Jan 7, 2024 By Jonathan Guth 6 min read

CANONSBURG — Burgettstown’s Parker Sentipal and Jefferson-Morgan’s Chase Frameli pulled off the three-peat Saturday afternoon in the TriCADA championships at Canon-McMillan High School.

Sentipal won the 133-pound individual championship with an 8-0 major decision and Frameli clenched the title at 160 with 7-1 decision in the finals.

Sentipal’s title was one of two gold medals for the Blue Devils, who defended their team championship at TriCADA with 180 team points. Peters Township was second with 156.5 points and Bentworth (143) finished third.

“I am proud of our kids,” Burgettstown coach Joey Vigliotti said. “I thought they did pretty good, but there is a lot to work on. Obviously, we have some really good kids in our lineup, but some of the first and second-year kids are starting to come along really well.

“Even with the WPIAL title last year, people think that your studs win you titles, but it’s your middle-of-the-road kids that win you titles. We had a kid in Brodie Kuzior that has only been wrestling for two months and he finished in sixth place at this tournament. The kid he beat in the blood round had beat him in his first match of the year. All of our kids work hard.”

The Blue Devils are the lone Class 2A school to win the TriCADA team tournament.

Rudy Brown won the second individual title for Burgettstown after a 9-3 decision in the finals. He earned career win No. 100 with a fall in the semifinals. Teammate Joey Baronick was second at 285, but joined the 100-win club in his first bout on Friday at TriCADA.

Sentipal, a senior, scored two touchdowns in the first and third periods, added an escape in the second and earned three near-fall points with four seconds remaining to defeat Canon-McMillan’s Vincent Binni.

Sentipal and Frameli did not compete as freshmen at TriCADA because the event was canceled in 2021 due to COVID-19.

“I didn’t get too excited after winning my finals match because I have been here before and I want to act like that,” Sentipal said. “I was glad to be able to win this tournament the three times I wrestled in it. I also like to wrestle this tournament because I can compete against guys in Class 3A and that competition really helps me. We have high expectations for our team.”

Sentipal and current teammate Gaven Suica will head to Edinboro next season to continue their academic and wrestling careers.

“The coach at Edinboro (Matt Hill) was a WPIAL guy and he is tight with us,” Sentipal said. “I think he was looking for the WPIAL guys because he knows how strong and tough we are.”

Suica placed second in TriCADA on Saturday at 139 to Trinity’s Blake Reihner, who won his second straight championship.

Frameli scored a takedown and two near-fall points early in his finals bout with Waynesburg’s Brock Evans for a 5-0 lead. Frameli allowed an escape in the second, but scored an escape and a second takedown in the third to secure his third TriCADA gold.

Frameli improved on the season to 19-2. He has a career record of 96-21, and although he hasn’t made a decision on what school he would like to attend, Frameli wants to wrestle in college.

“I really never think too far ahead when it comes to future tournaments,” Frameli said. “I just work on wrestling one match at a time. I thought I wrestled really well neutral, and I was able to finish on my shots this weekend.

“I grew up watching wrestlers at Jefferson-Morgan like Gavin Teasdale, so I knew all about the expectations of competing at a school that has such a strong wrestling tradition.”

Evans didn’t win the gold, but the Mapletown student who wrestles for the Raiders defeated Peters Township’s Darius McMillon, 2-0, in the semifinals. McMillon was seeking a second TriCADA championship.

Reihner was solid on his feet, as he scored four takedowns on his way to a 9-1 major decision for the Davidson recruit.

“I knew going into the match that he (Suica) was a tough opponent and I was going to have to work on moving him and creating angles to get to my offense,” Reihner said. “I just tried to get him off-balance and get to my attacks. It is definitely a good feeling to win this tournament two times.”

The Big Macs’ Geno Calgaro hit a takedown and three back points as time wound down in the second period for a 6-0 lead over Ringgold’s Jake Conroy in the 215-pound final. Conroy would escape and score a takedown in the third, but Calgaro was able to deny Conroy a second TriCADA championship and hand the Ram junior his first setback of the season in a 6-3 decision.

“I thought I did pretty well with my shot defense,” Calgaro said. “I was pretty tired towards the end of the match, but I was able to grind it out. There are high expectations when you are a wrestler at Canon-McMillan. We have a strong program with a rich wrestling tradition.”

Calgaro, a senior, had just three matches under his belt this season when the tournament began on Friday.

Teammate Collier Hartman won the championship at 121 with a 6-5 decision.

Waynesburg sophomore Roan Tustin has battled through injuries the early part of the season, but plans on being ready to go the rest of the season. Tustin had a big confidence builder in earning a 3-1 decision over Baronick.

“I had a match on Wednesday, but before that, I was off for about three weeks,” Tustin said. “Despite not getting a lot of mat time this season because of the injury, I still worked on my conditioning, and I felt pretty good out there. I am pretty light for a heavyweight. I only weigh about 210, but I try to use my speed to my advantage against these bigger guys.”

Peters Township freshman Nicholas McGarrity won the 107-pound championship with a 16-1 technical fall in 3:54. McGarrity improved his season record to 24-0, but knows the season is just starting to heat up.

“I was happy with how I wrestled today and in the tournament this weekend,” McGarrity said. “I really enjoy wrestling in the individual tournaments more than the team duals. I am undefeated so far this season, but I know there is a lot of wrestling left.”

South Fayette’s Brock Dennison (114) and Fort Cherry’s Braedon Welsh (172) won their first titles at TriCADA.