Butler sends 12 wrestlers to WPIALs

By JOHN ENRIETTO Eagle Sports Editor

February 23, 2009 Last Updated: February 23, 2009 03:55 PM High School

Butler’s Cole Baxter tries to turn over North Hills’ Zach Gloekler in the 145 pound title matchat the Section 3-AAA wrestling tournament Saturdayat Fox Chapel. Baxter won by a 6-2 decision to improve to 37-0 on the season.

Tornado set program record

FOX CHAPEL— Excuse Scott Stoner if he's a little busier than usual this week.

His Butler wrestling team qualified a school-record 12 matmen to the WPIALTournament during the Section 3-AAAtourney Saturday at Fox Chapel High School. The previous mark was seven in 2006.

"I'm going to have to make additional travel arrangements, get more hotel rooms, but that's OK,"Stoner said. "I wouldn't mind getting used to this."

He may have to. Of the Golden Tornado's 12 WPIALqualifiers, nine are freshmen or sophomores.

"That's pretty impressive,"Stoner said. "I'm thrilled by that."

Butler qualified the most wrestlers out of the section. North Allegheny and Fox Chapel qualified nine each.

"They have more section champions than we do, but we lost a few third-place matches here because of our inexperience,"Stoner said. "We're going to get better."

While NA and Fox Chapel had four section champions each, Butler's Cole Baxter was the Tornado's lone champion. The sophomore improved to 37-0 by winning the 145-pound title.

Baxter and NA's Dave Cawley (14-0 at 140 pounds) are the section's only unbeaten wrestlers.

"I'm surprised I'm still undefeated by now,"Baxter admitted. "You usually stumble at some point, get hurt or some match just doesn't go your way.

"There's going to be a lot of good wrestlers at WPIALs. Nothing's a given."

Butler's 112-pound freshman, Zach Reges, made the finals in his weight class, but lost a 5-0 decision there. Tornado 140-pounder Mike Crawford might have made the finals, but defaulted to Seneca Valley's Nate Cully in the semifinals. Crawford placed third in the tournament.

"My shoulder's maybe 70 to 80 percent,"Crawford said. "It's really weak. We had to pick a match somewhere down here to default to save it a little bit."

"Live to fight another day,"Stoner said. "We just wanted to get him through this thing. Cully beat him when he was healthy, so that was the time."

Other WPIALqualifiers for Butler are Nick Sutton at 103 pounds, Eric Tuck at 119, Cody Hartman at 130, Dillon Weston at 135, Derek Hays at 152, Dakoda Collins at 160, Matt Pribis at 171, Chris White at 189 and Alex Truman at 285.

Seneca Valley's Grant Evans at 119 pounds and Cully at 140 made the finals, but lost. The only other Raiders to qualify for the WPIALmeet were Colton Schiever at 112 and Jordan Williams at 215.

"The competition down here was tough,"Seneca Valley coach Tom Tomneo said. "Everyone but our 189-pounder won at least one match in this tournament and most of these guys will be back."

The Raiders entered the tournament with five No. 2 seeds. One of them, heavyweight Dave Bonetti, sprained his ankle Thursday.

"That happened wrestling against a coach in the practice room,"Tomeo said. "It's unfortunate, but it was just one of those things."

Knoch had five wrestlers in the section meet — Grayson Hixon at 119, Brittney Faust at 125, Mason Kaufman at 135, Jakob Williams at 140 and Kevin Green at 145.

Only Hixon got through, finishing fourth to become a third-time WPIALqualifier.

"He's carrying our flag right now, but that flag doesn't even include a wrestling room,"Knoch coach Mark McLaughlin said. "We have to roll the mats out in the cafeteria every day. Our kids have to wait an hour and a half before they can practice.

"What Grayson's done under the circumstances we're left with is commendable."

The WPIALTournament runs Thursday through Saturday at Canon McMillan High School.

SECTION 3-AAA Wrestling(all 4 advance to WPIALmeet)Finals; Consolation Finals103 pounds — Troy Zangaro (North Hills) dec. Greg Gaus (North Allegheny) 7-1; Conner Whelan (Fox Chapel) dec. Nick Sutton (Butler) 6-3112 — Kraig Eswwein (North Hills) dec. Zach Reges (Butler) 5-0; Mike Wanner (North Allegheny) dec. Colton Schiever (Seneca Valley) 5-0119 — Nick Rodgers (North Allegheny) dec. Grant Evans (Seneca Valley) 5-0; Eric Tuck (Butler) dec. Grayson Hixon (Knoch) 7-3125 — Carson Brooks (Fox Chapel) dec. Kevin Monper (North Allegheny) 5-2; Cameron Weber (North Hills) dec. Peter Craig (Hampton) 5-1130 — Joe Waltko (North Allegheny) pinned Ryan Craig (Hampton) 3:44; Bryan Brown (Avonworth) dec. Cody Hartman (Butler) 3-1135 — Andy Candiello (North Allegheny) pinned Tom Caldwell (Fox Chapel) 3:54; Dillon Weston (Butler) dec. Jared Steinmetz (Hampton)3-1140 — Dave Cawley (North Allegheny) dec. Nate Cully (Seneca Valley) 4-0; Mike Crawford (Butler) dec. Jordan Brennan (Pine-Richland) 9-0145 — Cole Baxter (Butler) dec. Zach Gloekler (North Hills) 6-2; Rick Peluso (North Allegheny) dec. Dave DiBenedetto (Fox Chapel) 5-3152 — Justin Mahon (Fox Chapel) dec. Harrison Maxwell (Pine-Richland) 7-1; Derek Hays (Butler) dec. Jared Psensky (Avonworth) 3-1 in OT160 — Nick Letters (Fox Chapel) dec. Ben Amrhein (North Hills) 5-0; Ben Kramer (Avonworth) tech. fall over Dakoda Collins (Butler) 21-6171 — Josh Fleming (Shaler) dec. Seb Fischer (North Allegheny) 15-7; Stefano Geary (Fox Chapel) pinned Matt Pribis (Butler) 3:36189 — Aaron Barker (Fox Chapel) dec. Nick Yaroszewski (Hampton) 6-3; Chris White (Butler) by injury default over Justin Okinski (Avonworth)215 — Jordan Shulman (Hampton) dec. Doug Rodgers (Shaler) 3-2; Jordan Williams (Seneca Valley) dec. Dan Mahon (Fox Chapel) 1-0285 — Joe Raimondi (Hampton) pinned Adam Harvey (Avonworth) 2:29; Jamal Conroy (Shaler) pinned Alex Truman (Butler) 2:33

Seneca Valley’s Nate Cully (top) wrestles North Allegheny’s Dave Cawley in the 140-pound match of the Section 3 AAA finals at Fox Chapel. Cully dropped a 4-0 decision.