---- — For most of recent memory, the General McLane Lancers have been a thorn in Mercer County’s side during many athletic battles.

Saturday was no different as the Lancers placed seven wrestlers into the finals of the 30th annual Fred Bell Tournament at Grove City High School with just three capturing championships.

With that impressive showing, McLane easily outdistanced runner-up Redbank Valley 258.5-222.5, while Jamestown (116.5), Lakeview (97), Mercer (92), Grove City (68), Sharpsville (64.5) and Hickory (62) finished in the top-20 of the 27-team field.

The only finals match pitting a pair of Mercer County wrestlers was in the final match of the evening at 285 pounds were Lakeview’s Sam Breese pinned Sharpsville’s Kaleb Robertson in 3:07.

“Sam was real impressive,” Lakeview coach Tom Tingley said. “He wrestled a real good tournament. He pinned everybody he wrestled. He certainly is getting prepared for the postseason and hopefully, he’ll do well there.”

The only other local to earn a championship was Jamestown’s Jonas Reaugh, who edged Northwestern’s Matt Wheeler 2-1 at 120 pounds.

“Jonas was what we expected,” Muskie coach Steve Pfaff said. “We were really looking forward to watching him and Wheeler wrestle in the finals and he pulled that out. Jonas wrestled him twice last year and beat him both times, but Wheeler’s improved. That’s one step in the direction we want to be headed.”

Lakeview’s Evan Clayton was unable to solve McLane’s Joe Wheeling 14-2 at 120 pounds.

“Evan had a good tournament,” Tingley said. “The kid he wrestled in the finals from General McLane is a real tough kid. I think he’s a AAA placewinner, but I’m not sure. Evan wrestled him tough.”

Most Oustanding Wrestler Shane Gentry of South Side (132) never made it out of the second period, pinning all five opponents, including Muskie Nick Floch in 57 seconds.

“Nick was injured earlier in the year,” Pfaff said. “Gentry is definitely tough. He definitely didn’t fare very well against (Gentry), but overall, (Floch) wrestled very tough.”

At 182 pounds, Hickory’s Joe Hines trailed Lancer Chris Laird 5-4 entering the third period before ultimately falling 10-5.

“Joey had an awesome tournament,” said Hickory assistant coach Nick Klepper, who helped guide the Hornets in the place of head coach Carl Wombacher who missed the tourney for personal reasons. “He beat two guys that are ranked higher than him in the region. He came into the finals match with nothing to lose. He wrestled a hard-fought match. He was impressive. It was nice to see Joe put toegther a good tournament heading into sections.”

Jamestown’s Keamus Schulen was pinned by Cochranton’s Cam Cyphert in just 47 seconds at 220 pounds.

“Cyphert is tough,” Pfaff said. “Keamus was about a .500 wrestler last year. This year, I think he’s 20-3, so he’s come a long way. He’s wrestling really smart as a senior. What he’s produced for me this year is just fantastic.”

Other champions were Redbank’s Wills Gruver (113) and Ty Haines (145), Warren’s DJ Fehlman (126), Coudersport’s Cody (138) and Kyle (152) Bova, General McLane’s Ossie Bowers (160)Cochranton’s Austin Andrews (170) and Franklin’s Dan Geer (195).

Other champions were Redbank’s Wills Gruver (113) and Ty Haines (145), Warren’s DJ Fehlman (126), Coudersport’s Cody (138) and Kyle (152) Bova, General McLane’s Ossie Bowers (160)Cochranton’s Austin Andrews (170) and Franklin’s Dan Geer (195).

Several other Mercer County athletes earned places in 3rd and 5th place consolation rounds. Place winners included:

106 - 4 Justin Walter (Hickory), 5 Preston Hoover (Mercer); 113 - none; 120 - 6 Kenny Bable (Grove City); 126 - none; 132 - 5 Luke Walter (Grove City); 138 - 4 Rodney Brant (Mercer); 5 Tony Leonard (Commodore Perry); 145 - 3 Trey Maher (Grove City), Alex Shaffer (Mercer); 152 - 5 Chet Simoni (Grove City); 160 - none; 170 - 3 Ben Bucher (Sharpsville); 182 - none; 195 - none; 220 - none; 285 - 5 John Hennegan (Mercer) — Information submitted by Herald sports correspondent Corey J. Corbin.

Sharon Duals

Coach Dave Ciafre’s Tigers went 2-3 on Saturday as they hosted the Sharon Duals at Tiger Gymnasium.

Sharon beat Shaler (43-34) and Indiana (51-12) and lost to Smethport (51-18), Fox Chapel (33-32) and Valley (33-19).

Franklin Regional, coached by former Sharon star Eric Mausser, went 5-0, Fox Chapel and Smethport were both 4-1 and Elizabeth Forward was 3-2.

Jarray Norris was a perfect 5-0 for the Tigers at 126 pounds while Michael Bonner (138), Cory Buchanan (152) and Beau Dignall (182) were all 4-1.

Cody Buchanan (113) and Andrew Campbell (145) went 3-2 for Sharon while Austin Alfreno (120) and Jason Clark (132) notched 2-3 ledgers.

