Feb 16, 2019 3 min read

CANONSBURG – Maybe it was because he was so well liked and respected.

Or maybe it was because the other wrestlers on the awards stand wanted to ham it up for the eager picture-takers standing a few feet away.

Somehow, Christian Clutter managed to get the other six wrestlers on the stand to raise three fingers in honor of the McGuffey senior’s accomplishment.

Clutter dominated Noah Hutcherson of Valley, 11-0, in the 170-pound finals of the WPIAL Class AA Championships at Canon-McMillan High School Saturday.

It was Clutter’s third WPIAL title and put him in some elite company at school. Only four-time PIAA champion Jeremy Hunter and Kevin Brown, who wrestled in the late 1970s, managed to do that at McGuffey.

“I really love this tournament,” said Clutter. “It’s one of the hardest tournaments around. This is tough wrestling. To be one of three wrestlers at McGuffey to win three titles is awesome.”

Clutter was one of three area wrestlers to win championships. The other two were John Vargo of Bentworth, who captured the 195-pound title; and Riley Kemper of Burgettstown, who won at heavyweight.

Four other local wrestlers – Jimmy Gwyer of Beth-Center (120), Jett Pattison (126) and Ethan Barr (152) of McGuffey and Shane Kemper (145) of Burgettstown – took second place.

The top seven wrestlers in each weight class advanced to the PIAA Southwest Region that begins Friday at Indiana University.

Clutter raised his season record to 37-2 with the shutout of Hutcherson.

“I’m happy with the way I wrestled, both in the sections and the WPIALs,” said Clutter. “I worked to get the first takedown and set the pace. Once I did that, it’s all mental from there. That (first takedown) really set it up for me.”

Kemper (31-6) roared through the heavyweight class, pinning his way to the finals, where he stuck Dave Shuffert of Valley in 2:32.

Shuffert reached the finals with a 6-4 overtime decision over Gerald Comedy of Washington. Comedy was trying to win the first WPIAL title for the Prexies since Alex Evans did it in 2007.

Vargo ran his record to 23-4 when he won by 17-2 technical fall over Geoff Magin of Quaker Valley.

“I knew coming into this tournament, I had my heart set on one match at a time,” said Vargo. “I wrestled (Magin) as a sophomore and beat him, 5-3.”

Dom Fundy of Beth-Center did not attend Saturday’s session and defaulted out of the tournament. Fundy injured his right knee in Friday’s 195-pound final of the Section 1-AA Tournament.

His injury time ran out against Vargo, forcing a default. Fundy, a state runner-up as a sophomore two years ago, defaulted in Friday night’s first round of WPIAL Chaampionships.

“He’s still gimping around on it pretty good,” said Beth-Center head coach Gary Welsh. “I talked to his mom between (Saturday’s) session. There was no shot of him coming back and wrestling at his level. His mom said it was worse (Saturday).

“He’s got a lot of health issues. He’s made a name for himself and it’s not by accident.”

Gwyer let a third-period escape cost him a 1-0 loss to Ian Oswalt of Burrell.

Pattison saw his hopes for gold dissolve in an 8-3 loss to Tyler Cymmerman of Derry. The weight class had four wrestlers who had previously won WPIAL titles.

Shane Kemper’s run to gold ended when John-Rocco Kazales of Quaker Valley won a 15-2 major decision.

Barr met a similar end when Trent Schultheis of Freedom captured a 9-1 major decision in the final.