Burrell’s Oswalt to collide with friend Phipps in Powerade semifinals

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, December 28, 2018 | 11:48 PM

Ian Oswalt wrestles Norwin’s Kurtis Phipps all the time. Their relationship goes back years.

They have just never met on the mat for real.

That will change Saturday morning, as Oswalt, a Burrell sophomore, will face Phipps, his friend and longtime practice partner at Young Guns Wrestling Club, in the 120-pound semifinals of the Powerade Christmas Tournament at Canon-McMillan. Both wrestlers advanced with pins in Friday night’s quarterfinal round.

“We practice a good bit, like once a week, and we practice over the summer,” Oswalt said. “We’re friends off the mat, but on the mat we both know that it’s just on the mat. We’re still going to be friends off the mat. We’re just going to wrestle how we normally wrestle.”

Oswalt and Phipps wrestle in different classifications and usually are a weight class apart, so Saturday will mark their first official meeting.

At stake is a berth in Saturday night’s Powerade championship round, with Phipps seeking his second consecutive championship title and Oswalt his first at the tournament, ranked as one of the most difficult in the country.

“We actually talked about this earlier in the week, hoping it would happen in the finals,” said Phipps, the top seed at 120 pounds. “With the draw, that’s how it is. We said we’re just going to put on a show, hopefully, score points and whatever happens, happens. There’s no hard feelings.”

Four Alle-Kiski Valley wrestlers advanced to Powerade’s semifinals, which begin at 11 a.m. at Canon-McMillan. Kiski Area senior Darren Miller (132 pounds) and juniors Jack Blumer (160) and Nick Delp (170) also made it to the round of four.

Oswalt, the fifth seed at 120, finished fourth at Powerade last December and advanced to the this year’s semifinals with three consecutive pins, the last coming in 2 minutes, 40 seconds over Amonn Ohl of Saint Joe’s Academy in the quarterfinals.

“I think it’s a lot easier this year because I’ve already been here once before,” Oswalt said. “The atmosphere, I can handle better. It just makes everything more relaxed when I go out on the mat. I’m not as nervous.”

Miller is seeking a third consecutive medal at Powerade — and, more than that, his first gold, after he placed second in 2016 and fourth last season. The Kiski Area senior got three pins and a major decision to advance to face Eddie Bolivar of Oak Park River Forest (Ill.) in the semifinals.

“(The chance to get a title) pushes me tremendously,” said Miller, a Bucknell recruit. “I have to get to the finals and wrestle my best match. In these last two, I have to throw it all out there.”

Blumer didn’t place at Powerade last season but secured at least a sixth-place finish by advancing to the semifinals. The junior pinned his first two opponents before registering a 10-5 decision over Mt. Lebanon’s Mac Stout in the quarterfinals. He will face Connor O’Neil of DePaul Catholic (N.J.) in the semifinals.

Delp, an eighth-place finisher at Powerade last season, got three straight pins before outlasting Shane Reitsma of Howell (N.J.), 8-7, in the semifinals. He will wrestle top-seeded Jared McGill of Chestnut Ridge in the semifinals.

Kiski Area had the most semifinalists of any WPIAL team with three, and the Cavaliers ranked fourth in the team standings at the end of the first day of the tournament. Senior 152-pounder Cam Connor and sophomore 195-pounder Brayden Roscosky remain alive in the consolation bracket.

“The more forward you move through in this thing, the tougher it gets,” Kiski Area coach Chris Heater said. “Obviously, we include our guys in the toughness factor of what’s left here. Our guys have earned their way in the spot they’re in right now. I just want them to wrestle as hard as they can, as best as they can, and get out of here in one piece.”

Burrell, which ranks 17th in the team standings, has two wrestlers alive in the consolation bracket: seniors Bryan Gaul (132 pounds) and Austin Mele (170).

Powerade resumes at 9:30 a.m. Saturday with fourth-round consolation matches, followed by the semifinals and fifth-round consolations at 11 a.m., sixth-round consolations at 1 p.m., consolation finals at 4:30 p.m. and championship finals at 7.

Doug Gulasy is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Doug at dgulasy@tribweb.com or via Twitter @dgulasy_Trib.

Tags: Burrell, Kiski School