Also for the Tigers, Marco Hosch (160), Isaiah Chavez (170) and Anthony Leak (285) went 1-4.

ä Bellefonte 36, Greenville 31 — At Greenville, the Raiders from Centre County edged the Trojans in a thriller.

Randall Peabody (220) and Jacob Riffe (138) posted falls for Greenville while Luke Leathers (106), Nate Rosenberger (126) and Garrett Poorman (285) notched falls for Bellefonte.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

ä Hickory 45, Grove City 33 — At The Hive, host Hickory handcuffed the Grovers during the 1st half en route to the Region 5-AAA win.

Grove City was guilty of 17 turnovers and connected for only 2 field goals during the game’s first 16 minutes, as Hickory harvested a 26-8 margin at intermission.

Ultimately, the visiting Lady Eagles eased within 41-33 with 38.5 ticks to play before the Lady Hornets closed out from the free-throw line. Both Brandi Beader and Jenna Placzek converted both ends of 1-and-1 bonus opportunities.

“ ... They’re a great defensive team, and they get after you. But I was real pleased with our girls and how they executed in the second half,” interim Grove City head coach Mike Hostetler assessed. “(The Lady Hornets) were still half-court trapping, still doing what they did in the first half — maybe not with the same intensity — but we executed and made better decisions, better passes and got a lot more shots.”

After incurring 4 first-half personal fouls, Corianne Hyduchak hit all 5 of her floor shots and all 3 freebies en route to a team-high 13 points for Grove City (4-3, 10-6). Also, Jenn Ferguson shared game-high rebounding laurels with 8 as Grove City grabbed a 28-26 glass edge.

But Grove City garnered only 33 percent shooting (11 of 33) from the field and the Lady Eagles ended with 23 turnovers.

Hickory (6-1, 13-2) was led by Holly Grober’s 16-point, 8-rebound, 3-assist line, Megan Chess’ handful of assists, Placzek’s 8-point, 8-rebound performance, and Nikki Arbanas, who added 11 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists. However Hickory had 7 third-quarter turnovers — equalling its 1st-half output — and the ’Stingers shot only 15 for 41 from the field (36.5 percent) and finished with 17 miscues. 

“We’ve been working very, very hard in practice, defensively, and one of the things that we’re emphasizing is that, if you come up short on the offensive end, if you don’t give up what you can’t get, at least you can still be in the game,” Lady Hornets’ headmaster Jeanette Whitehead related.

“There were some things we did that were uncharacteristic of ourselves (in the 3rd quarter), but, you know, it’s a game of runs,” Whitehead continued, “and I credit Grove City. ... But I just kept encouraging our girls to shake it, and we did ... and we had some flashes of what we did in the first half, that same level.

“But that goes with it. It’s region play, your opponents are not rolling over, so we’ve got to stay on top of our game. That’s going to have to be the focus for the future, starting on Monday,” Whitehead added. — By Ed Farrell, Herald assistant sports editor.

ä Sharpsville 68, Jamestown 16 — At Sharpsville, McKenzie Popatak became the school’s all-time leading girls scorer with 1,468 points after pouring in 24 points in the non-region rout of the Lady Muskies (0-16).

Popatak broke the previous mark of 1,440 career points by 2007-08 graduate Kasey Gardner, who went on to play college hoops at Shippensburg University.

“I want to congratulate her on that achievement,” said Sharpsville coach Jeff Hanley. “She’s done a great job for us and her team over the past four years.”

Popatak also had 8 rebounds for the Blue Darlings (10-6) Saturday, Megan Davis drained 4 treys en route to 16 points, Maddie Przicina dished out 5 assists and Eugena Davies added 5 steals.

Savannah Miller led the way for Jamestown with 11 points.

ä Vincentian Academy 70, Kennedy Catholic 53 — At Penn State-Beaver Saturday night, the Lady Golden Eagles (15-2) suffered a loss to undefeated Vincentian (16-0) in the championship game of the PSU-Beaver Tourney, which had been postponed by weather last month.

Vincentian jumped out to a 28-14 lead after the opening 8 minutes in a matchup of two of the best Class A teams in western Pa. VA competes in WPIAL Section 2-A.

Both KC and Vincentian were ranked in the top 5 last season in the state rankings by the Harrisburg Patriot-News.

On Saturday, Brenna Wise rifled in 30 points to lead Vincentian while Sarah Marusic scored 11 and Torrieonna Cash added 10 markers.

Cash is the niece of Swin Cash, who played hoops at McKeesport High, won national titles with UConn in 2000 and ’02 and now plays with the Chicago Sky in the WNBA.

Alex Ricketts fired in 19 points for KC, Rebekah Kish scored 11 and Rachel Burns bucketed 10. Burns has 980 career points and is set to hit 1,000 either Monday at Jamestown or Wednesday when KC hosts Warren JFK.

ä Maplewood 47, Commodore Perry 44 — At Guys Mills, the Lady Panthers (5-10) dropped a hard-fought non-region battle vs.  the Lady Tigers (5-11).

