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Carr in driver’s seat

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Mike Carr of South Fayette drives Brandon Tenney from Buckhannon-Upshur (W.Va.) into the mat during 138-pound championship at the Chartiers-Houston tournament. Carr won the title with a 7-1 decision.

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Peters Township’s Brandon Matthews locks up Upper St. Clair’s Grant Walnoha and turns him on his back during the 113-pound final at the Chartiers-Houston Tournament. Matthews scored a major decision, 8-0, against Walnoha.

HOUSTON – Mike Carr’s path is set.

The senior from South Fayette won his first PIAA wrestling championship last year, then committed to the University of Illinois to wrestle under his idol Jeremy Hunter, the four-time state champion from McGuffey.

Now, all Carr needs to do to cap an outstanding high school wrestling career with a repeat of his state championship run. He knows opponents will be circling the days on the calendar when they wrestle him, but he isn’t concerned.

“I’ve got their name on my calendar,” said Carr.

Carr took the first steps with an impressive performance in a 7-2 decision over Brandon Tenney, a senior from Buckhannon-Upshur (W.Va.) in the 145-pound finals of the Chartiers-Houston Wrestling Tournament Saturday.

Carr’s title was one of two for the Lions – Mike Cusick won at 138 – and enough to give the Lions the team title with 197 points. Peters Township was second with 157.5, Butler was third at 130.5 and Upper St. Clair was fourth at 128.

South Park’s Jake Wentzel, one of three defending state champions in the tournament, was named Outstanding Wrestler.

Carr’s win was hard-fought, and Tenney kept the score close. Carr’s ability to ride Tenney for most of the second half of the match – 3:23 of the final 3:26 – frustrated the Buchannon-Upshur senior so much he appeared to club Carr with his right hand at the final buzzer.

“A lot of guys are going to be running from me, like a backwards track meet, so I have to stay patient,” said Carr, who went 44-0 last year and defeated Tyler Vath of Saegertown 3-1 to win the PIAA Class AA gold at 138. “They aren’t going to be on offense because of what I did last year, so I just work on keeping kids from backing up.”

The two traded some small talk and smiles on the awards stand later on.

“I told him there was a target on his back from last year to this year, so just be willing to know everyone wants to take you down,” Chaussard said. “He hasn’t stopped working since April.

“I thought he could have made a little more offense from the riding position, trying to turn him. Just a couple little mistakes, but overall he looked pretty clean.”

Carr’s commitment to Illinois was clinched when Hunter got into the recruiting process.

“I liked everything about it, the coaching staff, (assistant coach) Jeremy Hunter,” said Carr. “I wanted to go to the Big Ten. Jeremy is awesome, four-time state champion, national champion at Penn State. Just awesome.”

Cusick turned what appeared to be a loss into a victory when he took Keagan Lawson of North Hills down in the final seconds for a 3-2 decision. Cusick trailed 2-1 after giving up a stalling point.

Peters Township got a strong performance from freshman Brandon Matthews, who won an 8-0 major decision over Grant Walnoha in the 113-pound finals, and Mike McAleavey, who captured the 220 title with a pin of Jake Slinger of Upper St. Clair in 5:16.

“We came in with 13 wrestlers and had some freshmen make some noise,” said Peters Township head coach Jason Carpetta. “One placed first and one placed third. We had two of our seniors make the finals. So it was a good team effort to come away with second.”

Anthony Welsh was the other local winner, capturing the 170-pound title with an 8-0 major decision over Rocky McGeary of West Allegheny.

Another defending state champion, Greg Bulsak of South Park, won at 182 and Gage Curry of North Hills, a state runner up at 113 in Triple-A, captured the 120-pound gold medal.

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