County matmen up to challenge
CANONSBURG — So far so good.
Four Butler wrestlers, Eric Tuck (135 pounds), Mike Crawford (140), Cole Baxter (171) and Chris White (215), picked up first-round victories in the opening day of the WPIAL Class AAA Wrestling Championships Thursday.
Knoch's Grayson Hixon (119) and Seneca Valley's Shawn Cully (145) also advanced to today's quarterfinal round at Canon-McMillan High.
Baxter, the No. 1 seed, and second-seeded Crawford each won handily.
Baxter, the WPIAL champion at 145 last season, pinned West Allegheny's Rick James in 1:15 while Crawford earned a fall in 3:26 over Norwin's Shawn Bickerstaff.
"Mike's got style and just enough offense," said Butler coach Scott Stoner. "He has enough ability to get by each round.
"Cole was like clockwork. There are four kids in that weight class in the top 10 in the state and they all pummeled their opponents," the coach added.
Tuck accumulated three near-fall points and a takedown in the second period and held off Kiski Area's Kyle Skelly for a 5-2 win while White broke an 8-all tie early in the third period against Penn-Trafford's Matt Grupp with a takedown and became more aggressive en route to a 14-10 decision.
"(Tuck) gave up a couple of takedowns early and that was a wake-up call for him," Stoner noted. "He finally turned it on. He had a strong match and a strong finish.
Cully, who earned a 12-4 major decision over Trinity's Mike Standish, trailed 2-1 midway through the first period. He earned a takedown in the closing seconds and controlled the match from there.
"I was down in the first period, but I wasn't going to give up on it," Cully said. "I stayed confident. "There's six minutes. You have to keep wrestling."
Hixon's match proved to be one of the more exciting of the day, as he needed overtime to come away with an 8-6 decision over Kiski Area's Adam Rosensteel.
Rosensteel led 2-0 after one period and, with the match tied at 4-all entering the final period, he recorded a reverse with 1:42 left to take a 6-4 lead. Hixon, however, had a reversal of his own with 48 seconds left to tie the match.
In overtime, Hixon earned a takedown with 13 seconds left for the win.
In other first-round matches, Butler's Blake Caudill fell to Hopewell's Filippo Crivelli 8-4 and Matt Pribis lost a 9-0 major decision to Bethel Park's Nick Bonaccorsi, the No. 2 seed.
"Blake did not wrestle up to his potential," said Stoner. "He stopped wrestling and kept (Crivelli) in the match.
Butler's Zach Reges (119) and Dillon Weston (145), and Seneca Valley's Jake Perri (103) and Jason Hildum (130) each won a pigtail match, but all dropped their first-round matchups.Reges pinned Trinity's Cameron Banasick at 2:58, then was pinned by No. 2 seed Derrick Nelson of Waynesburg in 23 seconds.Weston decisioned Chartiers Valley's Kyle Kessner 7-2, but lost by an injury default against Kiski Area's Justin Harold, also a No. 2 seed."Dillon has a lot of swelling on the side of his knee and both of his knees are still hurting, actually since last year. We'll see how he is (for today)," Stoner added.Perri pinned Chartiers Valley's Jesse Griffin in 3:14, but lost a 10-0 major decision to South Allegheny's Russell Losteter while teammate Jason Hildum pinned McKeesport's Collin Paige in 1:27, but was pinned by top-seeded Tyler Zymroz of Central Catholic in 1:36.Butler's Nick Sutton (112) and Seneca Valley's Nick Phillips (135) each lost their pigtail matches and were eliminated from the tournament.Today's events, the quarterfinals and first-round consolations, begin at 6 p.m.
