Feb 27, 2005 By Jim Wexell For The 4 min read

CHARLEROI – Right before the finals Saturday night, the WPIAL slapped Mt. Pleasant in the face. In the finals, Mt. Pleasant slapped the WPIAL back.

The regular-season dual-meet team champion won three individual titles last night at the WPIAL Class AA Tournament. Mt. Pleasant also had a runner-up, three third-place finishers and will send a total of nine wrestlers to next weekend’s Class AA Southwest Regional at Johnstown.

But Mt. Pleasant was blanked in one category: Its coach, Mark Mears, was passed over as the WPIAL Class AA Coach of the Year in favor of Burrell coach Chris Como. It was a clear sign of disrespect since Mt. Pleasant had defeated Burrell to win the WPIAL dual-meet title.

Burrell did come back to beat Mt. Pleasant in the PIAA team tournament, but, as Mears said, “The award’s for the WPIAL Coach of the Year, not who finished higher at states.”

Mears insisted the slight didn’t bother him. “I think it bothers the kids more,” he said. “I guess sometimes if you’re a good team there’s a certain animosity that builds and that showed today. But I’m more worried about my kids, not about me. We’re losing only two seniors, so we’ll be back.”

The two seniors – Lee Vanella and Zach Holt – took home gold and silver medals last night.

Vanella is part of a Mt. Pleasant threesome that completed back-to-back WPIAL championships last night. Vanella (125), Joe Geary (130) and Donnie Ament (145) are the first such trio to accomplish the trick in school history. Geary and Ament are only juniors.

“I thought we did real well,” Mears said. “Our goal was to advance eight to 10 wrestlers and we advanced nine, with three champs and a runner-up. You can’t ask the kids to perform much better than that, considering the pressure they’re under.”

Burrell came away with two individual champions, three runners-up and a third-place finisher among its 10 regional qualifiers.

West Greene advanced six wrestlers to the regional, led by Kory Bissett, the fourth-seed who knocked off undefeated Jeff Kusich of Avella to win the 119-pound title.

Stephen Zubach of Southmoreland was the district’s only finalist. The 215-pounder lost to top-seeded Nathan Tomporoski, 3-1, in the title match.

Zubach allowed Tomporoski a takedown with two seconds left in the first period. Those two points stood up after Zubach escaped in the second period. Zubach intentionally allowed Tomporoski to escape with 38 seconds left in the third period but couldn’t record a late takedown.

“I got caught flat-footed,” Zubach said of the first-period takedown. “I thought the period was over, and I didn’t think he’d shoot on me.”

“He was in deep three times in the first period and didn’t finish,” Southmoreland coach Jon Banko said of his wrestler. “You can’t get in there and not finish the takedown. You can’t. You only get so many opportunities. At this level, the kids are too good.”

Zubach figures to see Tomporoski again at the regional. “The best thing I can do is forget all this and look forward to next week,” he said.

Belle Vernon’s Weslager brothers each finished third. Jason Weslager, the top seed at 119, lost to Bissett in the semifinals but came back with two consolation wins.

Jacob Weslager followed the same path. The sophomore lost to top-seeded Stew Guthrie of West Greene in the semifinals before rebounding for his bronze medal.

Dan Sauritch and Travis Dunn of Belle Vernon each needed two consolation wins to advance, but both won only one consolation and came up short in the second – Sauritch by a point and Dunn by two.

The top six wrestlers in each weight class advance to the regional.

Beth-Center will be represented by junior Zach Catalina at 130 pounds.

West Greene’s qualifiers, along with Bissett, are Garrett Johnson (2nd 103), Guthrie (2nd 130), Justin Blumer (3rd 112), Tucker Conklin (3rd 140) and Cody Runner (5th 145).

Mt. Pleasant’s regional qualifiers, along with Vanella, Geary, Ament and Holt, are Ed Moorhead (3rd 152) and four freshmen: Dan Cavalcante (3rd 189), Paul Snyder (3rd 215), Allen Park (6th 103) and Ty Vanella (6th 119).