Trinity, South Fayette move on in team tournament
South Fayette's Dalton Hirt tries to break the grip of Indiana's Bradley Petras at 145 pounds.
Trinity's Nikko Martini works for a pin of West Mifflin's Nico Cardamone at 182 pounds.
CANONSBURG — For Trinity High School’s wrestling team, progress in the WPIAL postseason comes one win at a time.
Even if that time is rather lengthy.
The Hillers went 10 years before getting a victory in the WPIAL Class AAA Team Tournament. That came two seasons ago. The wait was shorter this time, just a couple years. The Hillers routed West Mifflin, 60-12, in the preliminary round Monday evening at the Canon-McMillan gymnasium.
South Fayette also advanced after a 44-27 victory over Indiana. Peters Township was not so fortunate, falling to Franklin Regional, 54-30.
The reward for Trinity’s victory is a dual meet against No. 2 seed Seneca Valley, which will host two rounds at its pod Wednesday evening.
“Hopefully, there’s more to come,” said Trinity head coach Mark Powell. “It’s progress. We’ve got a full lineup, the kids are working hard. They are making big strides from the beginning of the season. That’s what you want to see. The team we have now is a lot better team than what we had at Gateway (in the season opener). So we’re doing something right.”
Trinity won the first seven bouts to establish a 33-0 lead. It was a nice cushion and allowed the Hillers to wrestle in their comfort zone.
“For me, it was a little insulting to have a pigtail (match),” said Powell. “I felt we were a top-10 team all year. We’re a second-tier team. We’re trying to move up. The kids brought it up to me and I said go out and do something about it. And they did.”
The most impressive win in that run came at 132 pounds, where Danny Boardley shut out Tony Salopek, 3-0. Boardley scored all three points in the second period.
Micah Finley followed with an equally impressive victory, when he pinned Brady Sherlock in 2:15.
“Danny’s win is going to help him with seeding (for the individual tournaments),” Powell said. “It was a big win for him.”
A.D. Nelson (120), James Porter (145), Nikko Martini (182), Cole Whitmer (195), Tyson Brophy (220) and Chet Locy (Hvy) also had pins for the Hillers.
South Fayette, 44-27
For you wrestling historians, take note.
South Fayette won its first dual meet in the WPIAL Class AAA Team Tournament with a 44-27 victory over Indiana in the preliminary round.
The Lions (8-6) won nine of the 14 bouts and advance to Wednesday’s first round against top-seeded Kiski. Not bad for a team that just moved up from Class AA this season.
“We never talked about that before the match. We just talked about advancing,” said South Fayette head coach Rick Chaussard. “We talked about everybody doing their job. And if everybody did their job, we’d advance.”
South Fayette won eight of the first nine bouts to put the match away. Heavyweight Quentin Franklin and Ronald Dewey (126) each had a pin in that run.
“I felt the important weights were from 106 to 145,” Chaussard said. “We did pretty well in them.”
Eli Brinsky (152) had the other pin for the Lions.
Franklin Regional, 54-30
This match lasted just 33 minutes, but not because of a slew of forfeit victories.
There were eight first-period pins. And to the Indians’ frustration, Franklin Regional had the majority of them for a 54-30 victory in the preliminary round.
“We just needed some upsets to happen,” said Peters Township head coach Derrick Evanovich. “It didn’t happen. We needed someone to catch somebody at a few weights.”
Franklin Regional went up, 30-0, on five straight pins to start the match.
But Peters Township roared right back. Donovan McMillon got a pin at 152, Colton Jezioro followed with one at 160. Jeff Markert stuck his opponent at 170 and Brandon Matthews did the same at 182.
Suddenly, it was 30-24. But PT would only manage a forfeit win at heavyweight the rest of the way.
“I told our kids to go out and wrestle their best,” Evanovich said. “I wasn’t disappointed with the way anyone wrestled. We didn’t match up very well against them.”