doug Ritchey 11 (Central) 27-1 BYE.
112 6-1 Adam Whetstone 11 (Claysburg-Kimmel) 32-0 BYE, 6-5 Jason Foor 9 (Southern Huntingdon) 23-12 vs. 7-3 Kory Bissett 9 (West Greene) 28-12, 6-4 Jared Baxter 10 (Forest Hills) 22-15 vs. 7-2 Zach Holt 11 (Mount Pleasant) 35-7, 5-3 Dan Oberman 10 (Northern Bedford) 15-6 vs. 6-2 Mike Paronish 10 (Northern Cambria) 21-1, 6-3 Kyle Patton 9 (Westmont-Hilltop) 24-5 vs. 7-4 Vitaly Ivashcenko 10 (South Park) 28-10.
119 6-1 Shane Valko 11 (Forest Hills) 31-3 BYE, 7-2 Zach Pisano 10 (Burrell) 29-10 vs. 6-4 Nathan Berzansky 12 (Central Cambria) 22-18, 6-5 Mike Bair 11 (Westmont-Hilltop) 23-12 vs. 5-2 Robby Foster 10 (Tussey Mountain) 19-9, 7-4 Greg Warnock 11 (Avella) 30-10 vs. 6-2 Gary Paronish 11 (Penn Cambria) 33-5, 6-3 Russ Sichak 9 (Richland) 29-6 vs. 7-5 Ty Marks 12 (Charleroi) 25-10.
125 6-1 Jake Strayer 12 (Forest Hills) 35-0 BYE, 7-2 Lee Beatty 12 (Chartiers-Houston) 31-3 vs. 6-4 Matt Moore 9 (Blairsville) 28-5, 6-5 Lee Manning 12 (United) 30-5 5-2 Chris Lascari 9 (North Star) 31-9, 7-4 Damian Majocha 9 (Burrell) 28-16 vs. 6-2 Donny Clark 10 (West Branch) 27-4, 6-3 Brock Scott 12 (Juniata Valley) 28-1 vs. 7-5 Dave Cunningham 10 (Shady Side Academy) 30-7.
130 6-1 Garrett Scott 10 (Juniata Valley) 29-0 BYE, 6-5 Dustin Kuhns 12 (Penn Cambria) 27-12 vs. 7-3 Joey Rosenberger 12 (Freedom) 23-9, 6-4 Stephen Crate 11 (Marion Center) 19-9 vs. 7-2 Josh Bable 12 (South Side Beaver) 33-7, 5-3 Aaron Oldham 11 (Chestnut Ridge) 25-9 vs. 6-2 Ryan McIntyre 11 (Claysburg-Kimmel) 27-5, 6-3 DANE MCCLOSKEY 12 (TYRONE) 31-7 vs. 7-4 Ray Culp 12 (Chartiers-Houston) 22-9.
135 5-3 Chris Pannebaker 12 (Northern Bedford) 25-5 vs. 6-3 Dominic Inzana 12 (Cambria Heights) 18-3, 6-2 Nathan Owens 11 (West Branch) 23-11 vs. 7-5 Chris Mort 12 (Jefferson-Morgan) 24-14, 6-4 Brett Gephart 12 (Penns Valley) 28-7 7-2 Steve Perri 12 (Mars Area) 26-6, 7-3 Josh Shields 10 (Burrell) 29-10 vs. 6-5 Brett Shaffer 12 (Central Cambria) 29-9, 6-1 THAD WESTLEY 12 TYRONE 33-4 BYE.
140 6-3 Preston Shawver 11 (Penns Valley) 23-6 vs. 7-3 Rob Haines 12 (Jefferson-Morgan) 28-7, 7-2 Gino Lanzino 11 (Burrell) 31-11 vs. 6-5 Scott Godin 12 (Moshannon Valley) 21-7, 7-5 Josh Smitsky 11 (South Side Beaver) 26-11 vs. 6-2 Steve Makin 10 (Central Cambria) 26-9, 6-1 Chuck Boring 11 (United) 27-3 BYE, 5-3 Mike Davis 11 (Chestnut Ridge) 26-9 vs. 6-4 Mike Dunlap 12 (Blairsville) 25-6.
