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Jan 17, 2025 By Jonathan Guth 6 min read

Since the inception of the WPIAL team dual meet wrestling tournament began in 1979, one school stands ahead of the rest when it comes to qualifying for a chance to win a district championship … and that school lies in the northern part of Fayette County.

Connellsville earned a 74-0 victory at Albert Gallatin Wednesday night in Class 3A Section 8 action to ensure the Falcons a spot in the postseason, as the top two teams in each section receive an automatic bid to the team tournament, which begins Jan. 27 with the preliminary round.

Connellsville sits at 2-0 in the section and hosts Latrobe for the title this upcoming Wednesday at 7 p.m. on Senior Night. A win over the Wildcats should be enough to ensure the Falcons deserve to host the first round and quarterfinals of the Class 3A team tournament on Jan. 29. The semifinals, championships and consolation finals for Classes 2 and 3A are scheduled for Feb. 1 at AHN Arena on the campus of Peters Township High School.

“It is a good feeling to know we have made the team tournament since it started,” Connellsville coach Bill Swink said. “Our goals are much higher than just making it, but you can’t win it, if you don’t make it, so we have taken the first step.”

Connellsville won its eighth WPIAL team championship last season, and many wrestling pundits have the Falcons on track to repeat.

Swink’s team is 4-1 overall this season, with the only loss being to nationally-ranked St. Edward High School of Ohio in a dual meet quad in December.

“We only have three section matches, so it can be a little tough to get the dual meets in, but we wrestling the quad at St. Edward and we have another quad coming up,” Swink said. “We want to give our kids the best competition, and hopefully we can perform well enough so we can host in the first round of the team tournament.”

Escape with some gold?

Connellsville’s schedule is a meat grinder, team or individual, and the Falcons will put themselves to the test this Saturday and Sunday in the Escape the Rock at Council Rock South High School.

Escape the Rock features 66 teams from not only Pennsylvania, but the majority of the east coast in addition to schools from Ohio and nationally-ranked prep schools. Many of the wrestlers the Falcons compete with from the teams in Pennsylvania will most-likely be at the state tournament, whether it be team wise or individual.

“I would say the Escape the Rock is a slight hair under Powerade when you look at the teams that will be there,” Swink said. “A lot of the better New Jersey schools are there, plus St. Edward, so we know the kind of competition our guys are going to be facing.”

The Falcons’ highest seed at Escape the Rock is senior and Pitt commit Evan Petrovich at 152 pounds, who was tabbed as No. 4 in the bracket.

Teammates Tommy Gretz (12th at 107), Nolan Rice (12th at 121), Kai Vielma (8th at 139) and Lonzy Vielma (9th at 160) were also seeded.

If there is a will, there’s a way

The winter weather has been more of a factor this year than in the past several, but wrestlers can’t afford to miss a day of work, which can be tricky, especially when it comes to a school district as geographically spread out as Connellsville.

The “area” in Connellsville Area School District is proven every year, as students that live in the mountain ranges may very well encounter treacherous weather, while those that live in the city and outskirts may not have those issues.

“It’s like two worlds in our school district,” Swink said. “You could have an inch of snow downtown, and even out into Bullskin and Dunbar, and when you go into the mountain, you are snowed in.

“We have to be resourceful with that. For example, we practiced today at 6:30 in the morning to make sure the kids in the mountains could get home before the snow came.”

Honoring the past

Prior to Jefferson-Morgan’s section dual meet against Beth-Center on Wednesday, the school took time to honor some outstanding athletes and contributors who were inducted into the Jefferson-Morgan ÎÞëÊÓƵ Hall of Fame Winter Class of 2025:

The 1991-92 wrestling team that won a WPIAL championship; Ron Headlee, who was the coach of that team, and many other great squads at Jefferson-Morgan; Gavin Teasdale, who won four state titles and was 162-2 during his four-year career with the Rockets from 2015-2018; the late Ronald Silbaugh, who won a state championship in 1957 at 120 pounds; and contributor Stanley Sagosky.

Teasdale and Cary Kolat, who won four state championships as a member of the Jefferson-Morgan wrestling team, provide the Rocket wrestling program with a fact that no other squad in Pennsylvania can state: two four-time state champions.

Kolat, who now coaches for the Naval Academy, was 137-0 at Jefferson-Morgan under the tutelage of Headlee from 1989-1992.

Main-event match

Belle Vernon and Ringgold are scheduled to wrestle this Wednesday in a Class 3A Section 7 dual meet that could have team playoff implications.

Both teams are 2-1 in the section, and depending on what the WPIAL wrestling committee decides as a wild-card team, either the Leopards or Rams could be on the outside looking in following the contest, but chances are a pair of undefeated wrestlers could face off Wednesday.

Belle Vernon’s Elijah Brown and Ringgold’s Jake Conroy have been wrestling primarily at 215 this year, and so far, have been unmatched, as Brown is 20-0 and Conroy at 21-0.

Brown, a junior and University of Pittsburgh recruit, and Conroy, a senior and Cornell recruit, could see each other plenty of time this year, but it is up to the coaches to see if the two will wrestle.

Coaches are known in dual meets to move wrestlers around to do what’s best for the team.

We will see what happens Wednesday, but Brown and Conroy stay at 215, look for some exciting battles in the postseason.