Nicolella, Neely reach career milestones
Gage Nicolella of McGuffey rides Brian Brady of Mapletown during a 126-pound quarterfinal bout in the Tri-CADA Wrestling Tournament Friday at Albert Gallatin High School. Nicolella pinned Brady in 5:34 for his 100th career win.
Trey Lober of Chartiers-Houston works on Harley Gee of Mapletown in their heavyweight quarterfinal bout in the Tri-CADA Wrestling Tournament Friday at Albert Gallatin High School. Lober pinned Gee in 1:04.
YORK RUN – Gage Nicolella and Hunter Neely don’t have a great deal in common when it comes to wrestling.
Nicolella is a senior 126-pounder at McGuffey and Neely a 145-pound senior at Bentworth. Both are solid wrestlers and competent on the mat. But their styles are different.
On the first day of the Tri-County Athletic Directors’ Association Wrestling Tournament at Albert Gallatin High School, the two shared an impressive accomplishment.
Nicolella pinned Brian Brady of Mapletown in 5:34 of the quarterfinals to earn his 100th career victory Friday.
A few bouts later, Neely joined Nicolella in the Century Club when he pinned Zhiere Patmon of Washington in 1:58 of the 145-pound quarterfinals.
Nicolella and Neely each advanced to today’s semifinals (10:30 a.m.). Finals are at 2:30 p.m.
Canon-McMillan (90.5) had an 11.5-point lead on Waynesburg (79), the defending team champion, after the first day. Trinity (63.5) was second followed by McGuffey (63) and Peters Township (58) in the 20-team field.
Canon-McMillan and Waynesburg each advanced nine wrestlers to the semifinals.
The tournament got some bad news at the start when it was learned Gavin Teasdale, the undefeated defending state champion from Jefferson-Morgan, pulled out of the tournament because of illness and a minor injury.
Jefferson-Morgan head coach Mike Lesko said the move was made simply as a precaution and he expects him back next week.
Nicolella, who moved his record to 13-2, is the top seed in the weight class and had a first-round bye. He said he wasn’t counting down the wins to 100, but enough of his friends and teammates were so he knew the significance of the match with Brady.
“It means I’m a pretty decent wrestler, I guess,” said Nicolella of the accomplishment. “I knew I was at 99. This was another match for me. I don’t have goals for amount of wins but I do have goals for the postseason.”
Nicolella said the move up to 126 from 113 last year has made a difference.
“I was dead at the end of last season because of cutting weight,” he said. “Now, I feel a lot better, a lot more healthy.”
Nicolella will take on Codie Lavery of Albert Gallatin in the semifinals and then either Cole Rush of Waynesburg or Matt Oblock of Canon-McMillan if he beats Lavery.
Like Nicolella, Neely said he had an idea that he was closing in on 100 wins but was not marking them off. His teammates and coaches let him know where he stood.
“Everyone else was counting it down and I just went match by match,” said Neely. “It was a good accomplishment but it wasn’t too big of one to me. I have bigger goals.”
Neely said moving up in weight from last year is a positive.
“I feel so much stronger,” he said. “I’ve been training a lot harder and wrestling on my feet more. That’s where I’m strong so I want to get stronger.”
Neely will have a good test in the semifinals against Waynesburg freshman Trey Howard. Dustin Bartos of Laurel Highlands and Burgettstown’s Darren Bails are in the other semifinal bout.
There were a number of seeded wrestlers knocked into the consolations on the first day. One of them was Mapletown’s Harley Gee, a third seed who was pinned by Trey Lober of Chartiers-Houston. Lober came into the tournament unseeded and gets Trinity’s Austin Fife in the semifinals.
“I thought I could do pretty well in this bracket,” said Lober. “I wrestled most of these kids before. I just have to wrestle tough. I wrestled Gee at the Burgettstown Tournament last year and I lost to him 5-3. I’m trying to wrestle better on my feet and working on getting out from the bottom. Those were weaknesses last year.”