145 6-3 Corey Deffibaugh 12 (Claysburg-Kimmel) 28-6 vs. 7-3 Aaron Jennings 12 (Jefferson-Morgan) 27-1, 7-2 Mike Nale 12 (South Side Beaver) 33-6 vs. 6-5 Travis Ling 12 (Richland) 16-16, 7-5 Jason Joll 12 (Steel Valley) 20-11 vs. 6-2 Jonathan Clemens 12 (Mount Union) 27-5, 6-1 Dave Sunderland 10 (Southern Huntingdon) 30-2 BYE, 5-3 Dennis Kuhn 11 (Berlin) 21-13 vs. 6-4 Craig Sheehan 11 (Central Cambria) 26-8.
152 6-1 Art Moss 11 (Forest Hills) 30-4 BY, 7-2 Jeff Halvelka 11 (Burgettstown) 30-7 vs. 6-4 BRICE MERTIFF 11 (TYRONE) 17-7, 6-5 Jeremy Knott 12 (Claysburg-Kimmel) 29-5 vs. 5-2 Michael Young 11 (Bedford) 9-5, 7-4 Charlie Wonsettler 9 (Bentworth) 25-10 6-2 Simon Fowler 10 (Central Cambria) 23-2, 6-3 Bob Thompson 12 (Penns Valley) 22-6 vs. 7-5 Derek Johnson 11 (Charleroi) 30-11.
160 7-5 C. J. Cavalcante 12 (Mount Pleasant) 33-11 vs. 6-3 Ian Leslie 11 (Claysburg-Kimmel) 26-7, 5-2 Andrew Nave 11 (Everett) 26-2 vs. 6-5 Mark Ferrance 12 (Portage) 18-8, 7-4 Andre Ivashchenko 12 (South Park) 24-8 vs. 6-2 Alan Collins 11 (Glendale) 21-4, 6-1 Brad Dugan 12 (Central Cambria) 31-2 BYE, 7-3 Mike Morgan 12 (Beth-Center) 34-3 vs. 6-4 Nick Detorre 12 (Blairsville) 22-12.
171 7-5 Brandon Henderson 12 (Chartiers-Houston) 17-11 vs. 6-3 Bryan Rusnak 11 (Portage) 21-6, 5-2 Robert Horner 10 (Conemaugh Township) 25-7 vs. 6-5 Zach Baer 12 (Somerset) 18-11, 7-4 Mike Myers 12 (Jefferson-Morgan) 25-6 vs. 6-2 HEATH WALK 10 (TYRONE) 20-6, 6-1 Derek Krouse 12 (Westmont-Hilltop) 28-2 BYE, 7-3 Shawn Higgs 12 (Derry Area) 24-10 vs. 6-4 Brenton Ditchcreek 12 (Central Cambria) 27-11.
189 5-3 Troy Hostetter 12 (Berlin) 34-7 vs. 6-3 Mike Gaston 12 (Blairsville) 23-5, 6-2 Trey Rogers 11 (Mount Union) 27-4 vs. 7-5 Pat Turco 12 (Laurel) 26-7, 6-4 Jeff Pennington 12 (Marion Center) 26-8 vs. 7-2 Rich Froats 11 (Burgettstown) 33-3, 7-3 Zak Jenniches 12 (Burrell) 29-13 vs. 6-5 Zach McDowell 12 (West Branch) 19-12, 6-1 Sean Kisel 11 (Forest Hills) 28-5 BYE.
215 7-5 Jon Keller 12 (Burrell) 24-16 vs. 6-3 Zach Buzzinotti 12 (United) 28-3, 5-2 Brian Furman 12 (North Star) 25-8 vs. 6-5 Matt Olszewski 9 (Marion Center) 21-13, 7-4 John Kiefer 11 (Fort Cherry) 27-11 vs. 6-2 Nick Paluch 12 (Forest Hills) 12-4, 6-1 Zac Adams 10 (Penn Cambria) 29-9 BYE, 7-3 Shane Checkan 12 (South Side Beaver) 20-12 vs. 6-4 Brandon Bishop 12 (Cambria Heights) 18-7.
275 6-1 TERRY Tate 11 (TYRONE) 37-1 BYE, 7-2 Elliott Bates 11 (Chartiers-Houston) 25-5 vs. 6-4 Rich McKrush 12 (Portage) 20-6, 6-5 Tony Paris 11 (Claysburg-Kimmel) 28-6 vs. 5-2 Jason Edmiston 12 (North Star) 23-13, 7-4 Chris Taueetia 11 (Burrell) 26-14 vs. 6-2 Jon Neese 12 (Marion Center) 6-1, 6-3 Mark Anderson 12 (Central Cambria) 34-3 vs. 7-5 Stephen Zubach 11 (Southmoreland) 30-10.
