After wrestling just one dual meet prior to the 34th Annual Tri-County League Tournament, Bellwood-Antis placed six wrestlers in the top five and had a total of seven placewinners and scored 105 team points. The Blue Devils finished eighth in the 10-team tournament, which was hosted by Central High School. Will Edwards (119), Josh Ervine (125) and Josh Rosella finished third at their respective weight classes, Dan Himes (145) and Jared Ervine (152) finished fourth, Dwayne Cherry (160) was a fifth place finisher and Derrick Miller (171) finished six for the Blue Devils.
Will Edwards (4-1) won by fall on Friday night before dropping into the consolation bracket losing a 16-4 major decision to eventual 119-pound champ Garrett Scott of Juniata Valley. In the consi rounds, Edwards pinned Glendale’s Mike Weakland in 2:05 and majored Jared Mellott of Northern Bedford, 15-2 in the consifinal for third place. Mellott took Will into overtime in the dual meet last Tuesday before Edwards pulled out a 7-5 win with a takedown.
Josh Ervine (4-2) decked Tim Dickson of Juniata Valley, before getting pinned by two-time state place winner Brandon Reasy of Northern Bedford, on Friday. In the consi bracket on Saturday, Ervine pinned Dustin Banks of Southern Huntingdon, in 2:22, doubled up Blake Caracciolo of Glendale, 6-3 and showed Aaron Doroba of Claysburg-Kimmel, the light s for a fall in the third place final in 0:59.
Josh Rosella (4-1) made quick work of Brandon Weyandt of Northern Bedford, on Friday night with a fall in just 0:37. In the semis, Rosella was pinned by eventual champ Eric Miller of Everett, in 3:22. Rosella pinned his way through the consi rounds decking Mike Peacock of Glendale, in 2:26 and Brandon Weyandt of Northern Bedford, in 2:13. Rosella defeated Weyandt by a 14-5 major decision in the dual meet.
Dan Himes (2-2) got his first action in the tournament after sitting out the Northern Bedford dual. Himes decisioned Matt Parry of Claysburg-Kimmel 6-2 on Friday in the quarterfinals, then was edged by eventual 145-pound champ Greg Kilgore of Northern Bedford. Dan pinned Matt Godin of Moshannon Valley at the 3:17 mark before getting beaten 5-3 by Glendale’s Dan Gallaher in the consifinal for third place. With his fourth-place finish, Himes becomes just the third B-A wrestler to place four times at the Tri-County Tournament joining present-Blue Devils coach Ron Wilson and Tracey Karlie.
Wilson claimed three firsts after a third place finish as a freshman, while Karlie was first as a senior following a second and a pair of thirds. Himes needed some help with two sixths and a fifth previous. There were no fifth/xixth place consolations before 1992.
Jared Ervine (2-3) majored Southern Huntingdon’s Scott Everhart 11-3 on Friday, then fell to eventual champ Alan Collins of Glendale 2-1 when Collins escaped in the tie-breaker after the two combatants had wrestled to a 1-1 tie for the first eight minutes. Ervine majored Eric Hoover of Central, 12-1, then lost to Ian Leslie of Claysburg-Kimmel 3-1 to settle for fourth place.
Dwayne Cherry (3-2) pinned Steve Rebo of Moshannon Valley on Friday night before getting pinned by Rob Reynolds of Glendale and decisioned by Jared Varner of Southern Huntingdon 6-1 to fall into the consifinal for fifth place. There, Cherry pinned David Douglas of Central in 4:09, trailing 14-5 before notching a late reversal and putting Douglas on his back for the fall.
Derrick Miller (1-4) dropped into the consolation bracket on Friday losing by fall to Aaron Potutschnig of Glendale in 1:47. On Saturday, Miller pinned Chase Richardson of Central in 2:06 before getting edged by Bobby Ciaverella of Claysburg-Kimmel 7-5. In the fifth place final, Miller was pinned again by Potutschnig in 3:42.
Shane Evans (103), Mike McGeary (112), Dustin Earnest (189) and Chris Carrier (215) all lost two straight matches to exit the tournament. Bellwood-Antis had no wrestlers at 130, 135 and 140. Mike Thomas wrestled one junior varsity match and was the winner by fall.
“We finished in the same spot as last year,” said B-A coach Ron Wilson, “but increased our point total from the 74 points we scored last year..Our kids showed a lot of heart. They came out here and did a nice job. I wasn’t displeased with anything that happened here. I think we will get better as the season progresses. There were some outstanding kids in this tournament.The quality of the tournament as far as the number of kids who are outstanding was really good. We are going to have to step it up if we want to stay competitive.”
Claysburg-Kimmel won their fifth title in six years by placing all 13 wrestlers of their wrestlers in the top five and scoring an even 200 points with one champion. Northern Bedford was second with 197 and 1/2 points and three champs. Glendale, finished third with 184 points and two champs, followed by Everett 165 points and three champs and Moshannon Valley 151 points and a pair of champions.
The bottom five was Southern Huntingdon 114, Tussey Mountain 105 points and one champ edged Bellwood-Antis with 104 , Juniata Valley 95 points and two champs and host Central with 81.
In the first 25 years in which Bellwood-Antis was involved in the Tri-County, the Blue Devils had at least one individual champion in 21 of the 25 tournaments. Since 1992, however, the Blue Devils have had only two champs. Vince Torsell won at heavyweight in both 1997 and 1998.
