Canon-McMillan wins 17th straight section championship, 40th overall
Remington Ross of Canon-McMillan has trouble with his headgear against Luke Augustine at 132 pounds. Augustine won by fall in 3:28.
IMPERIAL – It’s a nice round number, 40. Impressive, too.
It also happens to be the number of section team titles won by Canon-McMillan’s wrestling team in the program’s history.
The Big Macs put the finishing touches on No. 40 with a dominating, 36-18, victory over Waynesburg in the finals of the Section 4 Team Tournament Wednesday night at West Allegheny High School.
The victory not only continued a streak of winning a section team title since 2001 – 17 consecutive years if you struggle with math – but it probably assures the Big Macs the No. 1 seed when the WPIAL Team Tournament pairings are released today.
Waynesburg, which finished runnner-up to the Big Macs in the sub-section, could secure a third or fourth seed in the WPIAL Team Tournament.
“We thought there would be close bouts, just like last time,” Canon-McMillan first-year head coach Jeff Havelka said of the Big Macs’ 37-21 win Jan. 3. “We were hoping to get the flip and we did again. We won some bouts we lost last time. I’m happy with (the performance).
“They’ve done a great job and set the goal to be WPIAL and section champs.”
Like nearly every important dual meet, this one was decided by the bouts occupied by the lesser-known wrestlers. Evan Miller won an 11-8 decision over Waynesburg’s Caleb Blair at 182 and teammate Alec Hendal stopped Luke Robinson, 6-1, at 195. The dual meet was tied, 18-18, before those two bouts and C-M’s six-point lead was crucial because Zach Rohaley followed with a pin of Ryan Howard in 2:31 at 220 pounds that iced the match.
Hendal’s win was especially satisfying, considering he has lost to Robinson twice this season.
“I gained on him the last two times we wrestled,” said Hendal. “I knew I had a better chance because I’ve been working hard in the room. I finally got him. It was a big turn for us after getting that win.”
Canon-McMillan jumped to an 11-0 lead by winning the first three bouts. Michael Binni won by 20-3 technical fall over Michael Medlen at 113 pounds, Logan Macri won a 1-0 decision over Wyatt Henson in the best bout of the night at 120, and Kenny Hayman stopped Nate Stephenson, 7-1, at 126 pounds.
But Waynesburg wasn’t going to go meekly into the night. The Raiders got a pin by Luke Augustine of Remington Ross at 132, Jackson Henson decisioned Tanner Rohaley 5-0 at 145, Colby Morris shut out Dimitri Pihiou, 5-0, at 152 and Kyle Homet pinned Mahonri Wolfgramm in 2:35 at 170 to tie the dual meet, 18-18.
“All the close ones were impportant,” said Waynesburg head coach Joe Throckmorton. “We wanted to mix it up because we didn’t want the same matchups as last time. We’ll see them 20 more times. Hopefully, we see them in the WPIAL finals.”
Canon-Mac, 59-15
The Big Macs used five pins and benefited from three forfeits to steamroll Moon 59-15 in the semifinals.
Jimmy Baxter (106), Macri, Gerrit Nijenhuis (160), Miller and Patrick Reidenbaugh (182) each had a pin.
Frank Bonura (113) had a pin for Moon.
Waynesburg, 55-17
Waynesburg won all but three bouts in a 55-17 victory over West Allegheny in the semifinals.
Wyatt Henson, Augustine, Jackson Henson (145), Trey Howard (152) and Luke Robinson (195) had pins.