Mar 4, 2022 4 min read

MCMURRAY — As far as Coen Bainey is concerned, he’s happy to be a 120-pounder and not seven pounds lighter at 113.

The reason?

Bainey’s cousin wrestles at 113 pounds. In fact, Landon Bainey, a sophomore as West Branch, is top-seeded at 113 just like Coen is at 120..

Landon is the first cousin of Coen Bainey, a junior and top seed at 120 pounds for Bald Eagle Area.

“He’s my dad’s brother child,” said Coen Bainey. “Wrestling is wrestling so that’s it but if it were a close relative I had to wrestle, it would suck.”

Both Baineys won their first two bouts in the PIAA Class AA Southwest Region championships Friday at Peters Township High School.

They advanced to Saturday’s semifinals, which begin at 12:30 p.m. Finals are set for 5 p.m.

Bald Eagle Area brought nine wrestlers to the event and two — Bainey, Lucas Frye (113),and Caleb Close (172) — made it to the semifinals.

They will be joined there by Ty Watson (145) of Penns Valley. 

The following is a look at how the wrestlers fared on the first day of this difficult tournament.

Quarterfinals

Winners of these matches advance to Saturday’s semifinals, which start 12:30 p.m. The top six wrestlers in each weight class advance to the PIAA Class AA championships

Winners of the first round advanced to the quarterfinals. Losers in the first round could still finish as high as third place.

106

Jacob Sombronski (United) major dec. Gavin Guenot (Bald Eagle Area), 14-0

113

Lucas Fye (Bald Eagle Area) DEC Colin Bartley (Laurel), 1-0

120

Coen Bainey (Bald Eagle Area) tech fall Dylan Slovick (Burgettstown), 16-0 5:15

132

138

First Round

106

Jack Darlington (Penns Valley) decisioned Shawn Robertson (Fort Cherry), 9-2

Gavin Guenot (Bald Eagle Area) dec. 

Isaac Maccaglia (Quaker Valley), 10-9 UTB

Cooper Hornack (Burrell) major dec. over Colten Shunk (Penns Valley), 12-2

113

Lucas Fye (Bald Eagle Area) technical fall over Calio Zanella (Burrell), 15-0 2:17

120

Coen Bainey (Bald Eagle Area) pinned Tristen Hawkins (Conemaugh Twp), 0:35

Logan Richey (Quaker Valley) dec. Nick Coudriet (Philipsburg-Osceola), 6-0

126

Davis Stepp (Beth Center) dec. Scotty Frantz (Philipsburg-Osceola), 5-2

132

Marcus Gable (Philipsburg-Osceola) tech. fall over Ryder Goe (South Side), 15-0 2:59

Kyle Mccollum (Beth Center) major dec. Kevin Taylor (Bald Eagle Area), 16-5

138

Jeffrey Pifer (Bald Eagle Area) dec. Isaac Lacinski (Burrell), 3-0

145