Local wrestlers taken by storm at Powerade
By Joe Tuscano
For the Observer-Reporter
newsroom@observer-reporter.com
CANONSBURG – It was one of those tournaments where the perfect storm hit: a great wrestling event in Powerade comes up against a down year for local wrestlers.
The result was that heading into the Saturday’s semifinals, only one local wrestler, Canon-McMilllan’s Andrew Binni, remained in the hunt for a gold medal.
Talk about your punches to the gut.
Only 14 WPIAL wrestlers remained alive to win a medal.
While the performance was less than spectacular, many of the area coaches still feel this event can be beneficial.
Bentworth’s Chris Vargo, who was a silver medalist at 127 pounds in last year’s PIAA Class 2A Championships, Fort Cherry’s Braedon Welsh, who took fourth place at 172 pounds at the state tournament last season, and Bentworth’s Vitali Daniels, who was fourth in Hershey at 215 last season, did not leave Canon-McMillan gymnasium Friday night without at least one loss.
“I’m sure you will hit a wave where you have a handful of (area) kids who could win,” said Bentworth head coach Mike Shrader. “I think as a coach, if you have your kids prepared mentally, then you’ll be OK. We had a couple kids go two and out but I think they got more out of it than had they wrestled at a lesser tournament.”
One reason might be that a wrestler gets more experience when they start a tournament with a loss than a win. There is more mat time and more wrestlers with different styles to compete against.
Vargo, for example, can’t be happy about his early loss but the tournament served as a scene for his 100th career victory earlier in the day.
“While you’re winning, you might not be breaking down things enough,” Shrader said. “When you lose, you have no choice.”
Colin Whyte, the son of West Greene head coach Gary Whyte, found a few flaws in his 5-1 loss to Alex Smith of Lake Highlands Prep in Florida.
“We haven’t been here in a couple years,” said Gary Whyte. “But I think our wrestlers are holding their own. It’s all about gathering information for the postseason. I think it’s important for all the kids. This tournament is an indicator for where you are at and how far you have to go.”
Vargo, Reihner, Welsh and Daniels each came back to win in their next round.
Which is no easy trick. Wrestling deals as much with the mind as it does the body. Coming back from a loss is tough. The last time an area wrestler did not win a title at Powerade was 2021.
Daniels rallied from an early deficit to take an 11-6 victory over Jackson Angelo of Frazier.
“It’s real tough coming back from a loss,” said Daniels. “Once you lose, getting the gold medal is all gone. So you take the first five or 10 minutes after a match. Take a look at the match and then for the rest of the tournament, you let it go.”