Youth served at Tri-CADA wrestling tournament
Colin McCracken of Waynesburg works for a pin of Ryan Wise as time runs out in the period during the 195-pound weight class in the Tri-County Athletic Directors’ Association Wrestling Tournament at Albert Gallatin. McCracken won his third tournament title with a pin in 2:51.
Gerritt Nijenhuis of Canon-McMillan has Luke Mary of Peters Township in trouble during their 152-pound final of the Tri-County Athletic Directors’ Association Wrestling Tournament at Albert Gallatin Saturday. Nijenhuis pinned Mary in 3:03 and was named Outstanding Wrestler.
Tim Hritsko of Canon-McMillan is draped on Thayne Lawrence in the 138-pound final of the Tri-County Athletic Directors’ Association Wrestling Tournament at Albert Gallatin Saturday night. Hritsko won a 7-5 decision.
Gavin Teasdale of Jefferson-Morgan rolls Nick Candelore of Fort Cherry to his back in the 126-pound final of the Tri-County Athletic Directors’ Association Wrestling Tournament at Albert Gallatin Saturday night. Teasdale won his second title with a pin in 2:56.
YORK RUN – Youth won out at the Tri-County Athletic Directors’ Association Wrestling Tournament.
Only two seniors – Colin McCracken of Waynesburg and Brendan Furman of Canon-McMillan – won titles and the first one did not come until the 12th final Saturday night at Albert Gallatin High School.
Leading up to that first one were some pretty impressive performances.
Some highlights:
• Bryce Wilkes, a freshman from Peters Township, started it off by pinning another freshman, McCottie Denjen of Waynesburg, in the 106-pound finals. Wilkes was making his season debut in the tournament.
• Gerritt Nijenhuis, a freshman from Canon-McMillan, not only won the 152-pound title but was named Outstanding Wrestler.
• Logan Macri, a junior from Canon-McMillan, and Gavin Teasdale of Jefferson-Morgan, fresh from their Powerade finals match, were in different weight classes for this event. Both won by fall, Macri at 120 and Teasdale at 126.
• McGuffey’s Christian Clutter handed top-seeded Kyle Homet of Waynesburg an 8-3 loss in the 160 finals. Clutter, a sophomore, hit a five-point move that broke the bout open.
• And Tim Hritsko, a junior from Canon-McMillan, fought tooth and nail to hold off another hard-charging freshman, Thayne Lawrence of Frazier, to win the 138 final, 7-5.
“This is my first tournament win and it felt good being on top of the podium for once,” Hritsko said. “I’ve had many runners-up, many third-places. This one was nice.”
Wilkes was wrestling for the first time since recovering from a shoulder injury sustained at the Pitt Wrestling Club two months ago.
“I was a little nervous,” he said. “I tried not to get into position with my bad shoulder and did what I needed to win.”
Teasdale, a two-time undefeated state champion from Jefferson-Morgan, won his second Tri-CADA title with the pin of Nick Candelore of Fort Cherry. Teasdale made it to the finals with a pin in 1:21 of Tony Mastrangelo of Canon-McMillan.
Teasdale missed last year’s event with an illness or could have a chance to become only the second four-time champion in this event.
“I knew my record was 82-0 coming in and I knew I was going to get my hundred wins,” said Teasdale, whose varsity record is now 96-0 and season record is 14-0. “I just wanted to score as many points as I could, look for my techs, and not let anyone dictate the action.”
A.C. Headlee of Waynesburg is the only four-time champion, winning titles from 2012-2015.
Tim Wallace, a 170-pound junior from Albert Gallatin, has a chance to be a four-timer after winning his third by disposing of Canon-McMillan’s Blaze Kansco with a 9-4 decision in the finals.
Macri also won his second straight title, beating Burgettstown’s P.J. Smith with a pin in 2:33. Macri won by 24-6 technical fall over Jim Gwyer of Beth-Center to reach the finals.
“I was working on going from move to move,” said Macri. “I’m trying to get faster. I definitely want to win it again. I’m going to keep training hard and come back here and do the exact same thing.”
Nijenhuis put another star on an explosive freshman season. He pinned Luke Mary of Peters Township in 3:02 to cap a 4-0 performance in this tournament.
“I felt pretty comfortable coming into it,” said Nijenhuis, who was fifth at Powerade. “I hadn’t seen a lot of the kids but I was comfortable.”
Furman, fresh from winning the heavyweight title at Powerade, won his third Tri-CADA title by defeating Corey Dodson of Albert Gallatin with a 12-5 decision.
Homet came into the tournament with a 16-4 record and the top seed at 160, and left with an 18-5 record as Clutter chalked up arguably his best win of the year.
“I actually thought I wasn’t going to win,” said Clutter. “I went out there thinking I would give it my best. That’s all I had on my mind.”
Waynesburg, which lost a dual meet to Canon-McMillan Wednesday, gained a small measure of revenge by winning the team title with 205.5 points. Canon-McMillan was second 190 and South Fayette was third with 138.
“The main difference is our guys who are not on the podium for the (Beast of the East) and Powerade, and got only two or three matches. It gives guys confidence they can come in here and place. I think we had 11 out of 13 place,” said Waynesburg head coach Joe Throckmorton. “I love this tournament. It’s a quality local tournament. It gives our guys confidence they can place.”