Jan 2, 2025 4 min read

By Jerin Steele

Staff writer

jsteele@observer-reporter.com

The annual Tri-CADA Wrestling tournament is on tap this weekend and it will be at a new venue.

West Greene High School is hosting the event for the first time.

The tournament begins Friday and champions are determined Saturday.

The move to West Greene was made out of necessity, but athletic director Bill Simms is happy to have the event.

“It was just a situation where there were some facilities not available to us this year and a venue that we thought we had turned out to not be available,” Simms said. “Our basketball teams are away this weekend and with our school district is on Christmas vacation until Jan. 6, so we decided to take the bull by the horns and host the tournament.”

Tri-CADA will feature 18 teams with the majority being from Washington and Greene Counties. The tournament comes a week after the annual Powerade Tournament at Canon-McMillan, which had only three area schools represented in the field.

Returning defending individual champions are: Nicholas McGarrity (107 pounds, Peters Township), Brock Denison (114, South Fayette), Collier Hartman (121, Canon-McMillan), Owen Ivcic (145, Bentworth), Braedon Welsh (172, Fort Cherry) and Roan Tustin (heavyweight, Waynesburg).

“When you have the likes of Canon-McMillan, Waynesburg and Peters Township in the triple-A ranks, and former champions like Burgettstown and Beth-Center in there and the other teams it makes for a really strong field,” Simms said.

Tri-CADA was granted a waiver by the WPIAL to not count toward team totals for the season. Simms said they were given a waiver since they are considered an inter-district tournament

Not having it count toward the team schedule should make for a boost in participation this weekend.

“That made it very favorable for our local teams,” Simms said. “Some of them want to go to Beast of the East or Ironman and you’re only allowed so many points in the schedule, so having that waiver granted made the tournament attractive to everyone again.”

PIHL All-Stars

The five area schools that have hockey teams will have plenty of representation at the PIHL All-Star games Jan. 26 at RMU Island Sports Center.

There were 18 players that were selected between Peters Township, South Fayette, Canon-McMillan, Ringgold and Trinity. Canon-McMillan has the most with five.

Players from Trinity and Ringgold are in the Division 2 game, the first one of the day, at noon.

The five Canon-McMillan players are in the Class 2A game, which is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m.

Peters Township and South Fayette players will play in the Class 3A game, which is the nightcap. It’s scheduled for 7:20 p.m.

Peters Township – Cavan Fisher, Luca Maietta and Ethan Williams are the three Indians who were selected.

Fisher is a defenseman, who has a goal and an assist this season. Maietta is tied for the team-lead with five goals and has one assist.

Williams sports a 2-3 record in net with a 2.25 goals against average and a .929 save percentage in eight games.

South Fayette – Robert Chiappetta, Trevor D’Alessandro, Nathaniel Keller and Eli Petter are the four representing the Lions.

Chiapetta leads the Lions in points with 17 and has six goals. D’Alessandro is one point behind Chiapetta with five goals and 11 assists. Keller has a team-leading eight goals. Petter has a goal and seven assists.

Canon-McMillan – Aiden Bobbs, Brenden Lomago, Rocco Musto, Carson O’Donoghue and Michael Traynor will represent the Big Macs.

Bobbs has a 2.86 goals against average and a .902 save percentage in a dozen games. Lomago has three goals and six assists in nine games. Musto has a team-best nine goals and 16 points. Traynor has five goals and a team-leading 10 assists. O’Donoghue has contributed four goals and five assists as a defenseman.

Ringgold – Anthony Bonari, Caden Doran and Landon Vaccaro were the three Rams selected.

Bonari, a junior defenseman, has three goals and 10 points. Doran, a senior forward, has a team-leading 12 goals. Vaccaro leads the team with 14 assists.

Trinity – Seamus Coyle, Zach Jibits and Jensen Phillips will represent the Hillers.

Coyle leads the team with 15 goals and 21 assists. Jibits has nine points in only six games played. Phillips, a sophomore, has two goals as a defenseman this season.