Feb 20, 2020 3 min read

Before the season, Quentin Franklin and Giomar Ramos were considered two of the top heavyweight wrestlers coming out of Section 4.

And with good reason.

Ramos, now a senior at Canon-McMillan, went 31-19 last season, finishing second in the section and eighth in the district. Franklin, also a senior, was a state qualifier last year with a 37-11 record, winning the section title and placing fourth in the district. It would be an interesting bout when the two wrestled.

But injuries got in the way of both.

Franklin suffered his injury during football season and tweaked it at the start of wrestling practice. Not wanting to rush him back, South Fayette head coach Rick Chaussard made sure it was completely healed and his conditioning was up to an acceptable level. He pointed to the Tri-County Athletic Directors’ Association tournament at the beginning of January as a good return point.

Ramos, meanwhile, was looking strong in the first few weeks of the season and wrestling fans anticipated a good match at Tri-CADA.

They were on the same side of the bracket but never met. Ramos injured his knee and was lost for the season in the quarterfinals, one round before possibly meeting Franklin.

“We wrestled a few times and the matches were really close. Some went to overtime. So I’d say we had a rivalry going,” said Franklin. “I texted him when he got hurt and wished him luck when he (goes) to college, so I’d like to think we were close.”

So Franklin finds the heavyweight class missing one important piece as the Section 4-AAA Tournament gets underway Saturday at Chartiers Valley High School.

The one-day event begins at 9:30 a.m. and runs through to the finals (approximately 4 p.m.). The top five wrestlers in each weight class advance to the WPIAL Class AAA Championships Feb. 28-29 at Canon-McMillan High School.

Franklin takes a 23-2 record into the tournament and is the top seed. Ryan Howard (26-10) of Waynesbuurg is second seed, Tyson Brophy (20-13) of Trinity is third and Sennaca Harvey (23-11) of Moon is fourth.

“We took our time with him.” Chaussard said. “The first couple weeks we let him go at his own pace. About mid-January, we started pushing him a little bit. We told him it was time to start picking it up because he was still not where he needed to be. The last couple matches, his conditioning wasn’t bad.”

Chaussard said expectations are higher for Franklin.

“We expect him to get on the podium,” Chaussard said. “He had a taste of it last year so he knows what he needs to do to get there. I told him he’s out of chances. He has to do it this year.”

Other local top seeds are Mac Church (36-4, 106), Rocco Welsh (31-6, 126), Cole Homet (32-12, 132), Wyatt Henson (39-4,, 138), Luca Augustine (35-7, 160) and Noah Tustin (16-3, 195) from Waynesburg; Costa Moore (23-10, 120), Gabriel Stafford (32-16, 145), Tanner Rohaley (29-8, 152), returning state champion Gerrit Nijenhuis (36-0, 182) and Tyler Rohaley (29-13, 195) from Canon-McMillan; Eli Brinsky (29-3, 170) from South Fayette; and Cole Whitmer (26-6, 220) from Trinity.