Feb 4, 2024 By Joe Tuscano 4 min read

McMURRAY — What a week Jake Wright has had with the Trinity High School wrestling team.

On Wednesday, his pin helped the Hillers defeat Norwin and come within a step of earning their first trip to Hershey for the state team tournament since 2002 when the Hillers won the WPIAL Class 3A title.

And on Saturday afternoon at the Peters Township gym, Wright decisioned Pierce Reinhardt 5-2 to tie the semifinal bout with Bethel Park. The match ended in a 26-26 tie but Trinity advanced because it broke the tie against Bethel Park with seven bout wins to BP’s six.

The Hillers are headed to Hershey for the first time in 22 years in qualifying for the championship final, as the WPIAL champion and runner-up compete in the first round on Thursday afternoon and evening.

“This is one of the biggest wins of my career,” said Wright, a 114-pound freshman.

Wright said he wasn’t worried but he had every reason to feel the 1,000 pounds of pressure on his shoulders when he went to face Reinhardt. And things didn’t get any easier when Wright fell behind early 2-0 and it stayed that way until the third period. That’s when Wright came to life with a reversal and three backpoints to overcome the deficit and set off a rousing roar from the large Trinity contingent in the stands.

“I wasn’t worried,” said Wright, “We’ve persevered through hard times before.”

Wright said he was thinking about the long drought Trinity has gone through from making a trip to Hershey and competing in the Giant Center as a team.

“It was running through my mind,” said Wright. “I didn’t even want to throw it in the air that we would not be going.”

Trinity will go as the District 7 runner-up after a 33-32 loss to Connellsville in the finals.

“Yeah I was worried about that bout,” said Trinity head coach Ron Tarquinio. “That was one of our toss-up matches. And it came down to it. It’s Jake’s freshman year and he’s had some ups and downs. He started really hot and then took a couple losses in a row. He lost a little bit of confidence. But he got his weight under control and he’s been able to wrestle really hard.”

Trinity held a 23-11 lead heading into the final four bouts. Pins by Ryan Walsh and Landon Hartman, at 215 and heavyweight, respectively, tied the match and sparked the loud BP fans in attendance. When Jaden Palontine took a 5-2 decision from Mickey Horne, Bethel Park held a 26-23 lead and had six bout wins. The biggest of those six was a 1-0 decision by Mason Kernan over Blake Reihner.

“I’ll be completely honest. They gave us everything for the win,” said Bethel Park head coach Tyler Nauman. “I have no idea what they were doing wrestling Reihner (at 139). They gave us the advantage at 215 and heavyweight. They gave us everything we needed and yet still found a way to lose.”

In the finals, Rob Allison’s 10-0 major decision at 215 gave Trinity a 26-21 lead. But Horne got pinned at 107 to give the lead back to Connellsville, 30-26. Wright lost a 7-4 decision to Nolan Rice to give the Falcons a 7-point lead with one bout left. Dom Canali won by forfeit at 121 to end the match.

“Knowing you came so close (to a title) hurts,” Tarquinio said. “We had one match go a different way or we would have wrestled that match rather than get a forfeit. Everyone is disappointed and they should be because our goal is first place. But we get to move on and experience another week as a team.”

Trinity wrestles District 4 champion Selinsgrove in the first round of the state team tournament Thursday at 6 p.m.

“We finished second and fourth (the last two years), so this is another motto of ours, finish odd,” said Connellsville head coach Bill Swink. “We’d rather be chasing than trying to avoid getting caught.”