C-M keeps section title streak alive, beats Waynesburg
Canon-McMillan’s Brendan Furman, left, wrestles Waynesburg’s Tim Swiger in the heavyweight bout. Furman won by pin.
Waynesburg’ss Trey Howard controls Canon-McMillan’s Dimitri Pihiou in the 145-pound bout during a WPIAL Class AAA Team Tournament match. Howard won by a 9-3 decision.
Canon-McMillan’s Bryan Milligan controls Luke Robinson in the 182- pound bout. Milligan won with a pin.
Canon-McMillan’s Jacob Gardner puts Waynesburg’s McCottie Denjin in a cradle during the 106-pound bout. Gardner won a 10-2 decision.
CANONSBURG – The streak lives on.
Canon-McMillan used a balanced effort, winning nine of the 14 bouts, to roll to its 16th consecutive section title with a 46-24 victory over Waynesburg Wednesday night in the C-M gymnasium.
The Big Macs and Raiders will enter the WPIAL Class AAA Team Tournament, which gets under way Monday. The semifinals and finals will be held Saturday. Pairings, dates and times will be released today.
“We didn’t talk about it a ton,” Canon-McMillan head coach Jason Cardillo said of the streak. “They know we’ve won 16 in a row but our goal is a WPIAL title. This is a stepping stone. We are heading in the right direction. That’s the standard here.”
One of the turning points came at 138 pounds, where Tim Hritsko decisioned Waynesburg’s Colby Morris, 6-1, to push the lead to 12-3.
“We had the momentum going from Logan (Macri’s) win and I was able to get the momentum back,” said Hritsko. “This was a closer match.”
Canon-McMillan defeated Waynesburg, 51-19, earlier in the season but winning by that type of margin a second straight time is hard to do against a talented team such as Waynesburg.
“They are good, very good,” Waynesburg head coach Joe Throckmorton said of the Big Macs. “Hopefully, we both make the top four (in the WPIAL Team Tournament) and make an impact. In some of those weight classes, we gave up bonus points and it’s hard to keep up with them. In individual tournaments, we can keep up with them. Overall, it was better than last time. We want to keep improving and it looked like we are. That’s our goal before regionals.”
Canon-McMillan has not lost a section championship since 2001, when Chartiers Valley came away with the trophy.
“Coach said he was proud of us keeping the streak going,” said Hritsko. “It’s quite an accomplishment. There was no question that we felt we could win.”
After Macri’s pin started the match at 120, the teams traded decisions before Hritsko’s win stretched the Canon-McMillan lead to 12-3.
Canon-McMillan got pins from Gerrit Nijenhuis at 152 and Stefen Richer at 160 to make it 24-6 and force Waynesburg to go for pins. Instead, they got strategic forfeits: Kyle Homet at 170 and Colin McCracken at 195 to cut the Canon-McMillan lead to 30-18. Connor Main pinned Zach Rohaley in 2:05 at 220 to bring Waynesburg within six, 30-24.
But Brendan Furman followed with a pin at heavyweight and Jacob Gardner a major decision at 106 to ice the match.
“We’ll see when the brackets come out (where we are),” said Cardillo. “We’ll have a light day (today in practice) then put the pedal to the metal.”
West Allegheny took third place with a 59-18 win over Moon. Canon-McMillan defeated Moon, 62-6, and Waynesburg stopped West Allegheny, 41-33, to reach the championship match.