A-K Valley wrestling notebook: Kiski Area, Burrell wrestlers earn Powerade seeds

By: Greg Macafee
Tuesday, December 24, 2019 | 2:30 PM

Wrestling teams from all around will travel to Canon-McMillan on Friday and Saturday to compete in the 2019 Powerade wrestling tournament, which is considered one of the best in Western Pennsylvania as well as the country.

Five wrestlers from the A-K Valley find themselves among the top eight seeds.

Kiski Area leads the way with four seeded wrestlers. Jack Blumer is the only of the group to receive a No. 1 seed. He’ll have a target on his back in the 160-pound weight class as he looks to keep his perfect 14-0 record alive in his senior season.

Brayden Roscosky (195) earned a No. 4 seed, Stone Joseph (285) was given a No. 5 seed, and Nick Delp (170) is an eighth seed. All three wrestlers have won over 10 matches this season and have lost two or fewer.

Burrell’s Ian Oswalt is the last A-K Valley wrestler that earned a top eight seed. The 132-pound grappler who just earned his 100th career win was given a No. 4 seed. Oswalt will be testing himself against a lot of tough competition, including Seneca Valley’s Alejandro Herrera-Rondon, the No. 1 seed in the weight class.

Kiski Area drops

After last week’s performance at the Kiski Area Quad Meet, where the Cavaliers lost to Seneca Valley and Canon-McMillan, the Cavaliers dropped to No. 5 in the Trib HSSN WPIAL Class AAA team wrestling rankings.

The Cavaliers have an opportunity to prove themselves this weekend at the Powerade tournament, though.

While some of their bigger wrestlers like Blumer, Delp, Roscosky, and Joseph have performed great this season and could build on that strong start, some in the lighter weight classes like Enzo Morlacci (152), Ethan Conner (138), Dom Giordano (126), Ryan Klingensmith (113) and Antonio Giordano (106) could use a strong performance as a confidence boost for the rest of the season.

Highlands off to great start

Two years ago, the Golden Rams turned in an overall team record of 3-11. Last year, they improved to 8-8 and earned a team playoff berth.

The program is growing, the team is improving, and so far through the beginning of the 2019-20 season, the Golden Rams are thriving.

This past weekend, the team went 5-0 at the Sharpsville Invitational to capture the tournament title. To go along with a solid tournament performance, the team is 10-1 to start the season, with their only loss coming against Pine-Richland in 53-24 setback.

Harmon brothers succeed at Armstrong

They both go to school at Apollo-Ridge, but Logan and Landon Harmon are finding success on the mat at Armstrong as a part of a co-op agreement between the schools.

Last year, it was just Logan, and he went 22-6 as a sophomore. Now, his younger brother has joined him and both are excelling.

Logan has started his junior season off undefeated and has earned four pins, two major decisions and two tech falls, with one forfeit. In his first varsity wrestling season, Landon is 6-4 and has earned five pins and a decision. In his first varsity match, Landon pinned his opponent in 28 seconds.

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

Tags: Armstrong, Burrell, Highlands, Kiski Area