Dec 26, 2025 By Jerin Steele 3 min read

An annual holiday tradition continues with the Powerade Christmas Wrestling Tournament at Canon-McMillan, which begins Saturday with the girls tournament and JV tournaments.

Powerade runs from Saturday through Tuesday with the boys tournament beginning on Monday.

The girls high school tournament begins at 5 p.m. Saturday after the JV tournaments are in the morning. Championships for the girls are on Sunday.

Canon-Mac’s Marlee Solomon, a defending state champion, is the top seed at 118 pounds, Yunuen Ayala is seeded third at 124 and Audrey Calgaro is fifth at 170.

Solomon recently won the 120-pound title at the Women of Ironmen Invitational at Walsh Jesuit High School near Cleveland.

Avella’s Abigail Dolanch is seeded third at 142 and Trinity’s Alexa Ashby is seeded seventh.

Local schools that will have wrestlers in the boys tournament are host Canon-McMillan, Trinity, Waynesburg, Bentworth and West Greene.

West Greene’s Colin Whyte, a Kent State recruit, placed seventh at heavyweight last year.

Powerade will again have some of the top wrestling talent across the country. Eight defending champions and eight runner-ups are in the field.

Six of FloWrestling’s top-ranked wrestlers in the country are entered: Ariah Mills (107) of Athens Christian (Ga.), Norwin’s Landon Sidun (121), Antonio Mills (127) of Athens Cristian (Ga.), Bishop McCort’s Jax Forrest (133), Bishop McCort’s Bo Bassett (145) and Bishop McCort’s Melvin Miller (160).

Bennett gets 200th win

With a 72-26 win over Montour last Thursday, South Fayette girls basketball coach Bryan Bennett hit a milestone.

It was the 200th win of Bennett’s coaching career with 143 of them coming at South Fayette and the other 47 came when he coached at Seton LaSalle.

The defending Class 5A state champion Lions are off to a 7-0 start on the season.

Bennett was hired by South Fayette in 2018. Since then, he’s led the Lions to three WPIAL titles, one state championship, and two appearances in the state finals.

Jefferson-Morgan remains unbeaten

Jefferson-Morgan returned several starters and they seem to be gelling well to start the season.

The Rockets are 8-0 entering a matchup Saturday with Mapletown at Carmichaels’ King Coal Lions Club Tournament.

John Woodward, Jeremiah Robinson and Dayten Marion have led the Rockets, who have wins over Avella, Bentworth, Burgettstown, Beth-Center, Mapletown, Trinity Christian (W.Va.), Morgantown Christian Academy (W.Va.) and West Greene.

Jefferson-Morgan is one of only eight WPIAL teams that are still undefeated. The others are New Castle, Thomas Jefferson, Central Valley, Aliquippa, Clairton, Sewickley Academy and Neighborhood Academy.

Once the calendar turns to January, the Rockets have two key section matchups. They host Fort Cherry on Jan. 6 and Chartiers-Houston Jan. 13. The Bucs are tied with the Rockets at 4-0 in the Class 2A Section 3 standings while Fort Cherry is a game behind both.

Kuchera named an All-American

Canon-McMillan senior Adam Kuchera was named an All-American by the United Soccer Coaches earlier this month.

Kuchera, an attacking midfielder, scored 20 goals for Canon-McMillan, which made it to the WPIAL quarterfinals before falling to Seneca Valley.

He was one of only three boys players from Pennsylvania to be named an All-American and the only WPIAL player on the list.

Kuchera was the WPIAL Class 4A player of the year and on the All-State and the United Soccer Coaches All-Regional team.