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ALTOONA-- Central Mountain kept the awards and accolades piling up in what's been a historic season thus far. The Wildcats not only took the team title at the District 6 Class AAA tournament on Saturday evening in Altoona's fieldhouse, but Wildcats senior Rocco Serafini eclipsed the 100-win mark, was one of four wrestlers to win a district title and coach Biff Walizer was named the D6 AAA Coach of the Year.
The Wildcats had placed 13 wrestlers, with 11 moving on to Class AAA Northwest Regionals next Friday and Saturday in Altoona. Central Mountain won the district title at the individual tournament for the second consecutive year. While it was a total team effort, Serafini claiming his 100th career win following a pin in the semifinal and following that with a pin in the final put a Central Mountain statement on the long day.
"Rocco picked up his third district title along with his 100th win, he's on a roll," Central Mountain coach Biff Walizer said. "He's going out and getting pins in the district final so he's being aggressive, but now I can't wait to see where he ends up. Right now it's all about getting your name punched into that bracket the following week, so we've got a good number moving on."
Coach Walizer added: "I think coming into that last round we were behind by a couple of points to Mifflin County so we knew we needed a good round, which we got out of the guys, especially those guys in the consolation final. A lot of those guys pulled through getting third and they're moving on next week. That's been all season, it's been a team effort."
Central Mountain's team now has four guys with 100 wins on its current roster in Luke Simcox's feat last season, Walizer in mid-January, Perry on January 25 against Bald Eagle Area and now Serafini.
"Having four guys on the same team with 100 wins each, I don't know how many teams can say they have had that before so it's definitely something really special at Central Mountain this year," Serafini said.
Gavin Heverly (107), Aiden Kunes (121), Patrick Tarantella jr. (127), Jaggar Pardoe (133), Dalton Perry (139), Luke Simcox (145), Griffin Walizer (152), Hunter Donley (160), Jake Weaver (172), Bryce Brungard (189) and Serafini (215) all advanced to next week having finished in the top four.
Serafini won his third district title in four seasons with each year coming at a different weight class but he wasn't the only one that showed up big. 107-pounder Gavin Heverly had a stellar day with two victories after a 3-1 decision in the semifinals led to a pin in 5:42 over State College's Noah Young.
121-pound freshman Aiden Kunes picked up a fall in 2:12 over Jonathan Coates in his first bout of the day and then went toe-to-toe with Jake Knable of Mifflin County until Kunes picked up the pace and picked up takedown and near-fall points and won by a 10-point major decision.
The expectations of the freshmen to perform that way were high, and they did their part. Heverly picked up his 32nd win of the season and Kunes moved up to a 31-13 mark for his freshman campaign with regionals up next.
139-pounder Dalton Perry had a smooth ride to his second district title. Perry made quick work of his semifinal match against Mason Schenck of Hollidaysburg when he pinned him in 36 seconds to advance to the final and then pinned Jacob Campbell of State College in an impressive two minutes, 14 seconds.
Walizer dropped a tough, 3-1 decision to Lucas Sipes of Altoona who won his third consecutive district title at 160 pounds but got a pin in 40 seconds in his opening bout. Simcox similarly got a pin in 24 seconds but lost by default in the finals to Pierson Manville of State College.
BOUNCING BACK
Central Mountain's Tarantella, Weaver and Donley all dropped semifinal matches and were put into the consolation bracket. The 160-pounder Brungard showed signs of turning the corner at just the right time. Brungard placed second in his first trip to districts having not wrestled in the postseason last year. The junior picked up win No. 28 in the semifinals before falling to Gavin Mickey of Mifflin County in the final.
Tarantella dropped his opening match to Gavin Ciampoli of Altoona who won the district title at 133 pounds. Tarantella didn't let that faze him, winning by fall in the next round and then by decision in the third-place match.
Weaver finished third for the second straight year when he fell in his second match of the day to Mitchell Baronner of Hollidaysburg. Weaver got a 12-5 decision the next round to stay alive and then a convincing pin in 2:43 to take third.
