It didn’t have any district, regional or state implications.
For some, it was a postseason tune-up, and for others, a chance to show what they’ve built this season.
The inaugural Allegheny Mountain League wrestling championships, held Monday at Bradford High, featured 67 competitors from seven teams. The tournament’s first installment was small, but nonetheless, was a celebration of local wrestling off of which coaches hope to build.
Teams could enter an unlimited number of wrestlers, so no official team score was tallied. Port Allegany and Bradford showed off their numbers but all seven teams were represented in the finals. Sheffield finished with a tournament-high four individual champions, while Kane, Port and Bradford each landed two.
“I thought it ran really smoothly and there weren’t many kinks,” Bradford coach Stefan Chaussard said of hosting the event. “I thought everyone was pretty satisfied. We’ll evaluate what we need to improve on and try to make things better for next year, but it was really nice.”
The event’s size made for a manageable Monday evening. It utilized three mats at its start before shrinking to two ahead of the finals, bringing steady energy to the Bradford High gymnasium.
Port landed seven in the finals, better than Coudersport (5), Sheffield (4), Bradford (3), Kane (3), Oswayo Valley (1) and Cameron County (1).
“It was good to have a lot of the kids get matches, some that didn’t get any varsity matches this year,” Port coach Brad Greenman said. “We also had some kids get varsity wins that maybe hadn’t had one yet, so it was a pretty good day.”
After a brief parade of champions was staged, Andrew Coriaty started the championship round by winning OV’s lone title, piecing together a technical fall in the 107/114-pound combined final. Sheffield then impressively won the next four weight classes before Jordan Thompson netted a title for the Owls with a victory via technical fall at 145.
After the first seven finals matches ended in either a fall or technical fall, the upper weights brought more drama. In perhaps the night’s best matchup, Lucas Laktash of Bradford used a last-second reversal to beat Luke Ely of Kane, a rematch of their dual-meet thriller five days prior.
Laktash had ridden out Ely in the third period of his 3-0 victory Feb. 8, and Monday, he did the same in the second period. Ely clung to Laktash just as tightly in his turn, but when Laktash got to a sit-out in the final minute, he finally broke free from Ely’s leg ride and scored the match’s only points with 20 seconds left.
“(Thompson) wrestled a really good match. I thought Luke Ely wrestled a really good match against (Laktash), too, between two guys that are really equal,” Chaussard said. “It was a good momentum builder for us.”
Two Kane championships bookended the 160-pound final, the first by Reece Bechakas at 152 pounds and the second by Addison Plants at 172. Bechakas was dominant in a win by technical fall and Plants, after building a 5-0 lead, caught Coudy’s John Wright on the edge of the mat for a fall.
Port’s Juuso Young beat Beau Azzato of Cameron County, 8-2, in the 189-pound final. Young built a 6-2 lead after the first period and navigated his way from there, holding off the CC senior who was a team of one at the AML championships.
Azzato has populated CC’s wrestling room on his own all year. The team has done its best to find him matches, but without dual meets, Monday’s results moved Azzato’s season record to just 11-4.
“Getting a few matches here is really beneficial,” said John Azzato, who is assisting Eugene Brown in coaching CC this season. “He doesn’t have anybody to practice with and we’re trying to get some old coaches in to roll around with him.”
Beau Azzato had a decorated youth career but has seen limited mat time since, including taking off most of the past two years. Monday’s tournament was perfectly suited for a wrestler like him, who has had to seek out competition.
“When you don’t get a lot of mat time, you get out there and try to force a few things, which can put you in a bad spot. It’s tough coming back when you give up points like that,” John Azzato said. “It’s a good learning experience for the next tournament, and the next one we’ll be at will be the District 9 tournament. This kind of lets (Beau) know where he’s at and lets us know where we’re at.”
After the 189-pound final, the last two bouts were, unsurprisingly, Coudy-versus-Port matchups.
The 215-pound title match saw Coudy’s Gavyn Ayers beat rival Miska Young, 2-0, in sudden-victory overtime. Both wrestlers spent an entire period in the top position, but after starting the extra stanza on their feet, it was Ayers who came out on top of a throw attempt by both.
Carson Neely then returned the favor by beating Coudy’s Cooper Rossman, 1-0, in the 285-pound final.
It was another example of Neely riding out an opponent to win, which he has done several times in his undefeated year. In this match, he used a few key mat returns to ensure his second-period stand-up was the match’s only point.
“Juuso (Young) wrestled really well. We knew if we could stay in position and stay away from any big moves, we could beat (Azzato),” Greenman said. “(Neely) is going to realize that heavyweights will want to slow matches down and try to win in overtime… We’ll work on that to get better at it.”
For Bradford, AMLs were truly a tune-up for the District 9 postseason, which begins a week earlier for the Owls than it does the rest of the league. Bradford will wrestle at the District 4/9 Class 3A tournament at Jersey Shore Saturday, while Class 2A schools will wait an extra week for their postseason start at PennWest Clarion.
“It was a good test for everyone to get ready for the postseason,” Chaussard said. “There were competitive, intense matches and it was good to see some back-ups and kids who don’t get a lot of mat time out there competing.”
ALLEGHENY MOUNTAIN LEAGUECHAMPIONSHIP FINALS 107/114 — Andrew Coriaty (OV) tech. fall 18-3 Ian O’Shea (Port) 121 — AJ Barnes (Sheffield) p. 3:51 Nick Wilfong (Port) 127 — Hayden Holden (Sheffield) p. 3:21 Christian Rothermel (Port) 133 — Collin Brown (Sheffield) p. 3:00 Wyatt Daisley (Coudy) 139 — Chase Kyler (Sheffield) p. 1:16 Nate Girdlestone (Bradford) 145 — Jordan Thompson (Bradford) tech. fall 16-0 Owen Deutschlander (Coudy) 152 — Reece Bechakas (Kane) tech. fall 15-0 Rylan Arnold (Port) 160 — Lucas Laktash (Bradford) dec. 2-0 Luke Ely (Kane) 172 — Addison Plants (Kane) p. 3:41 John Wright (Coudy) 189 — Juuso Young (Port) dec. 8-2 Beau Azzato (CC) 215 — Gavyn Ayers (Coudy) SV 2-0 Miska Young (Port) 285 — Carson Neely (Port) dec. 1-0 Cooper Rossman (Coudy)
CONSOLATION FINALS 107/114 — Kayin Bard (Kane) p. :46 Ryan Galloway (Bradford) 121 — Evan Swanson (Kane) dec. 4-2 Mitchell Brinsky (Bradford) 127 — Brett Moss (Coudy) p. 1:52 David Kennedy (Bradford) 133 — Quinn Lasher (Bradford) p. :32 Colton Furgeson (Port) 139 — Jett Finch (Coudy), Bye 145 — Zach Barnes (Sheffield) dec. 9-5 Blaine Good (Kane) 152 — Alex Marfink (Sheffield), Bye 160 — Mason Gordon (Port) dec. 7-1 Sam West (Kane) 172 — Ben Walter (Kane) default Aiden Bliss (Port) 189 — Ethan Tarbox (Port) p. 3:19 Joe Cary (Bradford) 215 — Quincy Boose (Sheffield) p. 2:44 Kodin Flagg (Port) 285 — Chase Gray (Bradford) p. :44 Gavyn McKervey (Port)
