Jan 31, 2024 By Jonathan Guth 4 min read

BURGETTSTOWN — Most high school students don’t like to wake up early on a Saturday morning.

The members of the Burgettstown wrestling team, however, will enjoy getting up on a weekend as the Blue Devils defeated Montour 52-15 on Wednesday night at Burgettstown in the quarterfinals of the WPIAL Class 2A team tournament.

Burgettstown (14-0) will face Mount Pleasant (12-2) in the semifinals of the team tournament at 10 inside the AHN Arena on the campus of Peters Township High School.

The winner advances to the championship final at 11:30. The loser will compete in the consolation final.

The Blue Devils are the defending WPIAL Class 2A team champions, and will be looking for the repeat.

“I am excited to get up early Saturday and be ready to wrestle,” Burgettstown senior Aiden States said. “We know that other teams are looking to knock us off since we won the championship last year, but we want to keep the streak going.”

States earned a 13-2 major decision in Burgettstown’s first-round match with Laurel.

The WPIAL champion and runner-up will head straight to Hershey’s Giant Center for next Thursday’s first-round action in the PIAA Class 2A team tournament, but the third and fourth-place finishers will have to compete in the preliminary round on Monday at a regional site.

“The most important one is the next one,” Burgettstown coach Joey Vigliotti said. “We definitely want to win that semifinal match to make sure we will be wrestling at the Giant Center and don’t have to compete in the preliminary round. Our kids have wrestled on the big stage before, so they’ll be ready.”

Burgettstown qualified for the quarterfinals with a 55-15 victory over Laurel (9-10) in the first round. Montour (6-2) defeated Frazier 45-30 to reach the round of eight.

The Blue Devils’ Rudy Brown (160), Eric Kovach (172) and States (189) ran off three straight pins for a 25-6 lead after six bouts. Vigliotti bumped up several starters against the Spartans.

“We tell the kids all the time, we are not going to judge you on your wins and losses, we are going to judge you on your attitude and your effort, and it was there,” Vigliotti said. “Even the kids that lost, they battled, and that’s what we ask of them.”

Montour’s Alex Dusch scored a late reversal to earn a 3-2 victory in double overtime at 215 to stop Burgettstown’s run.

Joey Baronick got the home team back on track with a fall in 1:30 at heavyweight before Darius Simmons clinched the dual meet with an 18-3 technical fall in 4:40 at 107.

Noah Leininger recorded a fall for the Blue Devils in 5:23 at 114.

The Spartans’ Anthony Esposito won by fall in 4:21 at 121 before the Blue Devils’ Dylan Slovick (127) and Parker Sentipal (133) closed the night with a major decision and fall. Gaven Suica earned an 8-7 decision to open the dual meet against Montour at 139. The Spartans’ Rook Smith won by fall in 1:10 and Logan Noyes earned a 9-0 major decision for the home team at 152.

“I kind of expected them to move some people around, but I was hoping for maybe a couple of more points on our side,” Montour coach Zach Tournay said. “I know Burgettstown is a tough team, so I was just hoping we would wrestle tough and get out of here healthy. We are looking forward to hosting our dual-meet tournament and the individual postseason tournaments. I was pleased with how we wrestled as a team this year. This is the fourth year in a row we wrestled in the team tournament.”

The Blue Devils won the first five bouts by fall and never looked back in defeating the Spartans in the first round.

Sentipal (133), Suica (139), Noyes (145), Brown (152) and Kovach (160) took care of business in quick fashion, as all falls were recorded in the first period.

“We are glad to be here and for the experience, but we are a very young team,” Laurel coach Kevin Carmichael said. “We are starting a lot of freshmen, but give credit to Burgettstown. They are the defending champions for a reason.”

Jack Miles recorded a fall in 39 seconds to get Laurel on the scoreboard before Aiden States’ 13-2 major decision at 189 increased the Blue Devils’ advantage to 34-6.

Kolton Carlson’s 5-2 decision at 215 kept the Spartans in the dual meet, but Baronick clinched the match with a fall in 44 seconds at heavyweight.

Simmons earned a 10-6 decision at 107 and Danny Smith won by fall in 51 seconds at 121. Slovick won by forfeit at 127.