Henson chasing rematch, WPIAL gold medal
Joe Tuscano/Observer-Reporter
Wyatt Henson of Waynesburg turns Kameron Grassi of Knoch for backpoints in the 138-pound first round of the WPIAL Class AAA Championships at Canon-McMillan High School Friday. Henson won by 23-8 technical fall.
Bryce Wilkes of Peters Township tries to escape the hold of Nate Monteparte of North Allegheny in the 126-pound first round of the WPIAL Class AAA Championships at Canon-McMillan High School. Wilkes won a 5-3 decision.
Matthew Furman of Canon-McMillan keeps a tight hold on Logan Zitterbart of Latrobe in the 170-pound first round of the WPIAL Class AAA Championships at Canon-McMillan High School Friday. Furman won a 5-1 decision.
CANONSBURG – The alluring part about wrestling is that redemption is nearly always one bout away.
Lose a match early on, it’s OK.
A rematch is just down the road.
Such is the case for two very talented wrestlers who have state gold medals hanging from that special place in the house.
Wyatt Henson of Waynesburg and Sam Hillegas of North Hills are on a collision course, staring at each other the way a lion views its prey in the outdoors.
Henson wrestled two of his three varsity seasons at Waynesburg. The middle season, his sophomore year, was spent in Missouri winning a state title at 138 pounds.
Meanwhile, Hillegas has won two state titles and took third last season.
Everyone expects a rematch as the two work their way to the 138-pound finals of the WPIAL Class AAA Championships at Canon-McMillan High School. Hillegas and Henson were impressive in advancing to today’s semifinals, which begin at 11:30 a.m. Finals are set for 5 p.m.
The top four wrestlers in each weight class advance to the PIAA Class AAA championships at the Giant Center in Hershey. That tournament begins Thursday.
Waynesburg has 12 wrestlers alive, five in the winners’ bracket, and lead in the team standings with 71.5 points. Connellsville is second with eight alive and 61 points. Canon-McMillan is third with 11 alive, three in the winners’ bracket.
Locally, South Fayette has four remaining, Trinity has five, all in the consolation bracket, and Peters Township has two, Belle Vernon has two and Ringgold two. One of them, Jacob Duncan won his 100th career macth in a 152-pound consolation bout.
Henson opened the tournament with a 23-8 technical fall over Kameron Grassi of Knoch and followed it with a 25-10 technical fall over Micah Finley of Trinity. Henson has to defeat Chanz Shearer of Seneca Valley in today’s semifinals in order to get another chance at Hillegas.
Hillegas also breezed through the first two rounds, pinning Tyley Soule of Trinity in 21 seconds and then Tony Salopek of West Mifflin in 1:35. Hillegas gets John Altieri of Norwin in the semifinals.
Hilllegas and Henson met once already under similar circumstances and under the same roof. Hillegas came away with an 8-3 decision over Henson in the semifinals of the Powerade Christmas Tournament.
It took some time before Henson summoned up enough desire to watch and dissect the match on video.
“I didn’t want to watch it at all because i knew what I did wrong,” said Henson. “I watched it two weeks ago and it made me feel a lot better.”
Henson doesn’t want to get ahead of himself or overlook an opponent but he knows the wrestling community wants to see a rematch.
“I just have to take it one match at a time and do my best,” said Henson, a junior who raised his record to 44-4 with the win.
“I’m just thinking about winning every match and nothing else.”
Waynesburg head coach Joe Throckmorton said they have been preparing all year for this tournament.
“Hillegas is one of those top kids you prepare for to beat,” said Throckmorton at the start of the tournament. “But we have a lot of matches before that happens.”
The biggest upset of the first day came in the final bout of the night when Evan Miller (220) of Canon-McMillan upset third-seed Dillon Ferretti of Hempfield 5-3 in overtime.