Trinity’s Canali racks up wins, section titles
By Joe Tuscano
Contributing writer
McDONALD – This season, the numbers have been on the side of Dom Canali.
A couple weeks ago, that number was 147, the number of wins Blake Reihner had to become the all-time leader in wrestling victories in Trinity High School history. Canali, a senior, moved that number to 153 after Saturday’s 10-2 victory over Evan Sala of Mt. Lebanon in the WPIAL Class 3A Southern Section Tournament held Saturday at South Fayette High School.
The number 3 is important because that’s the number of Class 3A section titles Canali has won. The only hiccup came in his freshman year, when Cooper Smith of West Allegheny beat him in the finals.
“Powerade and Tri-CADA were down time but I worked on my mindset and got better,” said Canali. “I worked hard. If I wrestle the way I know I can, move my feet, I’m pretty dominant.”
Another number Canali hopes to improve on is 5. Canali finished in fifth place in last year’s PIAA Wrestling Championships at 127 pounds.
“Since I had him in his freshman year, Dom competes really hard on the mat,” said Trinity head coach Ron Tarquinio. “He puts himself in good position and knows how to wrestle when people reach his legs. He’s very good defensively. He’s a good scrambler and he creates opportunities with that.”
Tarquinio says Canali is really gritty and doesn’t give up points easily.
“Once he gets on top, he’s hard to shake off,” Tarquinio said. “He’s very stingy giving up points.”
The top six wrestlers in each weight class advanced to the WPIAL Class 3A Championships that will be held at Canon-McMillan this weekend.
Canali opened the tournament with a pin in 28 seconds of Brice Schultz of Waynesburg and followed it with a pin in 1:06 of Landon Lower of Moon. That put him in the finals against Evan Sala of Mt. Lebanon
Other local winners included Lee Dreshman of Canon-McMillan at 107 pounds; Nicholas McGarrity of Peters Township at 114; Giono Gardner of Canon-McMillan at 121; Bryce Collins of Canon-McMillan at 189; Collier Hartman of Canon-McMillan at 139 pounds; Roan Tustin of Waynesburg at 215; and Edrick Williams of Trinity at heavyweight.
Trinity advanced 12 wrestlers to the WPIAL Championships, Canon-McMillan will send 11. Waynesburg will have four wrestlers at the WPIAL meet, while Peters Township and South Fayette advanced three each.
Eastern Sectional: Belle Vernon’s Elijah Brown didn’t run into much trouble in earning his third section championships on Saturday at Norwin High School in the Class 3A Eastern Sectional.
Brown won all three bouts by fall for the championship in the 215-pound weight class. The senior and Penn State commit spent one minute and 31 seconds on the mat, as he won in 20, 37 and 34 seconds.
Brown improved to 35-1 this season and 162-20 for his career.
Ringgold’s Cristian Lowther won the 160-pound title with a pin of Norwin’s Jack White in 3:19.
Belle Vernon has four other district qualifiers.
Herald-Standard sports writer Jonathan Guth contributed to this story.