Trinity clinches outright section title
Trinity clinched at least a share of its first section wrestling championship in 23 years following last week’s victory over West Allegheny.
Hillers coach Ron Tarquinio and his team didn’t want to share.
Trinity defeated rival Waynesburg 54-18 to clinch the Class 3A Section 5 championship outright Wednesday night at Hiller Hall.
The Hillers finished section action at 5-0 and improved to 8-0 overall.
The WPIAL Class 3A team tournament begins Monday with the preliminary round. The first round and quarterfinals are scheduled for next Wednesday. Trinity will host one of the four sites that will be determined by the WPIAL wrestling seeding committee.
The WPIAL Class 3A semifinals, finals and consolation finals will be contested Feb. 3 at Peters Township’s AHN Arena.
“Some people will say that you have it easy when you coach a good team, but in my experience, these are some of the hardest years to coach because you really have to ring in everybody,” Tarquinio said. “It is not like you are focusing on a couple of individuals. You are focusing on everybody.
“We have nice depth this year and a lot of good guys to maneuver around, if need be, with weight classes, so it’s really a collection of effort from everybody.”
The Raiders will not compete in the team tournament, which is rare for one of the strongest programs in the state.
“We have a month to get better in all aspects of the sport: top, bottom and neutral,” Waynesburg coach Kyle Szewczyk said. “We will be working on offense and defense. We definitely want to take advantage of the time we have before individuals begin.”
Waynesburg’s Floyd Huff trailed by two heading into the third period but scored a reversal and picked up a fall over Jacob Wright at 114 pounds for a 6-0 lead after the first bout.
Dom Canali earned a fall in 35 seconds at 121 to tie the dual meet for the Hillers before Zane Garner threw a headlock and pinned Ky Szewczyk with one second left in the second period at 127 for a 12-6 advantage. Szewczyk had a 4-1 lead before Garner’s throw.
“I think Zane’s very talented, and when he wrestles with belief in himself, he can wrestle with anybody,” Tarquinio said. “The seniors tonight, including him, stepped up big time and came up with some big wins. Hopefully, we can replicate that on Wednesday when we are in the team tournament, and moving forward because we’re going to need performances like that and certain guys are going to need to step up like that in every single match.”
Jim Simon tied the bout for the Raiders (1-4, 3-9) with a fall in 1:04 at 133 before Blake Reihner (139) and TJ Allison (145) won by fall for the home team.
Trinity’s Jackson Bruckner escaped late in the third period to hang on for a 4-3 decision over Daniel Huffman at 152. Teammate Cael Nicollela scored two takedowns in the third period on his way to a 7-4 victory over Brock Evans at 160.
The Hillers’ Bodie Morgan (172) and TJ Allison (189) won by fall to extend their lead to 42-12 with three bouts remaining.
Waynesburg’s Roan Tustin won by fall in 32 seconds at 215.
Trinity’s Nickolas McAdams (285) and Mickey Horne (107) won by forfeit.
The Raiders are unable to wrestle anymore before the individual postseason tournaments begin in late February.
“We are out of competition points, so we can’t compete until individuals,” Kyle Szewczyk said.