After defending Allegheny County title, Plum wrestlers turn attention to WPIAL playoffs

By: Michael Love
Saturday, January 27, 2024 | 11:01 AM

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The Plum boys wrestling team won last year’s Allegheny County Tournament title with two champions and a runner-up among 11 place finishers.

The Mustangs edged Pine-Richland by 23 points.

Coach Mike Supak said this year’s title defense would be a tougher challenge. But his wrestlers, he said, were up to the task.

Plum came out strong in the early rounds, won several key consolation bouts and had five wrestlers reach the semifinals.

Senior Antonino Walker captured the 152-pound title with a 1-0 win over Elizabeth Forward’s Damon Michaels, and nine from Plum secured place finishes as the Mustangs edged Thomas Jefferson by five points for first in the final team standings.

“They embraced (the title defense) this year and really pushed forward,” Supak said.

“Last year, they were a little shocked they were in the race for a while and had a chance to win it. This year, they thought they had a good chance to win it right from the start and went out and wrestled hard knowing what they needed to do to defend the title.”

Supak said the section win against Kiski Area, a come-from-behind 33-23 victory over the rival Cavaliers, gave them a lot of positive momentum heading into the weekend.

“That gave the guys a lot of energy,” Supak said.

Snowfall that reached 4 to 5 inches in some areas of Allegheny County pushed the start of the tournament from Friday to Saturday and the second day to Sunday.

“That was tough, especially for the guys trying to hold their weight down,” Supak said. “They were at the maximum weight allowance, so they couldn’t give them another pound because of the weather. They had to make sure they were able to maintain their weight coming in on Saturday.”

Walker, who improved to 28-4 with his Allegheny County Tournament run, reached the top of the 152 bracket after finishing runner-up at 172 last year.

Sophomore Owen Campbell (121) and seniors Sam Snyder (127) and Jack Tongel (172) each finished as runners-up.

Owen Campbell got to the finals by defeating senior teammate Rylen Campbell, 1-0, in the semifinals. The county tournament allows for wrestlers from the same team to be entered into the same bracket.

Both won county titles last year, Owen at 107 and Rylen at 114.

Rylen defeated Owen, 2-0, in the 121 consolations at the season-opening Chartiers-Houston tournament Dec. 2.

“We saw the (county) bracket and knew they would be locked in on one side. They didn’t want two guys from the same team meeting in the finals,” Supak said. “We knew it was going to be a great match. When you practice against each other as often as they do, you kind of know the other’s typical behaviors, and you know what to expect.

“Rylen had just gotten the clearance (from injury), so he probably wasn’t quite where he wanted to be yet. Owen had been wrestling more consistently, and he was already in form. But both wrestled really well. It was a hard-fought win for Owen, and I know it helped propel Rylen to improve and push even harder to get to his goals.”

Supak said there might be a third matchup between the two, as they could wrestle off for the postseason.

Plum went into the championship finals leading Thomas Jefferson by 12.5 points. Walker’s victory helped the Mustangs seal the win.

Plum is only the second team in the 22 years of the Allegheny County Tournament to win back-to-back team titles. North Allegheny did it twice.

“When we were calculating things, we knew we needed at least one more win in the finals,” Supak said.

“Antonino’s win was very important to keep us in first place. (Thomas Jefferson) got three wins with bonus points (two pins, one technical fall), and that was what we were looking at the most. That made it a little closer.”

At the county tournament, a wrestler earns points both for wins and also how they win.

“It was very important for all of our guys in the consolations to do what they did, which is wrestle aggressively, get after it and score bonus points whenever they possibly could,” Supak said.

“(The county title) was one of our goals in the midseason, but now we are focused on the WPIAL team tournament and also moving forward towards the individual tournaments next month.”

Plum suffered a close 37-34 loss to Armstrong in the section finale last Wednesday. The Mustangs wrestled without starters Dylan Overcash, Trent Reese, Dan Macioce and Snyder because of illness or injury, Supak said.

But Plum already had secured a spot in the WPIAL team playoffs. The pairings were released Jan. 25, and Plum was to face Norwin in the first round Wednesday at Trinity with a shot at the quarterfinals later in the evening on the line.

The semifinals and championship matches are Saturday at 1:30 and 3 p.m., respectively, at Peters Township’s AHN Arena.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

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