Donley made his presence known in the team state tournament, but wanted it made known that in the individuals he was here to make an impact. The sophomore dropped his opening match to Mifflin County's Deakon Schaeffer, who finished second, but quickly regained his composure and followed up the loss with two consecutive pins in just over two minutes.
"I'm going to try my best and get back into the tournament and there's nothing else I could really do but come back tough," Donley said about his mindset coming back from his semifinal loss.
"At this point if you take a tough loss, you've got to shake it off and get ready to go. You can't hang your head for too long because those consolation matches come up and you have to be refreshed and refocus and ready to go, which he was able to do, so it’s maturity on his part," coach Walizer explained. "We're going to hope to see that again next weekend so he could go as far as he can and hopefully punch his ticket to states."
Central Mountain's faithful 11 continue wrestling with the hopes of clinching the PIAA Individual State Tournament the second weekend in March at the Giant Center in Hershey. With competition stiffening up, Central Mountain is getting back to the grind. At this time of year, though, it's more so touching up the master piece rather than critiquing the whole painting for Friday and Saturday's regionals.
"At this point it's just about getting crisp and sharp and fine tuning some things. There were some mistakes and some technical things to work on that'll be covered and worked on and improved for next week," coach Walizer concluded.
FINALS
107: Gavin Heverly (CM) pinned Noah Young, 5:42. 121: Aiden Kunes (CM) maj. dec. Jake Knable, 12-2. 139: Dalton Perry (CM) pinned Jacob Campbell, 2:14. 145: Pierson Manville (SC) DEF Luke Simcox, 0-0 (0:01). 152: Luke Sipes (AL) DEC Griffin Walizer, 3-1. 189: Gavin Mickey (MC) DEC Bryce Brungard, 6-4. 215: Rocco Serafini (CM) pinned Evan Boose, 1:59.
THIRD PLACE
127: Patrick Tarantella jr. (CM) DEC Nicholas Berrena, 6-3. 133: Jacob Brua (HOL) pinned Jaggar Pardoe, 2:46. 160: Hunter Donley (CM) pinned Aiden Schenk, 2:21. 172: Jacob Weaver (CM) pinned Tykear Davis, 2:43.
QUARTERFINALS
114: Jon Whitbred (SC) pinned Collin Bauman, 1:53. 172: Jacob Weaver (CM) pinned Devin Berrett, 0:31.
SEMIFINALS
107: Gavin Heverly (CM) DEC Brayden Sidney, 3-1. 121: Aiden Kunes (CM) pinned Jonathan Coates, 2:12. 127: Gavin Ciampoli (AL) maj. dec. Patrick Tarantella jr., 15-2. 133: James Whitbred (SC) tech fall Jaggar Pardoe, 17-0 (4:00). 139: Dalton Perry (CM) pinned Mason Schenck, 0:36. 145: Luke Simcox (CM) pinned Luke Gieshauser, 0:24. 152: Griffin Walizer (CM) pinned Brady Bucher, 0:40. 160: Deakon Schaeffer (MC) tech fall Hunter Donley, 17-2 (5:04). 172: Mitchell Baronner (HO) DEC Jacob Weaver (CM), 7-2. 189: Bryce Brungard (CM) pinned Tyson Bridenbaugh, 4:48. 215: Rocco Serafini (CM) pinned Paul Tisinger, 0:52. 285: Wyatt Maines (HO) pinned Giovanni Tarantella, 3:11.
CONSOLATION SEMIFINALS
114: Landon Krupka (HO) DEC Collin Bauman, 7-4. 127: Patrick Tarantella jr. (CM) pinned Carson Krupka, 3:35. 160: Hunter Donley (CM) pinned Matthew Ricio, 2:26. 172: Jacob Weaver (CM) DEC Xavier Zeruth, 12-5. 285: Dekker Pietzch (MC) default Giovanni Tarantella (CM).