Dec 28, 2024 By Jonathan Guth 3 min read

CANONSBURG — Connellsville’s senior duo of Evan Petrovich and Lonzy Vielma fell in Friday night’s quarterfinals, but still advanced to Day 2 of action in the Powerade Christmas Wrestling Tournament at Canon-McMillan High School.

West Greene’s Colin Whyte also lost in the round of eight, but the junior will compete in the second day on Saturday.

The Falcons’ Tommy Gretz and Kai Vielma wrestled back in the consolations on Friday and will look to earn a spot on the podium.

Petrovich entered the tournament as the sixth seed at 152 pounds, but due to scratches to the second and third seeds, Petrovich moved up to the No. 4 seed.

The University of Pittsburgh recruit won by technical fall, 19-3, in his opening bout and recorded a 9-3 decision in the round of 16 to set up a match with Gabriel Delgado, the fifth seed, from Slam Academy of Las Vegas, Nev.

Delgado scored a takedown with one second remaining to edge Petrovich, 8-5, in the quarterfinals.

Vielma secured a takedown with 11 seconds left in his round of 16 bout at 160 to defeat Cameron Cannaday of Mt. St. Joseph of Maryland, 4-1. The West Virginia University recruit had a 4-1 decision over Malvern Prep’s Stephen Smith in the round of 32.

Vielma, the No. 8 seed, faced No. 1 seed Alessio Perentin of Delbarton, N.J., in the quarterfinals.

Perentin won by technical fall, 19-2, in 4:59.

Whyte earned a 5-0 decision over Logan Middleton of Parkersburg South, W.Va., to advance to the quarterfinals at 285. Middleton was the No. 6 seed.

Whyte battled Jacob Levy of Lake Highland Prep, Fla., in the round of eight. Levy was the No. 3 seed. Levy won by fall to drop Whyte into the sixth round of consolations.

Connellsville’s Tommy Gretz won his first bout, 6-3, in the round of 32 before dropping an 11-8 decision to Bishop McCort’s Keegan Bassett, who was the No. 5 seed at 107.

Gretz won his fourth and fifth-round consolation bouts to advance to Day 2.

During his match in the round of 16, Gretz scored the opening takedown for a 3-0 lead, but Bassett escaped and took down Gretz for a 4-3 advantage after the first period.

Bassett escaped and recorded his second takedown for an 8-3 lead. Gretz escaped before Bassett scored his third takedown for an 11-4 advantage.

Bassett let Gretz up again, but Gretz turned the tables on the freshman with a takedown of his own to cut the deficit to three.

Gretz went neutral with his choice in the third period but couldn’t record the match-tying takedown.

The Falcons’ Nolan Rice won his first bout, 6-2, before dropping a 6-0 decision to Malvern Prep’s Lukas Littleton Mascaro in the round of 16 to fall into the fourth round of consolations.

Connellsville’s Zachary Franks lost his first bout, 8-6, but rebounded to pin the No. 8 seed, Destin Maestas, of Slam Academy (Nev.) in the third round of consolations at 114. Franks was eliminated in the evening session.

Connellsville’s Luke Lilley (127), Jake Lilley (133), Kai Vielma (139), Julian Ruggieri (145), Dylan Lytle (215) and Roghan Hollis (285) also wrestled in the fourth round of consolations.

Vielma won his fourth and fifth-round consolation bouts to advance to the second day of action.

Waynesburg Central’s Brock Evans (160) and Roan Tustin (285) wrestled in the fourth round of consolations.

Tustin won both his matches Friday evening to remain alive for a medal, while Evans went 1-1 but had a 4-2 record overall.