Last month, the wrestling WPIAL regional tournament took place at Canon McMillan High School where the top 5 place winners from each weight would move onto the PIAA state tournament. Bellefonte had a very strong showing, putting 5 wrestlers in the 5th-6th place match (Jackson Long, Wyatt Long, Noah Weaver, Andrew Gall, and Ezra Swisher).

Although Bellefonte put 5 wrestlers in the placement rounds, only 1 Bellefonte wrestler would come out with a win and punch his ticket to the PIAA state tournament. Ezra Swisher would take a 7-0 decision victory to place 5th and advance to the state tournament.

The Long brothers would both win their first round bouts by fall early in the first period. Jackson Long would lose by decision (5-3) in the second round and Wyatt won by major decision (8-0) to advance to the semi finals. Now in the consolation rounds, Jackson would go on a tear, winning by technical fall and decision to make it to the consolation semifinals. He then lost and was sent into the 5th-6th place bout. Wyatt would lose his semi final bout and fall into the consolation semifinals where he lost a close match to Altoona’s Deklan Barr. Both brothers would go on to lose their 5th-6th place match by decision, Jackson losing 1-0 and Wyatt losing 5-0.

Noah Weaver started the tournament off strong, fighting his way into the semi finals where he would face a tough opponent in Lonzy Vielma of Connellsville. He was sent to the consolation semifinals where he would lose a hard fought match. With one more chance to make the state tournament, Noah would lose a wild match 11-7 to take 6th, just barely missing the PIAA state tournament.

At 145 pounds Freshman Andrew Gall would also go on to finish in 6th place after a very solid first season on varsity wrestling some of the toughest opponents in the state and country. Andrew will look to punch his ticket to Hershey next year as a sophomore.