Feb 26, 2015 3 min read

There are no half-off coupons at the door, but when the South Fayette High School wrestling team enters Canon-McMillan High School tonight for the start of the PIAA Class AA Southwest Region Tournament, the Lions will be looking for value.

The Lions will have seven wrestlers in the hunt for one of six berths available in each weight class at the PIAA Championships at the Giant Center in Hershey.

Before the first whistle, South Fayette will already have enjoyed some benefits.

The site for this event has normally been in Johnstown, but it was tentatively moved to Indiana University in November when the War Memorial was booked for another event.

Indiana backed out of the event, so it was moved to Canon-McMillan, just a short trip down the road from South Fayette. Best of all, a hotel stay was not required.

“When we had it in Johnstown, we would go up the night before and stay over,” said South Fayette head coach Rick Chaussard. “Now, we don’t even miss a school day.”

The two-day event at Canon-McMillan begins at 5 p.m. with the preliminary round. Quarterfinals will be at 7:30 p.m. Semifinals are at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, finals are at 5 p.m.

Two of the Lions’ most-watched wrestlers will be Michael Carr and Jared Walker. They are two of seven returning champions and nine who won titles in the past two years.

Carr is one of five undefeated wrestlers in the tournament and one of just two remaining in WPIAL Class AA. Gavin Teasdale of Jefferson-Morgan, a freshman who is 39-0 at 106 is the other.

Carr entered last year’s state tournament with an undefeated record and finished fifth at 132 pounds. He enters this tournament not only unbeaten but with wins over the No. 2 and 3 seeds in this bracket.

“He wrestled them both at the Bedford Tournament in January,” said Chaussard. “I didn’t study this bracket. But he beat both of them before.”

Not only did Carr win, he won impressively. Carr stopped Derrick Claar of Chestnut Ridge 5-0 in the semifinals and Tom Opdenhoff of Central Cambria 7-0 in the finals at Bedford. Claar is the No. 3 seed and Opdenhoff the No. 2 in this regional tournament.

“Carr has been wrestling well,” said Chaussard. “He doesn’t give up a lot of points. Last year, his weakness was getting off the bottom. He was not reacting quickly enough on the whistle. We’ve worked on that. A lot of it is mental.”

Walker, a state runner-up last season, is the top seed at 160 pounds and will have his hands full with a possible matchup against Andrew Doak of Blairsville, the second seed in the bracket and owner of a 35-0 record.

“They have wrestled twice before as freshmen,” Chaussard said. “One was at the regional and the other in the state tournament, so we know a little bit about him. They were both close matches.”

Doak won both times, 9-5 and 10-5.

Walker is coming off a great WPIAL tournament, where he won his fourth title. He became only the 25th wrestler since the WPIAL event began to win four titles.

Teasdale, Carr and Walker are three of the five District 7 (WPIAL) wrestlers who are top seeds. Burrell’s Al Beattie, who is 41-1 and looking for his third straight regional title, is the top seed at heavyweight. The other is Jake Wentzel of South Park, who is 33-1 at 152.

The other undefeated wrestlers in the tournament are Scott Thompson (34-0, 195) of Blairsville and Reynold Maines (35-0, 220) of West Branch.