Connellsville’s Primus is lone WPIAL freshman in state tournament
For a guy making his first trip to Hershey, Ashtin Primus is doing so with an exclusive designation. But for the moment that honor has been pushed to the background. He has a much more important objective in mind.
Primus is Connellsville’s 119-pound wrestler, who finished second in the WPIAL last weekend, and earned his first trip to the state finals at Chocolate Town, USA.
He is also the only freshman wrestler from the entire WPIAL who qualified for the state event, and just one of five in the whole state of Pennsylvania, who will bid for state titles this weekend in their respective divisions.
Three of the five freshmen wrestlers are in the 103-pound division – Matt Kyler (23-8), third in the Northwest Division, from Clearfield; Kyle Fluke (34-3), Northwest champion, from State College, Jake Bucha (35-8), fourth in the Southeast, from Norristown and rounding out the quintet is Jonathon Wentz (28-9), Northwest 152 runner-up, from Erie Cathedral Prep.
While undergoing workouts for his trip east, Primus said, “Really, I haven’t stopped to think about being the only WPIAL freshman going to Hershey. But it is a real honor, and I’m happy for me, for my team and our school. I want to get there and do the best I can.”
Looking ahead, Primus said, “Coach Dolde (Tommy) told me to stay focused on my division, especially my first bout, and not to be looking ahead to the next match. If you look ahead you can get in trouble, and coach told me to stay focused on what I am doing right now.”
Primus goes east with a 37-5 record that includes a Section 2-AAA championship and second place in the WPIAL, the latter earned last weekend at Hershey when he lost in the finals, 6-2, to Sean Clair of Plum.
Of his 37 wins so far, the 37th is his biggest, and right now the only victory that could top that would be his 41st, which would give him the state title.
That 37th win came in the WPIAL semifinals, where he had battled to a meeting with defending state champion Drew Headlee of Waynesburg.
Primus said, “This was a real tough match. I had lost to Headlee earlier in the season in a dual match, and I knew that he was a real good wrestler. I was losing 2-0 after one period. He picked neutral to start the second, and I took him down late in the period to tie, then got three back points to lead 5-3 into the third. It was my choice, and I picked down, then reversed him for two and went on to win 7-3.”
Ironically, that dropped Headlee to the consolations, where a third-place finish would still get him a trip east to bid for another state title. But it wasn’t to be as he lost a 6-4 decision to Mark McKnight of Chartiers Valley, and will not be returning to Hershey.
Primus said, “I’m familiar with McKnight. I lost a decision to him in the Powerade Tournament in December. He was leading 4-3 and then with 10 seconds left the put me down and got three back points to win 9-3.
“I’m familiar with several of the names in my division. I wrestled John Paukovits of Northampton (31-9, Northeast-2) at the Lehigh Valley Challenge-Parkland Duals and beat him 7-0. I also wrestled Austin Blaschak of State College (26-8, Northwest champion) at Powerade and pinned him in the first period. The ones I didn’t meet, I’m familiar with their names for I checked the results of other tournaments and saw what they did.”
He also had another big win at Powerade, pinning Brandon Rader of Parkersburg, W.Va., in a rematch after losing to him one week earlier.
Dolde called Primus “a real special kind of person and wrestler. A lot of his talent is natural, but the rest of it all comes from endless hard work. He’s one of the hardest working wrestlers you will find, good to be around, and a good example for the others. Ashton has set goals, which is rare for a ninth grader, and nobody will ever work any harder to get those goals.”
Primus is paired in the first round with Northeast Division runner-up Reinaldo Merced (34-1) of Freedom, and that winner faces either South-Central champion Jared Royer (32-1) of Cedar Cliff, or Tony Malfaro (28-15, Southeast-4), of Boyertown.
Primus said, “Right now, I’m concentrating on my first match. In other years, I watched the wrestling on TV, and now here I am going to be part of it.”
Hopefully, a big part for three more years.