Second not good enough for Welsh
Joe Tuscano/Observer-Reporter
Jacob Houpt of Canon-McMillan tries to get Ashton Cunningham off his back during the a 120-pound bout in the PIAA Class 3A Wrestling Tournament in Hershey.
By Joe Tuscano/Staff writer/jtuscano@observer-reporter.com
Joe Tuscano/Observer-Reporter
Mac Church of Waynesburg, top, turns Jose DeLeon of Liberty during the 126-pound bout in the first round of the PIAA Class 3A Wrestling Tournament in Hershey. Church won his second state title and was named the Outstanding Wrestler on the Observer-Reporter’s All-District Wrestling Team.
HERSHEY – There is a sign that hangs on the wall of Rocco Welsh’s bedroom that says simply “Second Sucks.”
No one knows that better than Welsh, a junior at Waynesburg High School.
Welsh has been a PIAA runner-up twice now and he’s sick of it.
“Every time I walk in this arena, I think about my freshman year and my sophomore year,” said Welsh. “The sign is there to remind me. I’ve taken second in a lot of tournaments. So, yes it’s always in the back of my head.”
In his freshman year, Welsh lost a 7-6 to Kurtis Phipps of Norwin at 126. Last year, Welsh dropped a 17-7 decision to Bryce Buckman of Central Dauphin at 152 pounds.
In the first round of this tournament at 172 pounds Thursday, Welsh won by a 23-8 technical fall over Calvin Lachman of Quakertown.
Welsh draws Kevin Alivarria of Manheim Township, a Southcentral runner-up, in today’s quarterfinals (2:15 p.m.).
“It made me feel good to get the first one out of the way,” said Welsh.
Three more wins and Welsh can take that sign down.
Welsh’s teammate Mac Church is looking for his second state title. He got off to a bloody start against Javien Deleon of Liberty, 13-2, in major decision that took up nearly all of Deleon’s blood time. At the end of the bout, the trainers wrapped his nose and it still bled through.
“He gets a restart every 30 seconds,” Church said. “He was trying too do some crazy stuff. Giving him a 30-second break was a bit unfair. But I didn’t really care. I’ve got to wrestle better. I don’t think I wrestles that well.”
Trinity’s Blake Reihner became the first Trinity wrestler to win a bout in this tournament since Kyle McWreath did it in 2012.
Reihner defeated Billy Wilson of West Chester Henderson, 5-1, in a preliminary round match then ran into the No.-2 seed Luke Simcox of Central Mountain, the Northwest Region champion, in an 8-0 loss.
Reihner gets Daniel Kearney of Sun Valley, a fourth-place finisher in the Southeast Region, in the next round of Consolations.
Jacob Houpt of Canoon-McMillan decisioned Asher Cunningham of State College, 8-5, at 120 pounds. Next up is Sean Logue of Father Judge, a third-place finisher in the Northeast Region.
Like Church’s bout, Cunnigham had an inordinant amount of blood time. Unlike Deleon, most of Cunningham’s time was spent on cleanup.
“I never had blood stoppage like that before,” said Houpt. “I didn’t let it get to me. I just wanted to concentrate on scoring. Blood time isn’t really common in my matches unless it’s the other guy.”
Three Canon-McMillan wrestlers went 0-2: Tanner Mizenko (106); Brandon Dami (113) and Gabe Stafford (189). Matthew Furman went 1-1 at 172.
Defending champion Waynesburg is fourth in the team standings with three in the championship round and two in consolations.