Butler’s Sloboda wins WPIAL title in wild fashion
CANONSBURG — A high school championship wrestling match is scheduled for 360 seconds.
Butler sophomore Santino Sloboda needed all but four of them.
After being taken down by Norwin’s Landon Sidun with 22 seconds left — putting him behind 4-3 in their WPIAL 3A 114-pound title match Saturday at Canon-McMillan High School — Sloboda scored a reversal with four seconds remaining to attain a 5-4 victory and improve his season record to 36-0.
“That match was an absolute classic,” Butler coach Scott Stoner said. “Santino kept his cool on the mat. He wrestled as strong a mental match as he did a physical one.
“The Sidun kid is ranked No. 1 nationally in his weight class. All we’ve been hearing was how he was going to beat Santino up. He (Sloboda) has been hearing that, too. But he stayed right with him.”
Sloboda becomes Butler’s third-ever WPIAL boys wrestling champion, joining Cole Baxter and Christian Sequete.
“I got pinned in the finals here last year,” Sloboda said. “All I’ve wanted was to get my name put up on the wall of the (Butler wrestling) room as a WPIAL champion. Now it’s gonna be there. This is awesome.”
Sloboda improved his career varsity wrestling record to 76-3. Sidun, a freshman, dropped to 37-2.
Stoner attributed the winning move to the “Dirty Boot,” the term they use to describe the reversal maneuver Sloboda executed.
“Once he took me down, I knew I had to move,” Sloboda said. “I saw that move was there, so I just went for it and I got him.
“Nobody thought I could beat that kid, outside of the 10 people or so in my circle. This feels really good.”
Sloboda scored a takedown on Sidun in the first period, then gave up a reversal. The second period was scoreless and Sloboda scored an escape with 1:49 left in the third for a 3-2 lead before Sidun took him down late to grab the lead.
“You can never count that kid out of a match,” Stoner said of Sloboda. “That finish was unbelievable.”
In the girls West Regional, Butler senior Ana Malovich won the 118-pound weight class by pinning Connellsville’s Trinity Moore in 3:14. Malovich (15-0) also pinned Moore in the finals of the WPIAL tournament two weeks ago.
“It’s fun making history,” Malovich said. “I was the first girl to wrestle in the WPIAL boys tournament, was our first WPIAL girls champion, now I got the West Regional ... But I don’t think of those things while I’m wrestling.
“When I’m on the mat, it’s all about just getting the job done.”
The Golden Tornado’s 142-pound freshman, Anastasia Manchester, placed third on Saturday and will join Malovich at this weekend’s girls state tournament in Hershey.
“Ana is continuing her momentum out to Hershey,” Butler girls coach Nathan Bottiger said, referencing this week’s state tourney. “She has a great attitude on the mat. She takes no opponent for granted and is always prepared.
“Anastasia is going to states as a freshman. She is an aggressive, high-risk wrestler by nature. She didn’t change that style down here and it paid off for her.”
Butler 133-pounder Kase Chopp placed fourth and will join Sloboda in representing the Tornado at the boys state meet.
“Kase wrestled a solid tournament,” Stoner said. “Those two guys are putting a very positive ending on what was a tough season for us overall.”
Seneca Valley 121-pounder Connor Smith placed fourth in the boys meet and the Raiders’ 148-pounder Hannah Hornick took second on the girls side. They will be headed to Hershey as well.
Smith was the lone Raider boy to get through to states.
“All of our kids did well, though,” SV coach Kevin Wildrick said. “Nobody wrestled poorly for us. This is the WPIAL Tournament. It is so hard to get through this thing.“
Hornick had a 2-0 lead heading into the third period of her championship match. She started the final period on the bottom, was turned by Norwin’s Karsyn Champion and pinned 17 seconds into the final frame.
“That doesn’t take away from what Hannah accomplished down here today,” SV girls wrestling coach Jess Leighty said. “We brought four girls here and they’re all underclassmen. Hannah is only a sophomore.
“I don’t know if any of these girls would be wrestling if we didn’t have a girls team. I’m proud of all of them and I love how the future looks for our program.”
Knoch 100-pound junior Miranda Lajevic placed third in the girls meet and also qualified for the state tourney. She qualified for states last year and placed seventh.
“My goal this time is to place among the top three,” she said. “I feel like I can do that. Coming here today, wrestling in front of all of these people ... This was really special.”
Malovich agreed.
“I love the fact we were able to wrestle in front of a packed gym like this,” Malovich said. “If our tournament wasn’t alongside the boys, we’d probably ber wrestling in some backroom somewhere.
“The spotlight was on us and it was so much fun.”
The PIAA boys and girls tournament runs Thursday through Saturday at the Giant Center in Hershey.
WPIAL 3A CHAMPIONSHIPS
(County boys placers)
Championship Final
114 pounds-Santino Sloboda (Butler) dec. Landon Sidun (Norwin), 5-4
Consolation Finals
121-Collier Hartman (Canon0-McMillan) dec. Connor Smith (Seneca Valley), 5-3
133-Ramil Islamov (Baldwin) dec. Kase Chopp (Butler), 8-3
Seventh-Eighth Place
139-Zach Hill (Seneca Valley) dec. Joshua Alexander (Fox Chapel), 10-0
WESTERN REGION CHAMPIONSHIPS
(County girls placers)
Championship Finals
118 pounds-Ana Malovich (Butler) pinned Trinity Moore (Connellsville), 3:14
148-Karsyn Champion (Norwin) pinned Hannah Hornick (Seneca Valley), 4:17
Consolation Finals
100-Miranda Lajevic (Knoch) pinned Sophia Beanner (Mt. Lebanon), :33
142-Anastasia Manchester (Butler) dec. Eva Gray (Canon-McMillan), 1-0
