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Butler Girls Wrestling Tournament: Tornado’s Anastasia Manchester, Brin Zehmisch snag medals

BUTLER TWP — Butler girls wrestling achieved its expectations Saturday.

That was the consensus from the Butler Intermediate High School, where the program hosted the Butler Girls Wrestling Tournament for the third year and first independently from the boys junior varsity tournament.

Brin Zehmisch took home a silver medal at 118 pounds, and Anastasia Manchester finished fourth at 136, highlighting a 14th-place finish (46 points) for the hosts at the 27-team meet.

“I think everybody fared probably as expected,” Butler coach Nathan Bottiger said.

The two got there by different paths.

Related Article: What additions of Knoch, Slippery Rock teams mean for growth of girls wrestling in Butler County Related Article: Notebook: Knoch’s Braylee Ireland, Seneca Valley’s Hannah Hornick medal at Butler Girls Wrestling Tournament
Butler's Anastasia Manchester wrestles Fort Leboeuf's Emma Salmon during a first-round wrestling match in Saturday’s Butler Girls Wrestling Tournament at the Butler Intermediate High School. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Zehmisch cruised to the final with a first-round bye and pinfall victory in the semifinals, but she then sat for hours before her final.

Manchester, meanwhile, battled through the tournament’s toughest bracket. It featured the state’s Nos. 2, 3 and 5 wrestlers, according to pa-wrestling.com’s latest rankings, in Kiski Area’s Ava Golding, Connellsville’s Janayah Nobles and Laurel’s Maggie Alfera.

Manchester was an honorable mention in the rankings previously this season as just a sophomore. So, losses to a senior in Nobles in the semifinals by 4-0 decision and a junior in Alfera in the bronze-medal match by pin in 2:19 were not disappointments.

“Anastasia’s right in the mix with those girls, I just think she needs to take an extra step, and I think she’s improving and getting closer to that every day,” Bottiger said.

Manchester wrestled at 142 pounds last year. But she decided to step down to 136 heading into her sophomore year to face deeper, tougher competition to develop her game.

That has paid off, she thinks.

“Knowing that I was able to beat people that are older than me, stronger than me, they have more technique than me, (that) puts me in a better mindset knowing that going to next year I’m going to do that, beat more seniors, just stuff like,” she said.

“She’s battled adversity this year in the idea that she is seeing a new level of talent, and she’s starting to shape her goals around that,” Bottiger said. “I think that’s important for her development moving forward, as she’s only a sophomore.”

Manchester, who went 3-2 to improve to 16-7 this season, was able to push the pace against Nobels momentarily in the early going, a sign she is close to some of the state’s top talent.

Related Article: How Butler wrestling’s Kase Chopp accomplished goal of 100 career wins Related Article: See the scenes from Butler’s Doc Phillips JV Wrestling Tournament
Butler's Brin Zehmisch wrestles Fort Leboeuf’s Ella McGuire during the first-place match in Saturday’s Butler Girls Wrestling Tournament at Butler Intermediate High School. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Zehmisch’s challenge, meanwhile, was trying to stay ready in a lighter weight class before taking on a bigger, stronger opponent in Ella McGuire (Fort Leboeuf). Zehmisch (17-6) was pinned in the third period in 5:22, ending a 1-1 day.

“It was definitely a tough match because she was definitely a lot stronger and a lot heavier than I was,” she said.

Her coach was pleased, though.

“Overall, I think she wrestled well … was really aggressive, went to her moves and really focused and locked in on those positions,” Bottiger said.

Elsewhere, 148-pounder Miley Toner picked up team points by making it to the third round of the consolation bracket before losing to eventual bronze medalist Deonna Chatfield (Erie), and Olivia Hageman (190) also advanced to the consy third round.

Local medalists

Here are how Butler, Knoch and Seneca Valley wrestlers did in the medal round.

100, third-place match: Blythe Letters (Shaler Area) tech. fall Everly Harrell (Seneca Valley), 15-0

118, first-place match: Ella McGuire (Fort Leboeuf) fall Brin Zehmisch (Butler), 5:22

124, third-place match: Leah Sample (Saegertown) dec. Braylee Ireland (Knoch), 5-4

130, third-place match: Anna Duncan (South Park) fall Maddee Fischer (Seneca Valley), 1:51

136, third-place match: Maggie Alfera (Laurel) fall Anastasia Manchester (Butler), 2:19

155, fifth-place match: Whisper Abercrombie (General Mclane) fall Kaeleigh Tuell (Seneca Valley), 4:05

170, first-place match: Davaya Truman (Erie) fall Hannah Hornick (Seneca Valley), 1:50

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