Feb 19, 2016 3 min read

Dom Provenzano is in a small group of wrestlers who won’t have to worry about advancing from today’s section tournaments.

If Provenzano, a 182-pound senior from Chartiers-Houston, makes weight, he will be assured of advancing.

Why?

The WPIAL advances five wrestlers from each weight class in the section tournaments to next week’s Class AA championships. At the Section 1 event at Ellwood City High School, Provenzano is one of just four wrestlers in the bracket. Nine of the other teams in Section 1 did not have an entry for that weight class.

“I was surprised when I saw the bracket,” said Provenzano, who has a 22-7 record. “It made me think that I’m still going to move on no matter what.”

There are three Class AA section tournaments. Besides the one at Ellwood City, Section 2 will be held at McGuffey and Section 3 at Avonworth. Class AAA section tournament begin next week. Finals at Section 1 are set for 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. at the other two events.

The local teams at Ellwood City are Burgettstown, Chartiers-Houston, Fort Cherry, South Fayette and Washington. At McGuffey, they are Bentworth, Beth-Center, Jefferson-Morgan, Mapletown, McGuffey and West Greene.

Garett Johnston, the Bucs head coach, said one reason for so few wrestlers in the weight class might be the presence of South Park’s Greg Bulsak, a defending state champion.

“You have guys who want to win it,” said Johnston. “A lot of guys move around (for the postseason) and they want to be in the best position to win.”

Provenzano is the second seed of the four wrestlers. Bulsak is the No. 1 seed and wrestles Joe Bastaroli of South Fayette in the semifinals. Provenzano gets Luke Ostermeyer, a junior from Laurel with a 15-15 record.

“Bulsak is an intense wrestler,” said Provenzano. “He knows what he’s doing out there. If I have to wrestle him, I’m sure I’ll be a little nervous. You never know. All you need to do is get lucky once.”

Provenzano has blossomed this season, turning a 12-14 record from last year into a 22-7 mark so far.

“I made sure I lifted hard in the offseason,” he said. “I watched my diet. It improved my strength.”

That’s the core of Provenzano’s wrestling.

“He works hard, is physical on the mat, and goes after kids,” said Johnston. “He wrestled well in the Tri-CADA tournament, where he took third, and he was second at Burgettstown. He is so physical, and just tries to explode out there.”

Wrestlers looking for repeat titles in Section 1 are Bulsak and teammate Jake Wentzel, also a defending state champion; defending state champion Mike Carr, Shane Ging, and Rasaun Culberson of South Fayette; Fort Cherry’s Nick Candelore, Chartiers-Houston’s Josh Kuslock, Ellwood City’s Tyler Alberts and Freedom’s Kody Komara.

In the Section 2, the list includes defending state champion Gavin Teasdale and Bill Bowlen of Jefferson-Morgan; Derry’s Stone Kepple and defending state champion George Phillipi; Evan Myers and Jake Beistel of Southmoreland; Hunter Neely of Bentworth; Gage Nicolella of McGuffey; Mike Novak of Mt. Pleasant; Gio Vonne Sanders of Jeannette; and Anthony Welsh of Beth-Center.