Mar 7, 2023 3 min read

Anyone paying attention two weeks ago would wonder how Joe Baronick got this far.

The junior from Burgettstown was limping around Burgettstown High School’s gymnasium, the victim of a bruised right knee sustained in a match against Mason Neiderhiser of Southmoreland in the semifinals of the Southern Sectional tournament. He was forced to default out of the third-place bout but still advanced.

The way Baronick was moving around after the meet brought concerns about whether he could continue.

“That was a worry; that was a concern,” said Burgettstown head coach Joey Vigliotti. “You have about 500 pounds coming down on him. He got caught in a headlock so, yes, there was a concern. The trainers checked it out and it seemed like it was stable so he went one more match.”

Surprisingly, Baronick recovered faster than expected from that injury and qualified for the PIAA Class 2A Championships at the Giant Center in Hershey.

Action gets underway at 9 a.m. Thursday and finals are at 7 p.m. Saturday. No one would be surprised if Baronick makes it that far.

“I don’t think it’s fully back to 100 percent,” said Baronick of his knee. “It’s definitely getting close to what it was before sections.”

Baronick will open the tournament with a preliminary-round bout against Charles Sheppard of Hamburg. Sheppard is a senior with a 40-11 record. Baronick enters the event with a 37-12 record.

“My knee is feeling pretty good,” said Baronck. “That first match (Friday in the Southwest Region) I was like sleeping. You have to wake up. That first match lasted six minutes and the next match, I pinned the kid.”

Baronick said he doesn’t think the knee will need anything but a little rehabilitation at the end of the season.

“One thing you can’t control in this sport is injuries,” said Vigliotti. “It’s a tough sport. Everyone is probably banged up at this point. If you aren’t, then you probably aren’t working hard enough. It’s still bothering him but you have to push through it.

“We’ve had our fair share of injuries. We’ve been around the sport for a long time to know what injuries are. He went to the doctor and got it checked out. He’s good to go.”

Baronick is one of four Burgettstown wrestlers who qualified for the state tournament. The Sentipal brothers, Parker (5th at 114 pounds) and Joey (1st at 139 pounds), and Gaven Suica (4th at 133 pounds) are the other three.

Joey Sentipal is doing some of his best wrestling at the right time of the year. He won his weight class in the region at Altoona High School to stretch his winning streak to 11 consecutive bouts, raise his season record to 43-6 and put him nine wins away from Austin McDermitt’s school record of 153. Hs latest win came in a 6-4 overtime decision against Liam Cornetto of Marian Center in the regional finals.

Bentworth’s Chris Vargo also is wrestling like a champion. The junior threw Coen Bainey of West Branch for a five-point move early, then smothered him with his ride in an 8-1 rout in the regional semifinals. He brought that same aggressiveness into the finals and came away with a 1-0 decision over Cooper Hornack of Burrell in the finals.