CANONSBURG — For at least one day, the Big Three became the Big Four.

At the first day of the WPIAL/Southwest Region Class AA Wrestling Championships Thursday, only four Butler County wrestlers — Butler's Blake Caudill (112 pounds), Mike Crawford (145), Dakoda Collins (152) and Cole Baxter (171) — advanced to today's quarterfinal round.

Crawford, Collins and Baxter, who have been a dominate force for the Tornado this season, compiling a 94-13 composite dual-meet record, picked up victories in the preliminary round.

“You expected them to get through,” said Butler coach Scott Stoner. “It wasn't pretty, but they got through.”

Caudill, a sophomore, trailed Central Catholic's Justin Alexander 2-0 after two periods, but he earned a pair of escapes, the latter with 39 seconds left to force overtime. Caudill (25-6) then earned a takedown in each overtime period to pull out the 6-2 triumph.

Crawford, who was nursing an injured shoulder which has bothered him since last year, injured his other shoulder after completing a reverse in the third period to erase a 1-0 deficit against Kiski Area's Kyle Skelly.

Skelly escaped with one minute remaining, but Crawford (27-4) earned a takedown in overtime for the win.

“Mike shoulder was suspect as usual,” said Stoner. “He's not at 100 percent and then he hurt the good one. He's going out there with limited offensive ability.”

Collins (31-8), a junior, decisioned Zan Kail of Peters Township 7-1 and Baxter had little trouble in earning a 16-0 technical fall over Penn-Trafford's Craig Slepsky.

Baxter (39-1) earned a takedown four seconds into the match and turned a 6-0 first-period lead into 14-0 after two periods.

“We wanted Cole to go out and get the early takedown,” Stoner said.

In all, 20 Butler County wrestlers — Mars' Shane Smith was scratched before the tournament — took part, but 16 suffered a loss, which means they'll have to wrestle back through the consolation rounds and must win five matches to grab the third and final state tournament berth.

Seven of the 10 wrestlers in pigtail matches lost, eliminating them from the rest of the tournament.

The only competitors to advance were Seneca Valley's Nick Zoria (103) and Aaron Schettler (125), and Butler's Nick Sutton (119).

Zoria pinned Connellsville's John Bernrdinelli in 3:25, Schettler pinned West Mifflin's Aaron Layhue in 30 seconds and Sutton picked up a 9-4 decision over Ringgold's Josh Gudenburr.

Unfortunately, the Raiders' duo then had face their respective weight divisions' No. 1 seeds.

Zoria lost to Canon-McMillan's Colt Shorts by a pin and Schettler fell to Franklin Regional's Nico Megaludis in a technical fall.

Penn-Trafford's Tim Connelly beat Sutton in a major decision.

Butler's Zach Reges, who entered the tournament as a No. 4 seed with a 29-9 record, suffered a tough loss to McGuffey's Christian Whipkey, who won a pigtail match, then pinned Reges.

Butler had 10 wrestlers qualify for the WPIAL Championships, including Section 3 champions in Baxter, Crawford, Caudill and Reges.

Now, it's up to the those who lost to try and battle their way back and pick up one or two wins.

“I'll have to read the riot act (Thursday night),” Stoner said. “Most of these guys had winnable matches. If you're going to come (to the WPIAL tournament), you have to go out there with guns blazing.”.

Notes: Friday's quarterfinals and first-round consolations will begin at 6 p.m. On Saturday, the second-round consolations will begin at 10:30 a.m., the semifinals and third-round consolations at noon and fourth-round consolations at 2 p.m. The consolation finals will begin at 5:30 p.m., followed by the Parade of Champions at 6:50 p.m. and the championship finals at 7.

Results of Butler County competitors at Thursday's WPIAL/Southwest Region Class AAA Wrestling Championships:<B>Pigtail Matches</B>103 pounds: Nick Zoria (Seneca Valley) pinned John Bernardinelli (Connellsville), 3:25112: Will Valentine (Albert Gallatin) pinned Anthony Latess (Seneca Valley), 2:38; Michael Heasley (Waynesburg) pinned Joel Hixon (Knoch), 1:35119: Nick Sutton (Butler) dec. Josh Gudenburr (Ringgold), 9-4125: Aaron Schettler (Seneca Valley) pinned Aaron Layhue (West Mifflin), 0:30130: Deane Fiasco (Penn-Trafford) pinned Andy Selker (Mars), 1:28140: Michael Ardeno (Trinity) tech. fall over James Flinn (Mars), 20-5 (4:42)145: Erik Rayman (Norwin) pinned Ryan McMahon (Mars), 3:22160: Jordan Roberts (Trinity) tech. fall over Chris Boggs (Mars), 17-0 (2:48)215: Jaymar Parrish (Gateway) pinned Steven Mowery (Knoch), 4:44<B>Preliminary Matches</B>103: Colt Shorts (Canon McMillan) pinned Nick Zoria (Seneca Valley), 0:40; James Harrison (West Mifflin) major dec. over Cody Houston (Butler), 12-0112: Blake Caudill (Butler) dec. Justin Alexander (Central Catholic), 6-2 (2 OT)119: Tim Connelly (Penn-Trafford) major dec. over Nick Sutton (Butler), 15-4125: Nico Megaludis (Franklin Regional) tech. fall over Aaron Schettler (Seneca Valley), 16-1 (2:53); Christian Whipkey (McGuffey) pinned Zach Reges (Butler), 5:09130: Jake Vitolo (Hempfield) dec. Jesse Spohn (Butler), 6-1135: Patrick Slovonik (Thomas Jefferson) dec. Zach Collins (Butler), 7-3145: Mike Crawford (Butler) dec. Kyle Skelly (Kiski Area), 4-2 (OT)152: Dakota Collins (Butler) dec. Zan Kail (Peters Township), 7-1160: Tyler Haines (Albert Gallatin) dec. Matt Pribis (Butler), 4-2171: Cole Baxter (Butler) tech. fall over Craig Slepsky (Penn-Trafford), 16-0 (4:12); Austin Coniker (Central Catholic) dec. Ronnie Dakan (Mars), 4-1