Centre County’s high school wrestling season is underway. Here are early leaders

The official start to the 2023-2024 high school wrestling season was Nov. 17.

The first set of competition came on Dec. 2 as State College competed in a dual tournament at Mifflin County. Then last week, the other four Centre County schools got some action under their belts.

The Little Lions dropped two duals at the Dec. 2 Mifflin County tournament, but bounced back with a 42-30 win over Shikellamy on Wednesday.

Penns Valley and Philipsburg-Osceola both suffered dual losses on Thursday. The Rams fell to Clearfield, 37-24, and the Mounties lost to Huntingdon, 48-21.

Saturday’s action included Bald Eagle Area at the Dry Tech duals at Greenville High School, Bellefonte took part in the Gary Woodruff Memorial dual tournament at Wyalusing High School, and Penns Valley was in the Babbit Duals at River Valley High School.

State College took part in the illustrious Walsh Jesuit Ironman tournament on Friday and Saturday.

The Eagles went 5-0 to win the Dry Tech duals with victories over Greenville (49-19), Canfield (OH) (54-21), McDowell (77-0), Bethel Park (39-24) and Chartiers Valley (60-9). The Red Raiders went 4-1 to finish fourth with wins over Elk Lake (54-3), Pittston (33-28), Montrose (53-24) and Valley View (40-36).

The Rams won the Babbit Duals with a 5-0 record and victories over Derry (41-28), Forest Hills (30-27), Meyersdale (60-6), River Valley (45-18) and Southmoreland (60-15).

Here’s a look at the first leaders of the year:

Wins

Fifty-three Centre County wrestlers were able to pick up a win in the first weeks of competition.

The Little Lions’ trio of Asher Cunningham, Pierson Manville and Nick Pavlechko are the top three in the county with wins.

Cunningham leads the way with nine victories. He had a perfect 3-0 mark entering the Ironman, but a loss in the semifinals put him into the consolation bracket.

The Penn State commit ended up collecting six victories on his way to a third place finish at 157 pounds.

Manville and Pavlechko have eight wins a piece.

Manville is the lone State College wrestler with a perfect record. He also was 3-0 entering the Ironman, and added five more victories to earn the 144-pound title. The Arizona State commit topped Malvern Prep’s Jack Consiglio, 7-2, in the finals.

Pavlechko was undefeated on the year until he lost in the semifinals of the Ironman. The Indiana commit had five total wins in the tournament on his way to a third place finish at 285 pounds.

There are a trio of Penns Valley wrestlers in Conner Myers, Colten Shunk and Ty Watson trying to chase down the Little Lions’ trio. Myers, Shunk and Watson are the lone Rams to be undefeated on the year, and have six wins a piece. They each had a perfect day in the Babbit Duals.

There are eight wrestlers rounding out the top 10 with five wins a piece.

Five of those wrestlers are BEA’s Caleb Close, Tanner Guenot, Caden Judice, Lucas Fye and Mason Reese. They are all undefeated on the year.

Bellefonte’s Wyatt Long is also part of that group and is undefeated on the year.

Pins

There are a pair that lead this category, and the duo are going to continue wrestling in college.

Pavlechko and Fye, who is a Lock Haven commit, each were able to collect five pins a piece over the first week of the season.

Fye’s pins all came in one day with all occurring in the first period of his matches. He had a pair of pins that we’ll get to later.

For Pavlechko, he was a perfect 5-for-5 for wins and pins on the year. Then, he suffered that previously mentioned loss in the semifinals of the Ironman tournament. His quickest came over Gettysburg’s Adiran Ramirez in 47 seconds during the Mifflin County dual tournament.

There are several wrestlers that include Cunningham, Guenot, Reese, Close and the Rams’ Jack Darlington and Ethan Fetterolf. Those wrestlers all have four falls a piece.

There are 11 wrestlers that round out the top 10 that have three pins a piece.

In all, there were 44 county wrestlers to record at least one pin.

Fastest falls

This category sees two wrestlers have two times a piece in the top 10 for now.

They are teammates in Fye and Reese, however, they don’t have the fastest fall.

The Red Raiders’ Cameron Garcia has the honor of having the fastest fall so far. He flattened Montrose’s Carl Nolt in 16 seconds on Saturday.

Fye has the second fastest time when we took care of Canfield’s (Oh) Jose Estremera in 25 seconds. His second time on the list is the sixth fastest, when he pinned Chartiers Valley’s Tilek Sadyrbekov in 31 seconds.

Reese’s times are seventh and 10th on the list. His fastest was 41 seconds over Estremera’s teammate in Joey Pannunzio. Reese’s other fall time was 56 seconds over Sadyrbekov’s teammate, Jaxson Shimko.

Shunk has the third fastest time in the county, when he topped Southmoreland’s Kolten Lewandowski in 26 seconds.

Technical Falls & Major Decisions

Only a handful of wrestlers were able to pick up these types of bonus-point victories.

When it comes to technical falls, there were four wrestlers to secure at least one this week.

Shunk collected two technical falls to be the county leader. He got both of his at the Babbit Duals, and outscored his opponents 33-2.

The senior beat Meyersdale’s Tristan Broadwater, 18-2, and Derry’s Giovanni Beatrice, 15-0.

The other wrestlers included Reese, Myers and Bellefonte’s Noah Weaver, who each have one a piece. Weaver and Shunk finished in the top 10 last year.

There were six county wrestlers to earn a major decision.

Manville and Cunningham earned two a piece to tie for the county lead. They both got a major decision in the dual against Gettysburg during the Mifflin County duals, and in the Ironman.

Manville outscored his opponents 28-5. Cunningham held a 23-3 advantage over his foes.

Close, the Red Raiders’ Ezra Swisher and Penns Valley’s duo of Max King and Landen Hess were the others to collect major decisions.

Leaders

Wins

Pins

Fastest Falls

Technical Falls

Major Decisions