SHARON, Pa. — Senior 189-pounder Nick Sipes joined a very select group of Curwensville Area High School wrestlers by winning his second PIAA Class AA Northwest Region Tournament championship and freshman 103-pounder Derek Brothers became only the fifth Golden Tide matman to claim a region crown Saturday night at Sharon High School.
\”I felt very confident going into the tournament that Nick would be a champion,\” Curwensville coach Duane Wriglesworth II said. \”I didn\’t know what to expect from Brothers. When you\’ve never been there before, there\’s a lot of doubt as to what can happen. He had to beat two district champions, and that\’s quite an accomplishment.\”
Sipes is Curwensville\’s third two-time region titlist. Older brother Nate Sipes (189 in 2004 and 215 in 2005) and Dave Irwin (98 in 1979 and 103 in 1980) went on to become two-time state champions. Randy Cathcart (145 in 1977) was the Golden Tide\’s first region and state gold medalist.
Nick Sipes, who lost in the region finals last year after winning at 171 as a sophomore, has placed second and fourth in his two trips to the PIAA Class AA Championships.
For the second week in a row, Sipes (28-2) defeated tough Ridgway junior Jerico Weitzel in a title bout, repeating his 3-2 District 9 effort with a takedown midway through the first period of overtime for a 3-1 victory. They had traded escapes during the regulation bout, spending most of the six minutes sparring on their feet.
\”Nick converted a single shot into a double finish at the edge of the mat, which is normally how he engineers a lot of his takedowns,\” Wriglesworth said. \”We knew going in that his biggest match would be against Weitzel, because he had already beaten (District 10 champ) Joe Joseph at the Grove City Tournament in January.
\”You look at the score and it\’s very close, but Nick definitely dominated. He maintained good position through the entire match. Defensively, he seemed to be in very good control out there. His confidence is up, and I\’d say he\’s wrestling at his peak right now.\”
Sipes now has a 2-1 edge on Weitzel, who eked out a 2-1 decision in their dual meet showdown.
In the semifinals, Sipes shut out D-10 runner-up Mike Miller of Reynolds 7-0 and Weitzel sidelined Joseph 6-3.
Brothers (30-6) also had a D-9 championship bout rematch in the region finals, and he atoned for the previous week\’s 3-2 setback to Ridgway\’s Garet Pisani with a 5-2 victory after besting District 10 champ Kilian Hiner of Fort LeBoeuf 2-0 with a second-period reversal in the semis.
Against Pisani, the Golden Tide bantam grabbed a 4-0 lead in the first period with a takedown and a tilt for two points. He broke away for his final point in the second period. He surrendered a point for stalling before Pisani escaped in the third period.
\”We worked with Derek in practice on wrestling a full six minutes and not to relax,\” Wriglesworth said. \”He relaxed for about 10 seconds last week, and Pisani was able to catch him with a heel pick, which cost him the match. In this match, we wanted him to keep the pressure on to set up his shots.\”
A spectacular move by Brothers led to the opening takedown.
\”What happened was Derek shot, and Pisani re-shot a single and picked up Derek\’s leg,\” Wriglesworth explained. \”Derek got in a whizzer, reached down and picked his ankle and brought Pisani down to his back. He didn\’t get any points, but he came out of the scramble with the takedown. It\’s a move you might work on in practice, but you very seldom see it in a match. It was a beautiful move.
\”Derek also impressed me on his escape when he broke free at the edge of the mat. He stayed in bounds while Pisani went out of bounds, so the referee didn\’t blow his whistle. Most freshmen wrestlers don\’t have the mat awareness to do that.\”
Curwensville junior 145-pounder Brett McCracken, a D-9 runner-up, bowed out of the tourney with a 5-3 loss to D-10 runner-up Craig Johnson of Grove City after pinning Justin Ferguson in 3:58.
\”He\’s been fighting an elbow injury for more than a month, and many wrestlers would have hung it up, because he was in a lot of pain,\” Wriglesworth said. \”It was a really bad hyperextension that happened in practice. The problem is that anytime anybody puts pressure on that, he loses strength from his shoulder to his hands. When he got pinned with a wing in districts, he just didn\’t have the strength to pull it out. The exact same thing happened at the regions in his first bout.
\”He lost a lot of practice time, but he\’s a leader. He was one of our captains this year and really represented us as best as he could.\”
Golden Tide sophomore 112-pounder Tyler Peters, a Cinderella story at districts with a third-place finish after being unseeded, dropped his second region bout in a row Saturday. Niko Boccuzzi of Hickory ended his season 5-1.
