No. 1 Waynesburg waits for new start date
Marc Billett / For the Observer-Reporter
Waynesburg’s Wyatt Henson reacts after winning the Class 3A 138-pound state championship with a 4-3 decision over Sam Hillegas of North Hills in the finals March 7 in Hershey.
Observer-Reporter
Waynesburg’s Luca Augustine, back, wins by decision, 1-0, over Malvern Prep’s Jack Wehmeyer in the 160-pound quarterfinals of last year’s Powerade Wrestling Tournament at Canon-McMillan High School.
What do you do when you have the best wrestling team possibly in the state and no one to wrestle?
If you are the Waynesburg Raiders, you bide your time till the new starting date, Jan. 4, coming up with ways to work out at home and whittling away the hours that could be spent on the wrestling mat,
If you are head coach Joe Throckmorton, then you get in a plow truck and push snow. That’s what he did for most of Wednesday night, clearing parking lots.
Everyone is in a holding pattern because of the coronavirus.
“You have to abide by what’s going on with the state and governor,” said Throckmorton. “We’ve wrestled all over the country before the season so we got lots of practice before the season started.”
The Raiders are the top-ranked team in the WPIAL and, depending where you look, one of the top three teams in the state with Nazareth and Bethlehem Catholic in Class AAA.
The Raiders did not graduate a starter last season and added a state champion from Arizona in Zander Phatorus. The father of Phatorus is Lance Phatorus, who was a WPIAL champion from Riverview in 1984.
“When you’re good, they seem to follow you,” Throckmorton said of how Phatorus got to Waynesburg. “His dad retired and bought a house in Waynesburg before I even met him. His mother has family members in Sharon. He’s a great kid.”
Drop Zander Phatorus into a lineup at 126 pounds with Mac Church at 120, Cole Homet at 138, returning state champion Wyatt Henson at 145 and Rocco Welsh at 152 and you can see how hard it is to score on the Raiders.
Last season, Church finished third in the state tournament with a 47-3 record and Welsh was a runner-up at 126 in the state with a 40-8 record and Homet was fifth with a 44-15 mark.
Luca Augustine, a Pitt recruit, was sixth in the state with a 43-10 record. He will move to 172, up one weight from last season.
The upper weights are strong with Eli Makel, whose pin helped Waynesburg win its first WPIAL championship in 31 years, starting at 189 and Darnell Johnson, showing his flexibility by being able to wrestle at 189 or 215 pounds. Noah Tustin and Ryan Howard hold down the final two spots.
“Last year was so much fun,” said Throckmorton. “That’s the good thing about the team tournament. What I loved about it is that every team member needed every team member to win it. We love it.”
The big threats this year are Seneca Valley, where Alejandro Herrera-Rondon, a former state champion who finished fourth at 132 last year in Hershey, Dylan Chappell, a state runner-up at 120 and Anthony Amelio, who was eighth at 145 last season; Hempfield, which has three returning state placewinners; and Connellsville, which has an injection of talented freshman.
Throckmorton said he is still debating whether to compete in the Powerade tournament, which has been moved to late January.
“It’s really close to the team event,” said Throckmorton. “We’re worried about injuries. So we will probably make a decision at (the Powerade) deadline.”