Nov 26, 2014 3 min read

The last names have a familiar ring to them: Macri, Hritsko, and Pihiou.

It’s the first names that one might not recognize.

This wrestling season could find Canon-McMillan High School’s lineup including such young talent as Logan Macri, Tim Hristko and Dimitri Pihiou.

While the Big Macs saw their stranglehold on the WPIAL Team Tournament loosened by Franklin Regional, Jason Cardillo believes the foundation is in place to build another winner.

“We’ve got a young team this year,” said Cardillo, entering his second season as the C-M head coach. “We have a lot of talented young kids. We lost eight seniors last year and we’ve lost a lot of seniors over the past couple of years. It will definitely be different.”

So will the preparation.

Canon-McMillan will open the wrestling season Friday, Dec. 5 at the fifth annual Cumberland Valley Kickoff Classic in a 20-team that includes Bermudian Springs, Council Rock South, Milton, Red Bank and Milton Hershey.

It will be the first time since 2010 that the Big Macs will not enter the season as the defending WPIAL team champion and the first time since 2011 they won’t be the defending state team champion. The Big Macs’ run ended in last year’s WPIAL semifinals and a chance to return to Hershey evaporated in a loss to North Allegheny for third place. C-M finished with a 16-2 record.

“We are going to find the style that works best with our kids,” Cardillo said. “We’re coming with a team that has no big names, no defending state champion and things like that. So we’ll step back and cover things (in practice) that are more basic. A lot of these kids haven’t had a 2-2-2 match in their life.”

Macri, Hritsko and Pihiou are freshmen lightweights and will battle with a returning group that includes sophomore Cam Fontenot (106, 19-11) and Justin Celento (106, 4-7) and junior Declan Lewis (120, 3-2).

It’s the middle part of the lineup that will be a concern. Josiah Hritsko, Alec Hutchin, Malachi Krenzelak and two-time state champion Solomon Chishko have graduated. Matt Oblock returns from a strong freshman year (32-11) as do sophomores Micah Kusturiss (152, 14-13) and Blaze Kansco (160, 17-17).

“I’d like to have more depth in the middle,” said Cardillo. “We have to stay healthy this season.”

The Big Macs already took one hit when Nick Konyk was lost with a knee injury during football season. The junior had a 24-15 record last year. Junior Thomas James (160, 0-3) is back from injuries and has an opportunity to lead the upper weights.

“The last couple of years, we just went into the room and went hard,” said Cardillo. “A lot of the guys are new to me. We go in now and try to find their skill sets. We’re starting from scratch in some places.”

The upper weights have veterans in senior Jesse Lesko (182, 21-13), junior James Zeremenko (195, 10-12), junior David Ainscough (220, 9-10) and senior Brendan Furman (Hvy, 21-13). Senior Alex Paulina, who was offered a full scholarship to play football at Pitt, is not wrestling this year.

“We’re building for another run,” Cardillo said. “We just have to realize that we have to put in the work to be successful.”

Job Chishko, brother of two-time state champion Solomon Chishko, transferred to Penn Trafford. … Canon-McMillan will wrestle at Trinity Wednesday, Dec. 10. … Canon-McMillan will compete in Section 4-A with Trinity, Chartiers Valley, Moon and Waynesburg.