Smith celebrates birthday with title at Class 2A south sectional
By Joe Tuscano
for the Observer-Reporter,
newsroom@observer-reporter.com
BURGETTSTOWN — There is nothing better than celebrating a birthday, along with a first-place finish in a WPIAL wrestling tournament, on the same day.
Just ask Danny Smith.
The junior from Burgettstown High School celebrated his 17th birthday with a win at 127 pounds in the WPIAL South Section Tournament Saturday at Smith’s alma mater.
What that means, besides a frozen treat later on, is a top seed in next week’s WPIAL Class 2A tournament.
“Home gym and all. It was picture perfect,” said Smith. “I only had two matches so I was a little tired going into the finals.”
Smith, who had a first-round bye, defeated Jeff Dulaney of Jefferson-Morgan by a 21-5 technical fall in the finals.
“I think we have some of the best tournaments in PA,” said Smith. “I think this is one of the better tournaments in the state.”
Smith was one of eight qualifiers from Burgettstown and one of two champions. The other champion was Darius Simmons, who pinned Brayden Hanning of Jefferson-Morgan in 5:56 in the 107-pound finals.
“Yeah, I’m happy,” said Burgettstown head coach Joey Vigliotti. “We got two first places. We have inexperienced kids who made it to WPIALs. … It was not too bad of a day.”
McGuffey led all local teams with 11 qualifiers: three champions, three second-place finishers, three third-place finishers and two sixth-place finishers.
Registering first place finishes were Clayton Ealy at 114 pounds, Lucas Barr at 139 and victor Bonus at 145 pounds.
A possible fourth champion for McGuffey was Emmett Wolfe, who took a medical default out of the 133-pound finals with a slight injury.
“It happened in my (semifinal) match, probably an hour (before the finals)” said Wolfe.
McGuffey head coach Jared Roberts said Wolfe’s injury was not serious and that he culd have wrestled if he needed to.
“It’s not too bad,” said Roberts. “He didn’t want to make it any worse.
“We had 11 wrestlers place so I’m satisfied. Overall, we did pretty good.”
Bentworth had two champions in Drake McClure at 133 and Owen Ivcic at 160. Malachi Peak won the 189-pound title for Beth-Center. Avella, which has been having a strong season, advanced seven wrestlers, the best being Jace Lloyd third at 107. Noah Collins won at 121 and Colin Whyte took first place at 285 for West Greene.
Whyte credited his performance at the Powerade Christmas Tournament for the good start to his season.
“It gave me a lot of confidence,” said Whyte. “Knowing I could go with anybody.”
Braedon Welsh gave Fort Cherry its lone champion and Welsh win No. 150 in his career. He passed Sam Guidi, who has 129 wins, earlier this year.
“I’m not overlooking anyone,” said Welsh. “I used to puke before every match so I’m trying to control my mindset and trust my wrestling.”
Frazier had two champions.