Mt. Pleasant freshman Shaulis starts strong at Powerade tournament

By: Paul Schofield
Friday, January 29, 2021 | 5:05 PM

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Mt. Pleasant freshman Greg Shaulis didn’t stick around to watch his brother Lucas wrestle Friday afternoon at the Powerade wrestling tournament.

Instead, he headed to his grandmother’s house to rest for a possible big day on Saturday.

Shaulis advanced to the quarterfinals at 120 pounds by defeating Carlynton’s Bryce Rodriguez, 5-2, and Central Mountain’s Zane Cooper, 8-2.

“Greg wrestles better when he doesn’t know his opponent,” Mt. Pleasant coach Zach Snyder said. “He just goes all out and wrestles.”

Shaulis (13-5) wrestled all season at 126 pounds. He dropped to 120 on Wednesday against Penn-Trafford and lost a 2-1 decision to Hayden Coy.

“When he lost to Tyler Fisher of Beth-Center earlier this season, he came into the office with me and we watched film,” Snyder said. “Watching how he wrestled that match just made him mad.

“I’m not surprised with (Friday’s) results. He’s starting to believe in himself.”

Shaulis said he headed home early to relax and focus on his quarterfinal match against Canon-McMillan junior Jacob Houpt.

The quarterfinals for all weight classes will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday at Monroeville Convention Center.

“I’m pretty excited,” Shaulis said. “I knew I’d face some good wrestlers. Wrestling at the higher weight will help now that I’m down to 120. If I could place here as a freshman, that would be phenomenal.”

Session I of the Powerade tournament featured four weight classes — 106, 113, 120 and 126.

The only shocking upset of that session was Trinity freshman Blake Reihner, who used a late takedown to defeat Waynesburg junior Zander Phaturos, 2-1. Reihner will face Hempfield senior Ethan Berginc in the quarterfinals.

“I know Zander and I will face many more times this season,” Reihner said. “I thought we stalled a lot in the second period and they wouldn’t call it on him. I just had to keep the pressure on him and I finally got a takedown.

“Ethan beat me earlier this season. I’ll need to bring my ‘A’ game this time.”

Berginc won both of his matches, a technical fall and pin.

Also advancing to the quarterfinals was Latrobe sophomore Vinny Kilkeary, who pinned Faith Christian’s Cody Wagner in the second period. Kilkeary will face Kiski Area’s Antonio Giordano, who posted two pins.

“I wrestled OK,” Kilkeary said. “It could have been better.”

A couple all-WPIAL quarterfinal matches Saturday will include Seneca Valley’s Hunter Swedish and Burgettstown’s Gaven Suice and Kiski Area’s Ryan Klingensmith and Waynesburg’s Mac Church at 120 pounds; and at 126, South Park’s Joey Fischer and West Allegheny’s Ty Watters.

Other WPIAL wrestlers who advanced to the lightweight quarterfinals were Waynesburg’s Ky Szewczyk, Canon-McMillan’s Andrew Binni and Seneca Valley’s Ty Chappell at 103 pounds; Laurel’s Colin Bartley and Waynesburg’s Joe Simon at 113; and Burgettstown’s Joey Sentipal at 126.

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: Hempfield, Kiski Area, Latrobe, Mt. Pleasant