Henson right at home with Waynesburg
Wyatt Henson has found a home.
The junior from Waynesburg High School has had a nomadic existence, living in seven states and moving nine times before leaving high school.
His performance Saturday night was simply magnificent, stopping North Hills senior Sam Hillegas in the 138-pound final in the PIAA Class AAA Wrestling Championships at the Giant Center in Hershey Saturday night.
Henson won a 4-3 decision over Hillegas to become Waynesburg’s 32nd champion in this event.
It was a nearly an identical match to the one that happened between the two in the WPIAL championships last week.
Henson won the Missouri state title last season and now has the coveted Pennsylvania gold medal he so desired.
With so much talent coming back next season, Waynesburg has to be looked upon as a team to be the district favorite and also a threat to win the state team title in Class AAA.
Waynesburg head coach Joe Throckmorton should flatten the tires of the moving van if the Henson family decided to move again. They need to keep him around.
- In the 40 years I’ve covered wrestling, I have not seen a tournament so poorly officiated as this one.
It seemed as if officials were simply making it up as they went along.
The worst call of this tournament came in the Class AA finals at 160 pounds, when Frazier’s Thayne Lawrence was making a comeback attempt after falling behind early against Andrew Cerniglia of Notre Dame GP.
Lawrence, who was looking for a third state title, rallied from a poor first period and appeared to be in the process of turning Cerniglia on his back after locking up a cradle. He tried turning him once, then again and a third time, making progress with each attempt.
Then the official stopped the bout, calling a stalemate.
That call set off a chorus of boos from the large crowd inside the arena and more boos came down again after the match, an 11-8 loss for Lawrence. The crowd let the officials know they were unhappy with the call again when the medals were presented. Their boos made it perfectly clear.
That call was an example of what happened throughout the tournament.
By the way, the referee has the option of calling a stalemate in this case and any other case where it appears that the two wrestlers are not making progress.
This was not one of those cases.
- Gerrit Nijenhuis finished a magnificent career at Canon-McMillan over the weekend.
The 182-pound senior won his second gold medal in Hershey and had two historic events occur in the championship bout with Donovan McMillon of Peters Township.
It was the first time in PIAA history that two Washington County wrestlers competed against each other in a final. When you think about it, it’s pretty amazing, considering the amount of talent that has come through the county since the tournament began in 1938.
Of course, for the first 30-some years, only one person qualified from the WPIAL to the state tournament.
Nijenhuis also set the WPIAL career win record with 181, a mark that might only last one season as other wrestlers are zeroing in on it.
As for McMillon, what’s not to like? He had an outstanding tournament. The only wrestler he couldn’t beat in the weight class was Nijenhuis. McMillon will be back. Nijenhuis will be at Purdue next fall, so the door is open.
Assistant sports editor Joe Tuscano can be reached at jtuscano@observer-reporter.com.