Peters Twp. puts on show at C-H Tournament
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Peters Township’s Jeff Markert, right, manhandles Peyton Hearn on his way to a 7-0 victory in the 170-pound final at the Chariters-Houston wrestling tournament.
Eleanor Bailey / The Almanac
Beth-Center’s Jimmy Gwyer pressures Jeremy MacPherson of North Hills on his way to a 6-2 victory in the 126-pound finals of the Chartiers-Houston Wrestling Tournament.
Eleanor Bailey
Peters Township’s Donovan McMillon battles Upper St. Clair’s Grant Walnoha during 152-pound championship action at the Chartiers-Houston wrestling tournament. McMillon won the title by decision, 5-1.
HOUSTON – It was a performance that would have made Jason Carpetta proud.
Peters Township had three champions, a runner-up and two third-place finishers and came within four points of winning the team title in Saturday’s Chartiers-Houston Wrestling Tournament.
Carpetta was forced to give up the head coaching position at Peters Township this summer when his work hours changed. Derrick Evanovich, who was an assistant coach for the past two years, was hired, making a seamless transition.
“Ever since I was here, it’s been a year-to-year thing,” said Evanovich, a former wrestler at Peters Township. “I told him if he ever stepped down, I’d like to know because I would want the position. I thought he was staying. But he called me up and said, ‘My work is interfering with wrestling and I’m not going to be able to do it.’ So I was ready for it. And it worked out.”
Armstrong wrapped up the team title when Ogden Atwood decisioned John Vargo of Bentworth, 5-1, in the 220-pound finals.
That decision gave Armstrong 164 points, 3.5 more than Peters Township’s 161.5. Conneaut Area (157) was third, Butler 146.5 was fourth and Upper St. Clair (137) was fifth in a field of 27 team.
Donovan McMillon (152), Jeff Markert (170) and Brandon Matthews (182) each won gold, Coltin Jezioro (160) silver and Bryce Wilkes (120) and William Kail (132) bronze medals.
The tournament also marked the return of Dom Fundy of Beth-Center. Fundy was a state runner-up as a sophomore but missed last season’s tournaments when he injured a thumb the weekend prior to the postseason.
Fundy won the 195-pound title with a hard-fought 11-8 decision over Harvey Rauch of Upper St. Clair. It was Fundy’s third title in this event and gave Beth-Center two champions as Jimmy Gwyer won at 126 pounds.
McMillon kicked off Peters Township’s run at the team title with a 5-1 decision over Grant Walnoha of Upper St. Clair at 152.
“I gained 30 pounds and went from 132 to 152, so these are all new faces,” said McMillon. “This is my revenge tournament because I came in second last year.”
After Jezioro lost a 5-2 decision to Hunter Milligan of Albert Gallatin at 160, Jeff Markert shut out Conneaut Area’s Peyton Hearn, 7-0, at 182 pounds.
“I didn’t think we were going to do this good in the team (standings),” said Markert. “We got a couple kids who surprised us, helped us out with bonus points. That was huge. We just had everyone go out and wrestle the best we could. You can’t ask anymore than that.”
Matthews followed with a 5-4 decision over Logan Harmon of Armstrong at 182. Matthews scored three points in the third period to take a 5-2 lead. He gave up and escape and meaningless stalling point in the final seconds.
Gwyer won his title with a 6-2 decision over Jeremy Macpherson of North Hills.
“The goal is to go as far as I can,” said Gwyer. “I felt good out there.”
The same could not be said of Fundy, who struggled through the second half of the match with Rauch. Fundy led 6-1 in the second period, then was outscored 6-2 to cut his lead to 8-7. An escape and takedown in the final minute finally secured the win.
An exhausted Fundy staggered to the corner at end of the bout.
“I have forgotten how much it takes, conditioning-wise, to compete,” Fundy said. “You can’t understand it unless you’ve wrestled. I can’t even explain it.”
Defending state champion Sam Hillegas of North Hills won by 18-1 technical fall over Jacob Ealy of Hopewell in the 138-pound final.