A-K Valley wrestling notebook: Burrell’s AJ Corrado pins his way to 100th win

By: Greg Macafee
Tuesday, January 28, 2020 | 7:05 PM

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Burrell’s AJ Corrado headed into last weekend’s Thomas Chevrolet wrestling tournament in Bedford on the brink of earning his 100th career win.

It didn’t take him long to get it.

One minute and 11 seconds into his first match of the tournament, Corrado planted Bedford’s Gavin Habinyak and earned a pin for his 100th career victory.

“It’s great and it’s something I’ve been working towards for a while now,” Corrado said. “It’s good to get it out of the way, but there are still a lot more wins to come.”

The 152-pounder has been a stud for the Bucs ever since he was a freshman and has set a steady pace to reach the century mark. He won 39 matches as a freshman, 37 as a sophomore and has won 26 already in his junior year.

When he was younger, Corrado set a goal to reach 100 wins in high school, but he said he has a lot more to achieve and he isn’t done yet.

“I mean I obviously want to win a state championship. That’s one of the bigger goals I have right now,” Corrado said. “A hundred wins, I mean that’s on everyone’s list, so achieving that is a great feeling. But there is still more work to do and being the state champion is the ultimate goal.”

After earning his 100th win, Corrado went on to win the 152-pound bracket at the tournament with four total pins. None of his matches got out of the first round. He said winning a tournament in that way gives him a little confidence boost heading into the WPIAL team tournament on Wednesday.

“I feel like I wrestled really well, getting four pins,” Corrado said. “So in the team portion, of course the pins are what gets you the most points, so I feel like I was more focused on what I could do for the team.”

The Bucs start their quest for their 14th straight WPIAL team title on Wednesday when they take on the winner of Southmoreland and Beth-Center at 7:15 at home.

Blumer 100 pins

Last Wednesday had a bittersweet ending for Kiski Area senior Jack Blumer. In the last match of the Cavaliers’ section championship matchup against Hempfield, the 160-pounder pinned Alex Urbani in 1:47 to secure the 100th pin of his career.

“It was exciting, but it wasn’t because I knew that we had lost already at that point,” Blumer said. “It was kinda like a win-lose situation.”

Blumer’s was the last bout of the match with Hempfield, and the Spartans had an insurmountable 34-25 lead.

WPIAL team tournament look ahead

The journey to a WPIAL team championship begins Wednesday for three A-K Valley wrestling teams.

WPIAL Class AA No. 1 seed Burrell is chasing its 14th straight team title. Highlands is competing in its first WPIAL team tournament since 2011.

Highlands will travel to Quaker Valley and take on Laurel at 6 p.m. If the Golden Rams get past the first round, they will take on the winner of Fort Cherry and Quaker Valley at 7:15 p.m. The Bucs and the Golden Rams are on the same side of the bracket and could meet in the semifinals on Saturday.

In Class AAA, Kiski Area will travel to Hempfield. The Cavaliers will take on South Fayette in the first round at 6 p.m. Hempfield will meet Chartiers Valley. The two teams could meet up for a rematch of the Section 1-AAA championship in the quarterfinals.

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

Tags: Burrell, Highlands, Kiski Area