Kiski Area’s Jack Blumer looking to pin down a third straight WPIAL title

By: Greg Macafee
Wednesday, February 26, 2020 | 6:02 PM

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Kiski Area’s Jack Blumer has won back-to-back WPIAL titles and on Friday, he begins his quest for No. 3.

“I feel like I need to back it up since I’ve won the last two years,” Blumer said. “I feel like I need to win this year, but the main goal is a state title.”

Over the course of his four-year career at Kiski Area, Blumer has been nothing short of dominant. His freshman year was the only season where he suffered double-digit losses, and he’s racked up at least 20-plus pins in each season since.

This season has been one of the most impressive. He’s 33-1, and his only loss came in the championship match of the Powerade Tournament in December. John Best from Parkersburg High (W. Va.) earned a 3-2 decision over Blumer.

“One of my main goals this year was to go undefeated,” Blumer said. “So that kinda hurt a little bit, so I don’t want to take another loss.”

Since that match, Blumer has been on a tear. Up until the championship of the Section 1-AAA tournament, the West Virginia commit had put together a pin streak of 14 matches, and only one of them took place outside of the first period. It ended when he earned a 7-2 decision over Hempfield’s Trevor Verkleeren.

“He’s just at a level right now where if a guy makes a mistake or gets in a bad position, he’s not going to just take you down,” Kiski Area coach Chris Heater said. “He may take you down and cradle you or put you in a half and take advantage of mistakes or situations that guys are making against him.”

Throughout his career, Blumer has been a pin connoisseur. During the Section 1-AAA team tournament, he picked up the 100th pin of his career. Now, Blumer is at 104 career pins and is close to topping the Kiski Area school record of 106 set by Shane Kuhn.

“It’s impressive,” Heater said. “It’s not really something you can say, ‘I’m gonna be the best pinner.’ It’s what are you going to do to be the best pinner. He’s worked on some things and cleaned up some things over the past three to four years to be what he is right now. I’m not surprised he is right there. But it’s really impressive.”

Blumer won his first WPIAL title as a sophomore at 152 pounds, beating Pine-Richland’s Cole Spencer by a 6-3 decision. Last year, he earned a 4-0 decision over Mars’ Jake Richardson at 160 pounds.

Now, as the No. 1 seed at 160, Blumer will look to navigate his way through a bracket that includes Waynesburg’s Luca Augustine (37-7), Thomas Jefferson’s Brendan Finnerty (38-4) and Connellsville’s Casper Hinklie (24-10) among the top four seeds. Fox Chapel’s Alex Wecht (26-6) and Knoch’s Guy Deleonardis (20-1) round out the top six.

No matter who steps onto the mat across from him, Blumer knows what he has to do in order to earn a three-peat this weekend at Canon-McMillan.

“I need to stick to my offense. I can’t let other people contradict what I need to do,” Blumer said. “I need to stick to my game plan. I just have to execute and I think that will help.”

The WPIAL Class AAA individual wrestling tournament will begin at 5 p.m. Friday at Canon-McMillan. On Saturday, wrestling will start at 10 a.m. with semifinals at 11:30 and championship matches at 5 p.m.

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

Tags: Kiski Area