Wrestling Wednesday: West Allegheny, Quaker Valley finish 1-2 at Ed Driscoll MAC Tourney
FREEDOM — If Saturday's showing in the popular Ed Driscoll MAC Tournament is any indication for the West Allegheny wrestling team, it's going to be a year full of team and individual success.
Competing against 15 other area teams in the Ed Driscoll MAC Tournament at Freedom Area High School, West Allegheny ran away with the team title, scoring 230.5 team points — thanks to five individual champions — to edge out defending champ Quaker Valley, who scored 213.0 points on the afternoon.
West Allegheny, under first-year head coach Troy Reaghard, saw Caiden Harbert (114 pounds), Nick Jones (139 pounds), Nico Taddy (145 pounds), Ty Watters (152 pounds), and Shawn Taylor (160 pounds) win individual championships on the afternoon, while Cooper Smith (121 pounds) finished second, and Cade Stern (107 pounds) and Nico Coliazzi (172 pounds) finished in third place at Freedom.
Watters and Taylor built off of strong showings at the national Powerade Tourney at Canon-McMillan High School on Dec. 30. Watters won the prestigious individual title at 152 pounds, while Taylor finished third overall at 160 pounds.
Waters started off his championship run with a pin of Ellwood City's Austin Hall in 32 seconds in the first round, before then dispatching Montour's Danny Brandl by fall in 41 seconds in the second round. In the semifinals, Watters then pinned Quaker Valley's Jack Diemert in 2:48 before defeating Hopewell's Isaiah Pisano by technical fall (20-5).
Taylor had a pretty quick run through the tournament as well, pinning Mars' Cooper Courson in 2:46 of the first round, pinning Montour's Jerrod Bethea in 1:15 in the quarterfinals, then defeating Freedom Area's Ryan Kredel by technical fall (19-3) in the semifinals before then pinning Carlynton's Chase Brandebura in 1:23 to win the title.
In the 114-pound championship match, Harbert pinned Quaker Valley's Isaac Maccaglia in 1:13, while Nick Jones picked up a 6-2 decision over Montour's Peter Chacon in the 139-pound championship match. Taddy rounded out the five individual championships for West Allegheny with a win by fall over Quaker Valley's Logan Richey in 1:04 of the 145-pound championship final.
Outside of West Allegheny's strong day, Quaker Valley showed it will remain a force on the mat.
Coming off of a historic season for the program, winning its first WPIAL team championship, snapping Burrell's 15-year run, the Quakers saw two wrestlers win individual championships, five finish second, and one other place third.
"Starting off the year, we had a pretty tough December with Kiski Duals, Powerade Tournament, and some guys out with injuries, but the MAC tournament was the first even where we were one hundred percent healthy," Quaker Valley head coach Austin Heinl told the Times Wednesday. "I think that we had a really, really strong performance, not only from our top guys, but some of our younger guys as well."
At 121 pounds, Jack Kazalas won the individual championship, defeating West Allegheny's Smith by decision, 9-5. Prior to the championship match, Kazalas pinned Moon's Brayden Touch in 1:33 before then pinning Carlynton's Dominic Ciabattonio in 30 seconds to reach the title bout.
Along with Kazalas, Brandon Krul won the championship at 127 pounds, defeating Montour's Jacob Chacon by fall in 32 seconds. Krul reached the title bout thanks to pins over Beaver's Seth Kullen in 58 seconds, Hopewell's Brettan Cooper in 1:24 and Laurel's Braxton Carr in 1:26.
"I think Brandon's success this year has started in the practice room. His focus in practice on being a little more disciplined, cleaning up his technique, and stepping up...as a leader — Brandon has been one the last couple months — is leading to him having more consistent, dominant success," Heinl said. "He understands that all the little details starting in the practice room is going to make up for where he came up short last year."
Sebastian Juarez-Safran was the story of the afternoon for the Quakers though. In the 285-pound weight class, Jaurez-Safran defeated a handful of seeded opponents to reach the title bout, which was his first MAC tournament finals appearance, earning his first varsity medal.
Juarez-Safran picked up a 7-4 decision over Mars' Adam Budzilek and then defeated Central Valley's Skylar Bundy (4-3) in the semifinals to reach the title bout, where he lost to Laurel's Coltin Hill by fall in 25 seconds.
"He showed up ready to compete; it was probably the best he's looked," Heinl said of Juarez-Safran. "He wrestled each match with a gameplan, was executing his techniques, scoring points and showing a lot of wrestling IQ managing the match, not getting into trouble. It showed just how much he's matured since last season.
Heinl gave a lot of credit to Quaker Valley assistant coach Cole Nye, who wrestled at Pitt and Michigan State and was a two-time state champion during his high school career at Bishop McDevitt High School. Currently, Nye serves as the heavyweight coach for the Quakers.
"Him working a lot with Sebastian has gotten his confidence up, and 'Seabass' did a really nice job holding his own," Heinl said.
Outside of West Allegheny and Quaker Valley, Central Valley's Antonio Boni won the 107-pound weight class with a fall over Quaker Valley's Bruce Andrechak in 1:08, and teammate Don Lindsey defeated Quaker Valley's Michael Carmody by decision (16-14) in the 133-pound weight class.
South Side's Slayton Williams won the 189-pound weight class with a 7-1 decision win over Freedom Area's ZeShawn Williams, while Central Valley's Brenan Morgan won the 215-pound weight class with a fall of Laurel's Chase Tinstman in 1:21.
Hopewell's Dawan Lockett (160 pounds) and Hank Berner (285 pounds) finished third in their respective weight classes.
BEAVER TRI-MEET AND SOUTH SIDE QUAD MEET
Up next for area wrestlers is a pair of multi-team matchups at Beaver Area and South Side Wednesday night.
Hopewell, Beaver and Central Valley will meet in a tri-meet Wednesday at 6 p.m., while Ambridge, Blackhawk, Freedom Area and South Side will meet in a quad in Hookstown, starting at 5 p.m.
Elsewhere Wednesday night, Ellwood City hosts North Catholic in a dual at 7 p.m., while Quaker Valley travels to South Park for a 7 p.m. dual. Moon heads to Waynesburg Central for a 7 p.m. dual, and West Allegheny hosts Chartiers Valley on Senior Night at 7 p.m.
BURGETTSTOWN INVITATIONAL
Following a week with some key duals, tri-meets and quads, four area teams will hit the road to Burgettstown for the tough Burgettstown Invitational Friday and Saturday.
Beaver, Central Valley, Hopewell and South Side will compete in the two-day invitational.
West Allegheny will hit the road for Indiana to compete in the loaded Mid-Winter Mayhem tournament at Indiana University of Pennsylvania's Kovalchick Convention Complex.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Wrestling Wednesday: West Allegheny, Quaker Valley finish 1-2 at Ed Driscoll MAC Tourney
