Bentworth’s McClure, West Greene’s Whyte win titles at Burgettstown
Jonathan Guth
By Joe Tuscano
Contributing Writer
BURGETTSTOWN — The goal this year is to exceed last year’s finish.
By the look of it, Drake McClure, a junior from Bentworth, is well on the way.
During Saturday’s 139-pound finals of the Burgettstown Wrestling Tournament. McClure looked dominating again, stopping Tanner Hamilton, 5-0, to win the gold.
It was the second time in the past two seasons that McClure, an eighth-place finisher in the 133-pound PIAA Championship last year, McClure deposited a gold medal from the Burgettstown Tournament into his medals box.
“I was tired,” McClure admitted. “I’ve been wrestling week after week after week so I was tired. But wins like this build your confidence.”
McClure opened the Burgettstown Tournament as the top seed at 139. He started the tournament with a pin in 49 seconds over Jackson Colusci of Avonworth and followed it up with a pin in 23 seconds of Rowan Lehocky of Central Valley. An 8-2 decision over Peter Leventis of South Fayette put McClure into the semifinals.
That’s where he pinned Angelo Amelio of North Catholic in 2:45. That set up the showdown against Hamilton.
At Powerade, he made the blood round before being blocked. He went 5-2 in that tournament and opened some eyes with his performance.
“I didn’t win a tournament so far this year,” said McClure. “So this gave me a lot of confidence.”
Another wrestler who has found a spark is West Greene’s Colin Whyte.
The heavyweight won four straight bouts this weekend to gather in the gold medal.
He pinned Carter Pullium of Laurel in his first bout and Dante Bradshaw of Armstrong in his second. He pinned Landon Heath of Jefferson-Morgan to earn a spot in the finals. His 4-2 decision over Casey Wilson of Laurel in the championship match.
It’s been quite a turnaround since his loss in the finals of the Chartiers-Houston Tournament in December.
“After that loss, I got in the room and watched some tape,” said Whyte. “It showed me where my mistakes were and I went about fixing them. One of the things I saw was that when I was shooting, I was getting out of position. I worked on shooting and not getting out of position.”
Coming up one win shy of first place were three local wrestlers: Brock Dennison at 145 pounds; Logan Noyse of Burgettstown at 152 pounds; and Owen Ivcic of Bentworth at 160 pounds.
Grove City won the team title with Bentworth finishing second and Hudson Hohman of Grove City was named Outstanding Wrestler.
Other Tournaments
Mid-Winter Mayhem
Peters Township’s Nicholas McGarrity won the 114-pound title at the Mid-Winter Mayhem at IUP Saturday. McGarrity earned a 2-0 decision over Montgomery’s Gabe Oberheim in the championship match.
WCCA’s
Belle Vernon’s Brown cruised to a 10-0 decision over Kiski Area’s Cooper Roscosky in the 215-pound final of the WCCA tournament at Greensburg Salem Saturday. It was a rematch of last year’s state championship match, which Brown won 4-3.
Virginia Duals
McGuffey went 3-1 and placed ninth overall at the Virginia Duals Saturday at the Hampton Coliseum. The Highlanders dropped their opening match, 46-30, to Battlefield (Va.), but won the next three. They had a 57-16 win against Gloucester (Va.), bested Culpepper (Va.) 62-17 and secured a 43-30 win against Colonial Forge (Va.) in the ninth-place match.
Lucas Barr, Aaron Supler, Emmett Wolfe and Victor Bonus went 4-0 on the day for the Highlanders.
Cradle Cancer Invitational
Canon-McMillan had two champions and placed second in the team standings at the Cradle Cancer Invitational in Florida Saturday. Lee Dreshman won the 106-pound title via tech fall over Edier Estrada of Miami Southridge. Collier Hartman earned an 11-3 decision against Miami Southridge’s Stefano Garcia in the 138-pound championship bout.