\”Peters had the flu this week and really hadn\’t had a good practice at all,\” Wriglesworth said. \”His strategy (in his Friday match) was to try to win with big moves early, but that\’s pretty tough to do when you\’re going against the Cody Kelly, who was number two in the state at 103 last year. Boccuzzi got the takedown midway through the first period and was really good at riding Tyler.\”
All four of the Golden Tide qualifiers contributed to the team\’s somewhat surprising sixth-place finish.
District 9 wound up with six region champions, only the fourth time it\’s had that many in the tourney\’s 34-year history. Kane 119-pounder Cameron Moran, Ridgway 140-pounder Nikko Leitzel and Brookville 285-pounder Eli Morres won their second Northwest titles, teaming with Sipes to raise the number of two-timers to 18. District 9 boasts a quartet of three-timers and one four-timer.
Oswayo Valley 160-pounder Zeke Drake was the other D-9 champ, topping Oil City\’s Ryan Ochalek in one of two matches pairing undefeated wrestlers. Morres nipped Robert Ryhal of West Middlesex 4-3 in overtime in the other one.
Reynolds 145-pounder Aaron Nestor and Sharon 215-pounder Kellen Harris, who beat Sipes in the finals last year, also repeated as champions.
Failing to repeat were Kane 125-pounder Nick Nichols, Ridgway 135-pounder Colby Pisani and Reynolds 171-pounder Lawrence Beckman, who was bidding for his fourth region crown. Beckman lost in the finals, while Nichol and Pisani finished third.
Team champion Reynolds had three champs and was the only school besides Curwensville to have more than one.
Champs, runners-up and consolation winners will advance to the PIAA Class AA Championships that get under way Thursday in the Giant Center at Hershey.
TEAM SCORES AND KEY
1. Reynolds (Rey), 114 points; 2. Ridgway (Rid), 87.5; 3. Greenville (Gv), 66.5; 4. Harbor Creek (HC), 45.5; 5. Fort LeBoeuf (FL), 42; 6. Curwensville (Cur), 37; 7. Sharon (Sh), 36; 8. Redbank Valley (RV), 34; 9. Kane (K), 32; 10. North East (NE), 31.5; 11. Sharpsville (Sv) 28; 12. (tie) Clarion (Cl) and Smethport (Sm), 22; 14. Grove City (GC), 21; 15. Brookville (B), 20; 16. Iroquois (I), 19; 17. Coudersport (Co), 17.5; 18. (tie) Oil City (OC) and Oswayo Valley (OV), 17; 20. (tie) Fairview (F) and West Middlesex (WS), 14; 22. (tie) Port Allegany (PA), Saegertown (Sae) and Seneca (Sen), 22; 25. Maplewood (M), 7; 26. Johnsonburg (J), 6; 27. (tie) Eisenhower (E) and Mercer (M), 3; 29. Girard (Gir), 2; 30 (tie) Cameron County (CC), Commodore Perry (CP) and Hickory (H), 1.
CHAMPIONSHIPS
(Grade, District-Place and Record in Parentheses)
103 – Derek Brothers (9, 9-2, 30-6), Cur, dec. Garet Pisani (9-1, 30-3), R, 5-2.
112 – Cody Kelly (10, 10-2, 39-10), Rey, dec. Coty Burnett (10, 10-1, 43-5), Gv, 8-3 (ot).
119 – Cameron Moran (12, 9-1, 35-0), K, major dec. Sam Fuchs (10, 10-1, 29-9), Rey, 14-0.
125 – Robbie Miller (12, 10-1, 47-5), Rey, won by tech fall over Kyle Eisaman (10, 10-2, 32-3), NE, 17-1, 4:29.
130 – Joey Nowakowski (11, 10-2, 34-7), HC, dec. Jordan Moss (9, 10-3, 38-4), Sh, 3-2.
135 – Steve Waite (12, 10-2, 34-4), FL, dec. Steve Nestor (12, 10-1, 37-10), Rey, 4-3.
140 – Nikko Leitzel (12, 9-1, 42-0), Rid, dec. Dirk Cowburn (9, 10-2, 30-2), Co, 3-0.
145 – Aaron Nestor (12, 10-1, 40-7), Rey, dec. Jimmy McCauley (12, 9-1, 25-4), RV, 9-3.
152 – Shaun Ferguson (11, 10-1, 45-10), Gv, dec. Jonathon Brothers (11, 9-1, 39-1), RV, 5-2.
160 – Zeke Drake (12, 9-1, 37-0), OV, dec. Ryan Ochalek (12, 10-1, 42-1), OC, 2-0.
171 – Chris Daniels (12, 10-2, 37-6), HC, dec. Lawrence Beckman (12, 10-1, 42-6), Rey, 7-3.
189 – Nick Sipes (12, 9-1, 28-2), Cur, dec. Jerico Weitzel (11, 9-2, 38-4), Rid, 3-1 (ot).
