Greensburg Salem wrestling downs Southmoreland in match before hiatus

By: Paul Schofield
Friday, December 11, 2020 | 8:37 PM

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When Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf decided to put high school and recreational youth athletics on a three-week hiatus and the Monroeville Mat Madness wrestling tournament was canceled, Southmoreland athletic director and wrestling coach Dan Boring went to work.

With the governor’s mandate going into effect at midnight Saturday, Boring didn’t want to waste the opportunity to reward his team a chance to compete, and neither did Greensburg Salem coach Randy Parsley.

So the coaches agreed to hold a meet Friday to give their wrestlers a chance to compete after putting in three weeks of practice.

Greensburg Salem won the nonsection meet 33-30, but this wasn’t about winning and losing.

“When I heard the news, I was devastated,” Southmoreland junior Anthony Govern said. “My goal is to win 100 career matches, and this hurt my chances because I was on track to do it.”

Govern pinned his opponent, Greensburg Salem junior Clayton Hudspath, in the first period of the 189-pound bout, which was the final bout of 2020 for the teams.

The governor said athletic events and practices can resume Jan. 4.

“Coach Boring has already told us we’ll be doing things virtually,” Govern said. “We have to stay in shape. I’ll run and work out on my own.”

Parsley said he was happy Boring gave him a call. Both teams already were scheduled to meet in Monroeville along with Frazier, Washington, West Greene Beth-Center, West Allegheny, Mars and Carlynton.

“I saw some good things, and I saw some things we have to work on,” Parsley said. “We have a long ways to go. Now we have to wait three weeks for that to happen.”

If there was one wrestler who decided the match, it might have been Greensburg Salem’s Brennan Laskoski (132). Wrestling in his first match, he pinned Gavin Swarrow.

“Brennan really doesn’t know what this is about yet,” Parsley said. “He’s been practicing 15 days. Some of the guys wrestled well.”

The Golden Lions never trailed in the match as the McChesney brothers, Christian (215) and Bill (285), opened with pins.

“I was happy to get to wrestle,” Bill McChesney said. “I was really mad when I heard the news. Getting one match felt good. I’ll try to stay in shape by running and working out.”

Laskoski’s pin gave the Golden Lions an 18-12 lead. Cody Kaufman (138) followed with a 3-0 win for a 21-12 lead, and Trevor Swartz (145) and Colt Rubrecht (152) got pins to push the lead to 33-12.

Southmoreland got pins from Kashton Bish (126), Bryson Robinson (160), Josh Thoma (172) and Govern.

“I was good to compete,” Boring said. “We got the bad news on Thursday. The kids kept up their morale at practice. After the ‘Madness’ was canceled, I wanted to get these guys a match. They earned it.

“It was good experience, especially for our young guys. Now we have some on film to show them to work on during the next three weeks.”

Paul Schofield is a TribLive reporter covering high school and college sports and local golf. He joined the Trib in 1995 after spending 15 years at the Daily Courier in Connellsville, where he served as sports editor for 14 years. He can be reached at pschofield@triblive.com.

Tags: Greensburg Salem, Southmoreland