Connellsville, AG dominate Section 2-AAA wrestling championships
CONNELLSVILLE – Connellsville rolled a winning seven and Albert Gallatin wrapped things up in record form. The two old rivals, who battled all season long for honors in Section 2-AAA, carried that rivalry one more notch over into the individual championship finals that concluded a day-long run yesterday at Connellsville High, as they combined to win 12 of the 14 championships and share 20 of the 42 qualifying spots out of the section.
In all, Connellsville crowned seven champions, plus one second place, while Albert Gallatin got a record five first places to go with five seconds. The only championships they didn’t win were at 125 and 135, and Ringgold claimed both of them.
Leading the Connellsville winners was Jarrod King, whose 152 title gives him three in a row for his career, and since he is a junior he will have the chance to make it a rare four titles next year. Teammates Josh Martin and Kyle Martin joined him on the repeat ladder with their seconds, while all the others won for the first time.
John Ptak led the way for Albert Gallatin with not only his record third championship in a row, but also his 101st career victory. Ptak won two bouts, pinning Levi Brown of Ringgold in :52 during the semi-finals for his 100th win, the first time that any Albert Gallatin wrestler has scored 100 victories. Then for good measure he stretched Levi Harris of Laurel Highlands in 1:59 of the championship final to get started on his second hundred, getting two takedowns and six backs, around a Harris escape, before the final clamp.
Ptak noted of his record “it’s a real good feeling. I had wrestled both opponents before in section matches and won both times.
“I had a good opponent in the final and I had to work for the pin. But I’m very happy that not only could I get a record win, but that I also helped our team win a record number of individual section championships.”
Colonial Coach Duane Dupont added “I’m very happy for John, real proud of what he has accomplished. Now his record can be used by the younger wrestlers as their goal for the future.”
With five championships, Dupont added “as long as I have been coaching here that is a record high for us. There might have been more in one year before I started coaching, but I don’t recall them. The best we had done before, while I have been coaching, was one.”
King didn’t waste any time in the afternoon round to reach the finals and bid for his third crown. He stretched Del Simpson of Laurel Highlands in 23-seconds, then hung a 23-5 technical fall on Jared Hirtz (AG) to wrap up his third crown. King led 10-4 into the third period where he reversed from down to start, then had four takedowns and three back points, around four Hirtz escapes for a 13-point third.
Connellsville Coach Tommy Dolde said “right now, Jarrod is where he wants to be as far as conditioning and strength goes. He is physically ready and strong.”
Dolde feels that as a team his Falcons “are peaking at the right time, and this week we will be working on trying to improve some little things. Overall, we wrestled tonight about as I expected. We started slow in the morning round, but then picked up the tempo as we went along. We had a shot at a couple more titles, but Sines (Delbert, 135) got beat by a good opponent and Hughes (Steve, 275) had a good match but came up a point short.”
Jon Bittinger (103) got Albert Gallatin started with a 1:34 pinning of Jason Weslager (Belle Vernon), taking him down and across the chest for the count.
Steve Bell (112) won Connellsville’s first title with a 1:25 pinning of Greg Hogan (Laurel Highlands), and Ashton Primus (119) made it two in a row for the Falcons with a 1:11 cradling of Jeff Lawrence (AG). The win was the 34th for both.
Mitch Pankiewicz (125) was Ringgold’s first winner, with a 9-0 major over Jerod Chapman (AG), clinching with a takedown and back points in the third. Then Josh Martin (130) made it two in a row for him and three for CAHS with a 10-3 decisioning of Dan Lutz (Ringgold), wrapping it up with an escape to start the third, a takedown, and three backs.
Brandon Baldini (135) gave Ringgold its second title and him his 23rd win in 24 bouts, with an 8-3 count over Sines, using takedowns in each period. Kyle Martin (140) followed with his second title and the fourth of the night for CAHS with an 18-5 major over Brandon Radicic (AG). Martin started off with three takedowns and five backs in an 11-point first, and went from there to his 32nd win.
Ryan Howell (145) scored the second AG title win with a 3-2 squeaker over Anthony Sayles (Belle Vernon). Howell escaped to start the second, took Sayles down for his edge, then countered every effort by Sayles in the third to protect his lead. After King and Ptak wrapped up their third titles, Jason Doppelheuer gave the Falcons a sixth title and him his 30th win in a 3-1 edging of Eric Zyske (BV), his final margin being an escape in the second and a pancake takedown.
Jim Tony (189) scored the final title win for the Falcons, braking a 2-2 tie in the third with an escape to start, a takedown, reversal, and three backs to nail Tom Karpency (AG), 10-5.
The last two wins and championships belonged to Albert Gallatin. Marc Berry and Dan Newton (Uniontown) had a good 215 battle going, with Newton taking a 2-1 lead into the third, where Berry escaped to start, then took Newton down, for a 5-3 win. Heavyweight Ryan Martelli wrapped up the night and the title card for the Colonials by nudging Hughes, 3-2. Martelli escaped to start the second and led 1-0 into the third.
Hughes escaped at the start for a 1-1 tie, Martelli took him down, and Hughes escaped again, but Martelli countered his closing efforts for a 3-2 win.
Coach Dupont allowed that “what we accomplished here makes me feel real good, and it is the epitome of the hard work this team put in all season. We set a lot of goals when the season opened, and one of them was to get as many wrestlers to the finals and win as many championships as we could, and I think they accomplished that in good form. We lost a couple of tough ones in the finals or we could possibly have had a couple more titles.”
It was a great night all around for Connellsville and Albert Gallatin both.