215 – Kellen Harris (12, 10-1, 40-0), Sh, dec. Anthony Driscoll (12, 9-1, 36-7), Cl, 5-0.
285 – Eli Morres (12, 9-1, 42-0), Bv, dec. Robert Ryhal (12m 1901, 28-1), WM, 4-3 (ot).
CONSOLATION FINALS
103 – Dan Blair (12, 9-3, 34-4), Sm, dec. Ryan Johnson (9, 10-2, 33-10), I, 6-0.
112 – Derek Konen (11, 9-1, 38-8), Rid, dec. Devin Miller (10, 10-3, 30-13), I, 7-1.
119 – Matt Gregory (10, 10-3 35-8) , NE, pinned Tim Hubbard (10, 9-2, 31-7), Sm, 1:35.
125 – Nick Nichols (11, 9-1, 41-3), PA, dec. Jeremy King (9, 10-3, 28-12), FL, 9-4.
130 – Brock Leitzel (12, 9-1, 41-2), Rid, dec. Corey Brown (11, 10-1, 33-11), Rey, 5-2.
135 – Colby Pisani (12, 9-1, 40-2), Rid, won by tech fall over R.J. Wright (12, 10-3, 28-8), M, 16-1, 4:04.
140 – Eric Weaver (12, 10-2, 40-9), Gv, dec. Sean Lyons (11, 10-4, 29-16), Sae, 5-0.
145 – Justin Ferguson (11, 10-3, 33-7), G, dec. Craig Johnson (11, 10-2, 32-8), GC, 4-3.
152 – Mike Hull (12, 10-3, 30-11), FL, dec. Judd Zilcosky (12, 9-2, 26-9), J, 4-0.
160 – Caleb Kolb (10, 10-4, 32-11), GC, dec Jordan Tutmaher (12, 10-2, 34-6), E, 4-3.
171 – Matt Mix (11, 9-2, 32-8), K, dec. Brad Rapp (12, 9-1, 38-5), Cl, 5-1.
189 – Joe Joseph (12, 10-1, 33-3), Sv, dec.Tim McAndrew (11, 10-3, 35-12), HC, 3-0.
215 – Jesse Heubel (12, 10-3, 38-6), Sen, dec. Will Ringer (10, 10-5, 31-17), Rey, 1-0.
285 – Phil Catrucco (11, 10-2, 27-4), Sv, dec. Jeff Pollard (11, 10-4, 32-9), F, 4-1.
CHAMPIONSHIP SEMIFINALS
103 – Brothers dec. Kilian Hiner (11, 10-1, 30-8), FL, 2-0; G. Pisani dec. lair 1-0.
112 – Burtnett won by tech fall over Miller, 16-0, 4:54; Kelly dec. Konen, 8-6.
119 – Fuchs dec. Hubbard, 4-3, Moran won by injury default over Brandon Sansom (12, 9-3, 35-7), Bv, 5:05.
125 – Miller dec. King, 12-7, Eisaman dec. Nichols, 5-2.
130 – Moss dec. Brown, 4-3, Nowakowski dec. B. Leitzel, 3-2.
135 – S. Nestor dec. Wright, 5-2, Waite dec. C. Pisani, 7-3.
140 – Cowburn pinned Paul Waite (12, 10-5, 32-7), E, :29; B. Leitzel pinned Waver, 4:56.
145 – A. Nestor dec. J. Ferguson, 3-0; McCauley dec. Johnson, 5-3.
152 – S. Ferguson dec. Hull, 3-0; Brothers dec. Jacques Moss (11, 10-2, 29-9), Sh, 4-2.
160 – Ochalek major dec. Logan Shirey (10, 9-2, 32-13), RV, 14-5; Drake dec. Tutmaher, 11-4.
171 – Beckman won by tech fall over Shane Nolan (12, 10-3 31-3), Gv, 15-0, 5:24; Daniels major dec. Justin Angermeier (11, 10-4, 30-11), M, 20-9.
189 – Weitzel dec. Joseph, 6-3; Sipes dec. Mike Miller (11, 10-2, 27-16), Rey, 7-0.
215 – Harris dec. Heubel, 9-5; Driscoll dec. Cody McInturf (11, 10-2, 28-14), Gv, 8-5.
285 – Ryhal dec. Tyler Lanciotti (11, 10-3, 41-10), Gv, 3-1; Morres dec. Catrucco, 3-0.
CONSOLATION SEMIFINALS
145 – Johnson dec. Brett McCracken (11, 9-2, 20-12), 5-3.
CONSOLATION QUARTERFINALS
112 – Niko Boccuzzi (12, 10-4, 28-14), H, dec. Tyler Peters (10, 9-3, 20-16), Cur, 6-1.
145 – McCracken pinned Kevin Post (10, 10-5, 14-14), NE, 3:58.
