Mat mayhem
FOX CHAPEL — Seneca Valley produced four section champions and advanced 10 wrestlers to the WPIAL Championships during Saturday's Section 3-AAA tournament at Fox Chapel High School.
“To tell the truth, we expected to do more,” SV coach Kevin Wildrick said.
That's where the Raiders' wrestling program is right now.
Wildrick had hopes of advancing his entire lineup to this weekend's WPIAL meet at Canon-McMillan. Two of his guys just missed: Nick Funovits dropped a 3-2 decision to Pine-Richland's Miguel Jackson in the 220-pound fifth-place match and Conor Hayeswas reversed and pinned by Butler's Rob Hays in the closing seconds of their fifth-place match at 160.
“Things didn't go our way in those matches,” Wildrick said. “But, yeah, I'm pretty happy about things overall.”
Wildrick was named Section 3 Coach of the Year and former Raider head coach Joe Montalbano was named the section's Assistant Coach of the Year as Wildrick's right-hand man.
“Joe is an encyclopedia on technique,” Wildrick said. “He knows every position for every situation. I've tapped into that resource many times.”
“The last time I was coach of the year was the last time Seneca Valley won the section, back in 2001,” Montalbano said. “Now we're reaping the benefits of extending our youth program into Cranberry nine years ago.
“Our youth numbers just shot up ... We had 45 youth wrestlers before and we went up over 100 after we did that.”
Montalbano said the youth wrestling numbers in the Seneca Valley district are around 85 today.
To find out more, read Monday's Butler Eagle.
