Feb 28, 2019 3 min read

He’s big and strong.

He has a presence on the wrestling mat that can intimidate an opponent. He has a skill set that’s still developing and a desire to be successful.

All the tools are there for Quentin Franklin. Now, it’s just a matter of using them at the right moment to earn a trip to Hershey.

The junior heavyweight from South Fayette High School enters this weekend’s WPIAL Class AAA Championship as the fourth seed and a few wins shy of qualifying for the PIAA Championships at the Giant Center in Hershey.

District championship action gets underway at 4 p.m. today at Canon-McMillan High School. Quarterfinals are at 7 p.m. Finals are set for 5 p.m. Saturday.

The top four wrestlers in each weight class advance to the state tournament.

Franklin has been to the postseason before but not at this level. South Fayette had been a mainstay in Class AA but an increase in enrollment raised the program to Class AAA status for this season.

“It’s not Double-A anymore,” said Franklin. “It’s new territory. There are some big dogs but I feel I’m a big dog, too. I’m going to try to get to the state tournament.”

The heavyweight class won’t be a simple walk through the sequoia trees. This is a strong weight, led by top seed and undefeated Jake Slinger (32-0), a senior from Upper St. Clair.

Sophomore Isaiah Vance (27-3) of Hempfield is No. 2 and senior Nathan Hoagland (27-3) of Mt. Lebanon is the third seed.

Four wrestlers of the remaining 20-man bracket have won 20 or more bouts, including Canon-McMillan junior Gio Ramos (29-17). Franklin has a close win over Vance, a close loss to Hoagland and was pinned by Slinger during the regular season.

“I don’t scout. I just go out and wrestle. That’s all I do,” said Franklin. “I need to get that fourth-place medal so I can go farther in the sport.”

Interestingly, Franklin finished second in the WPIAL Class AA Section Tournament last year. He defeated Ramos to win the Section 4-AAA title Saturday, bettering his placement this year, despite moving up in class.

“He’s come a long way,” said South Fayette head coach Rick Chaussard. “We’re trying to get him to do some different things. The biggest thing with him is that we’ve been working on his conditioning this year. I think that’s starting to make a huge difference.”

When Franklin is wrestling at his best, he’s extremely hard to score on.

“He protects pretty well,” Chaussard said. “We have wrestled all the guys above him (in the seedings). So it’s going to be how good he wrestles (in the WPIAL championship). The quality of talent with those heavyweights is good so you can’t afford to take any matches off.”

The only local wrestler to earn a top seed was junior Gerrit Nijenhuis of Canon-McMillan, who finished second in this event last year after a 3-1 loss to Zach Hartman of Belle Vernon at 160 pounds.

Waynesburg freshman Cole Homet is expected to move up one spot to the second seed after a report that the top seed at 120, Ryan Sullivan, a defending state champion from Shaler, had to withdraw from the tournament with a broken hand suffered in last week’s section tournament. Belle Vernon senior Logan Seliga (27-6) will move to the third seed.