McGuffey to open new era in wrestling
When high school wrestling season begins tonight, it will mark the beginning of a number of interesting developments.
The Gavin Teasdale era begins at Jefferson-Morgan High School and many expect great things from the freshman.
This is the first time in three seasons Canon-McMillan will not be the defending PIAA team champion and the first time in four years it won’t be the defending WPIAL champions.
The PIAA will unveil its expansion to the state tournament, turning the 16-man bracket for each weight class into 20.
The Southwest Class AA Region Tournament was moved from Johnstown to Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
And for the first time in three decades, McGuffey’s wrestling team will be competing in Class AA. The Highlanders will be at the Hampton Duals Saturday before beginning the Section 2-A schedule against Jefferson-Morgan Wednesday. The other teams in the section are Bentworth, Beth-Center, Mapletown and West Greene.
McGuffey was eligible to move to Class AA for years but chose to wrestle in Class AAA because of the rivalries established with Trinity, Waynesburg, Ringgold and Canon-McMillan. Trinity, Ringgold and Waynesburg are on this year’s schedule but Canon-McMillan is not. The Highlanders are coming off a season in which it qualified for the WPIAL Team Tournament for the first time in five seasons.
“I feel we are one of the top four teams in Double-A,” said McGuffey head coach Mark Caffrey. “We have five wrestlers with 20 or more wins coming back, and we’ll build around them. We’ll have eight new faces in the lineup but they are not green. If we wrestle to our potential, I know we’ll do well.”
Six starters from last year graduated but the Highlanders get junior Gage Nicolella (106, 24-9), sophomore Teague Nicolella (113, 20-14), senior Aaron Harris (126, 21-10) and Liam McElhoes (220, 21-14) back. More important, the Highlanders can fill the 14 weight classes and in Class AA, that’s pivotal.
“It’s extremely important that we can do that,” said Caffrey. “It’s hard for a lot of Class AA teams to fill the weights. It’s an advantage for us if we do it. Not a lot of teams can do that.”
Two important parts to the team could be Lane Klein and Ryan Stienstraw. Klein, a senior lightweight, compiled a 10-2 record while wrestling up for much of the season. Stienstraw, a 220-pound senior, was 8-5 before missing the rest of the season with an injury.
“Stienstraw got hurt in the postseason and Klein when (Teague Nicolella) moved down.”
The move down could spark another run for the Highlanders. The last time they made the WPIAL Class AA Team Tournament was in 1979, when they finished second. In the 1990s, wrestling up, McGuffey won the team title three times and made the semifinals for each year in the decade, a remarkable feat for any program.
“It’s going to be interesting,” he said. “We’ll see what happens.”
One of the more interesting season-opening tournaments is at Chartiers-Houston, where eight local teams join a field of 23 for the two-day tournament. The first round begins today at 4:30 p.m. and the finals are at 4 p.m. Saturday.
Burgettstown, Jefferson-Morgan and Trinity are at the Eastern Invitational at Gateway High School. Tonight’s first round begins at 5 p.m.
Canon-McMillan will open at the two-day Cumberland Valley Classic, which begins at 3 p.m.