Nov 29, 2016 3 min read

Canon-McMillan has replenished its lineup with a strong group of incoming freshmen and the addition of two former wrestlers who played football last season.

That means the Big Macs will be hard to beat and should make another strong run in the WPIAL Class AAA Team Tournament.

“We’ve got a solid team, top to bottom,” said C-M head coach Jason Cardillo. “I’m happy with what I see. The numbers are good. We have some depth and some younger guys. It’s a good mix. I’m happy where we are right now.”

The Big Macs have strength throughout the lineup with junior Logan Macri (113 pounds, 120), senior Matt Oblock (126, 132) and junior Tim Hritso (132, 138) prowling the lighter weights, junior Blaze Kansco (160, 170), a 33-bout winner last year, and freshmen Gerrit Nijenhuis (152), a Junior Olympic champion, adding punch in the middle and senior Brendan Furman, a Cornell recruit, waiting at heavyweight.

“Oblock was a freshman my first year as head coach,” Cardillo said. “He’s been a steady, solid kid. This year, I hope he has to take it to another level. He’s been so close to going to states. Every year, he is right there. This is going to be the year.”

One aspect of the team Cardillo wants to change is the number of qualifiers to the individual state tournament. Only Macri advanced to Hershey and Cardillo wants to improve that number.

“I think we have a lot of possible state qualifiers, which we didn’t have last year,” Cardillo said. “These guys learned from last year. We had a lot of guys lose in the last round and we have to learn from that.”

Canon-McMillan was hit hardest by graduation in the heavier weights but Cardillo got senior Bryan Milligan, a 1,000-yard rusher on the football team, and senior Nathaniel Taylor, a 210-pound lineman, to resume their wrestling careers before graduating. Milligan will be at 182 and Taylor at 195.

“We lost some guys but we were able to plug others right in,” said Cardillo. “Taylor wrestled up until his sophomore year, then focused on football. He came out this year because we have a spot for him. We’re not working from scratch with him. Bryan came out for a little while last year. He’s picking up where he left off. When we show him stuff, he soaks it up like a sponge.”

The Big Macs made a nice run in the team portion of the season, advancing to the Class AAA finals before falling to Belle Vernon. In the state team tournament, Canon-McMillan made it to the quarterfinal round before losing to Boyertown. Cardillo believes that experience will pay off for many of the team’s younger wrestlers.

Belle Vernon took some major hits from graduation, losing four state qualifiers in Derek Verkleeren (4th), Austin Bell (3rd), Mitchell Hartman and Milton Kobaly (2nd). Junior Jarod Verkleeren transferred to Hempfield. Kiski, a team Canon-McMillan faced three times last season, and North Allegheny are expected to be stronger Class AAA teams. Kiski, which returns four wrestlers with 30 or more victories, defeated North Allegheny, which returns state champion Jake Woodley, in last year’s third-place match.

“Experience is extremely important and we lacked that the previous two years,” said Cardillo. “Now we know we belong there. When we get there again, we’ll be ready to go.”