A-K Valley wrestling notebook: Starting lineups starting to round out as postseason approaches

By: Greg Macafee
Tuesday, January 14, 2020 | 7:06 PM

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As the postseason approaches, teams are mixing and matching weight classes in order to have their optimal starting lineups come section tournament time.

This past week was a crucial one for the defending WPIAL Class AAA state champion Kiski Area Cavaliers. They went 3-0, earned big section victories over Plum (66-12) and Pittsburgh Central Catholic (78-6) and also handed Burrell a loss in an exciting 38-23 dual on senior night.

“It was a good week for us,” Kiski Area coach Chris Heater said. “With the Burrell match at our place, that was a lot of fun. It’s always good wrestling those guys, I thought it was a great atmosphere in front of our crowd, especially for the seniors on senior night. I thought we wrestled pretty well.”

Against Burrell, the Cavaliers had Sammy Starr (152), Jack Blumer (160), Nick Delp (170), Jared Curcio (182) and Brayden Roscosky (220) all bumped up a weight class and won.

Jack Dilts filled in at the heavyweight class for the injured Stone Joseph as well. Heater said he was still unsure when Joseph would return and they we’re taking it on a day-by-day basis, but he has been happy with the performance of his top guys through the season so far.

“All those guys are performing really well, and it’s a tough part of the lineup for us,” Heater said. “We have to have those guys doing what’s necessary in order to be successful, so it’s good to see.”

The Cavaliers travel to Franklin Regional on Wednesday

Shooting for county gold

The Allegheny County tournament begins Friday and 14 wrestlers from around the A-K Valley received seeds within the top 10 of their weight classes. Only one received a No. 1 seed.

Plum’s Vince Citrano, who enters the tournament with an overall record of 11-1, was named the No. 1 seed in the 113-pound bracket. He was a runner-up last year as a freshman at 106.

Two A-K Valley wrestlers earned No. 2 seeds. One of them was Highlands 132-pounder Jrake Burford, who enters the tournament with a record of 14-4. He is one of seven Golden Rams to earn a top 10 seed. Heavyweight Jeremiah Nelson earned the next highest seed for Highlands at No. 3.

Fox Chapel’s Ed Farrell (220) was the other A-K Valley wrestler to receive a No. 2 seed. He enters the tournament with an overall record of 14-4 and is one of five Fox Chapel wrestlers seeded in the top 10. His teammate, Alec Wecht, should be one to watch for this weekend as he enters the tournament with just two losses and nine pins.

Knight proud

The Knoch Knights haven’t been seeing too much team success this season, but three of their wrestlers are standing out as teams inch toward the postseason.

Senior 160-pounder Guy DeLeonardis is undefeated at 9-0, while classmate Kam Grassi is 8-3 at 145 pounds. They both won their weight classes at the Armstrong Holiday Classic before the new year.

Junior heavyweight Eli Reese has also been turning heads for the Knights. He’s 10-2 and also won his weight class at the Armstrong Holiday Classic.

Greg Macafee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Greg by email at gmacafee@triblive.com or via Twitter .

Tags: Fox Chapel, Highlands, Kiski Area, Knoch, Plum