Wrestling fans have been waiting since November for the second season of wrestling to begin. Dual meets and individual highs and lows have been pouring in since the beginning of the season. Bragging rights have been figured and the District Six Tournament is set for this weekend. Wrestling will begin on the Tyrone Area High School mats. Friday at 10 a.m. with the pigtail preliminaries and the first round preliminary shortly after at 10:30 a.m.
The top five at each weight class will advance to the Regionals, Feb. 28-March 1.
Tyrone and Bellwood-Antis will be in the thick of the action over the weekend.
Tyrone’s Thad Westley (31-6) was accorded the top seed at 125, Brice Mertiff (21-11) drew the No. Two seed at 145, David Miller (27-9) at 135, and Terry Tate (27-5) at 275, are the No. three seed and Dane McCloskey (22-10) is the No. Four seed at 119.
For Bellwood-Antis, Jared Ervine (17-8) was the Blue Devils highest seed with a seventh seed, with Dwayne Cherry (14-13) getting the No. Eight seed at 160.
Brett Harris (25-10) is the sixth seed at 130 for the Golden Eagles and Freshman Robert Waite (17-13) drew the No. Eight seed at 103.
In the pigtail round the Eagles Andrew Hiller (2-8) will wrestle Greg Myers (13-17) of Penns Valley, at 112, J. D. Shaw (10-17) will face Tom Phillips (2-18) of Juniata Valley, at 152, Chris Tremmel (7-15) will battle Ryan Wojno (4-5) of Northern Cambria, at 160 and Max Soellner (2-4) will wrestle Tyler Bennett (1-4) of Marion Center, at 189.
In the preliminary round to follow, Robert Waite will meet Aaron McConnell (12-9) of Cambria Heights at 103. Dane McCloskey will get Jon Pollock (12-13) of Portage, at 119. Thad Westley will battle the winner of the Sean Kenney (3-4) of Glendale/Tim Dickson (6-10) of Juniata Valley pigtail at 125. Brett Harris will wrestle the pigtail winner between Aaron Reifer (14-5) of Moshannon Valley and Vince Garlock (2-21) of Central at 130. David Miller will wrestle the pigtail winner of the Matt Baer (6-16) of Somerset/Chuck Gouse (6-9) of Portage match at 135). Adam Swayne (12-16) will wrestle Dustin Charney (17-7) of Cambria Heights at 140. Brice Mertiff will face the pigtail winner of the Seth Bicker (8-9) of Marion Center/Matt Godin (5-15) of Mo Valley match. J. D. Shaw (10-17) will wrestle Juniata Valley’s Tom Phillips (2-18) at 152. Chris Tremmel (7-15) will meet Ryan Wojno (4-5) of Northern Cambria, at 160. Justin Clark (7-19) will face second seed Sean Kissel (20-5) of Forest Hills at 189. Max Soellner (2-4) will wrestle Tyler Bennett (1-4) of Marion Center at 215. Terry Tate will wrestle Daron DeVore (7-14) of Juniata Valley at 275.
Bellwood-Antis wrestlers Mike McGeary (112), Josh Ervine (125), Ron Colyer (135), Padraig Flynn (140), Dan Himes (145), Mike Thomas (171) and Chris Carrier (215) will all wrestle in the pigtail preliminary.
McGeary (3-19) will face James Yingling (12-11) of West Branch. Ervine will battle Andrew Lenhart (1-14) of Somerset. Colyer (6-9) will wrestle Joel Eckenrode (2-10) of Penn Cambria. Flynn (3-13) will wrestle Corey Woodward (8-8) of Southern Huntingdon. Himes (6-4) will meet John Fiorilli (3-12) of Blairsville. Thomas (8-10) will face David Korman (5-14) of Penns Valley. Carrier (3-17) will wrestle Jason Washbaugh (8-9) of Ligonier Valley.
In the second round, Shane Evans (8-14) will wrestle No. Two seed Doug Ritchey (16-1) of Central at 103. Will Edwards (14-5) will face Chuck Boring (19-8) of United at 119. Jared Ervine will wrestle Tim Tice (7-17) of West Branch. Dwayne Cherry will wrestle the winner of the pigtail match between John Starr (11-18) of Mount Union and Rich Oslosky (0-16) of Ligonier Valley. Dustin Earnest (5-7) will meet Kendall Ridenour (25-7) of Penns Valley.