Liz Miller and Emily Merritt had 14 points each for Maplewood while Madalyn Nicols bucketed 12.

Kate Powell fired in a game-high 21 points to lead CP and Lexi Grinnell registered 11 markers.

BOYS BASKETBALL

ä Reynolds 62, Northwestern 50 — At Transfer Saturday night, the Raiders improved to 11-6 with the 12-point non-region win over the Region 4 Wildcats (8-8).

Kyle McConnell fired in 23 points for Reynolds while Garrett Frable scored 17.

Kyle McKeen led the way for Northwestern with 19 points and Corey Shinko tallied 11 markers.

ä Western Reserve Academy 57, Brookfield 39 — At Hudson, Ohio, the Warriors (10-2) went 5-of-16 from the charity stripe while WRA was 14-of-17.

Paster Barba scored 17 to lead Western Reserve while John Saucier added 14 markers.

Jeremy Quinlan rifled in a game-high 21 points for Brookfield and grabbed 6 rebounds.

Indoor Track & Field

At Youngstown State University Saturday, Sharon’s Wayna Austin-Smith took 1st in the triple jump (40-6 1/4) while Jonathan Jacoway placed 2nd in the high jump (6-4).



WRESTLING

BELLEFONTE 36, GREENVILLE 31

152 — Blake Horne (G) maj. dec. Dillon Ault, 12-0; 160 — Gage Gladysz (G) dec. Austin Cable, 3-0; 170 — Nicholas Shawley (B) maj. dec. Zach Miller, 8-0; 182 — Justin Reynolds (G) forfeit; 195 — Benjamin Putnam (B) dec. Alex Ho, 9-7; 220 — Randall Peabody (G) pinned Timothy Benford, :31; 285 — Garrett Poorman (B) pinned Braden Gladysz, 1:05; 106 — Luke Leathers (B) pinned Jase Paxton, 3:56; 113 — Aaron Witherite (B) tech. fall Joseph Safner, 15-0, 4:48; 120 — Trevor Corl (B) forfeit; 126 — Nate Rosenberger (B) pinned Craig Trumbull, 2:29; 132 — Derek Watt (G) dec. Zach Musser, 5-2; 138 — Jacob Riffe (G) pinned Timothy Shirk, 2:21; 145 — Jacob Brown (G) dec. Dillon Kephart, 6-2. JV: No score reported.



GIRLS BASKETBALL

GROVE CITY    4    4    11    14    33

HICKORY    11    15    5    14    45

GROVE CITY — Hall 0-2-2-2, Hyduchak 5-3-3-13, Wyllie 1-4-8-6, Sprando 0-0-0-0, Ferguson 3-0-3-6, Lucido 2-1-2-6, B.Deyarmin 0-0-0-0, Young 0-0-0-0, A.Deyarmin 0-0-0-0. 3-pt. goal: Lucido 1. Totals: 11-10-19-33.

HICKORY — Arbanas 4-1-2-11, Chess 1-2-2-4, Grober 6-3-5-16, Placzek 3-2-3-8, Beader 1-4-4-6, Moore 0-0-0-0, Shephard 0-0-0-0, White 0-0-0-0. 3-pt. goals: Arbanas 2, Grober 1. Totals: 15-12-16-45.  

JV — Hickory, 37-27. Katie Gustas 11 ponits for Hickory; Alexis Deyarmin 7 for Grove City.

———

JAMESTOWN    8    2    3    3    16

SHARPSVILLE    26    17    20    5    68

JAMESTOWN — McLaughlin 2-1-2-5, Miller 4-0-0-11, Harnett 0-0-0-0, Liszka 0-0-0-0, Mitchell 0-0-0-0, Robinson 0-0-0-0, Greenawalt 0-0-0-0, Keyser 0-0-0-0, Sankey 0-0-0-0. 3-pt. goals: Miller 3. Totals: 6-1-2-16.

SHARPSVILLE — Davis 5-2-2-16, Davies 2-0-0-4, Przicina 1-0-0-2, Popatak 9-5-6-24, Henwood 1-1-1-3, Kurelko 2-3-7-9, Anderson 1-0-0-2, Sloan 3-2-5-8, Shuttleworth 0-0-0-0, Schell 0-0-0-0, Scurpa 0-0-0-0, Talbert 0-0-0-0, Falconi 0-0-0-0. 3-pt. goals: Davis 4, Kurelko 2, Popatak 1. Totals: 24-13-21-68.

JV — Sharpsville, 54-21. Eugena Davies 12, Emily Anderson 10 for Sharpsville.

———

COMM. PERRY    11    7    12    14    44

MAPLEWOOD    9    12    8    18    47

COMMODORE PERRY — Powell 8-4-11-21, Campbell 1-0-0-2, L. Grinnell 3-5-6-11, Kitchen 1-0-0-2, A. Nagy 0-0-0-0, S. Grinnell 0-0-0-0, Vaughn 3-0-0-8. 3-pt. goals: Vaughn 2, Powell 1. Totals: 16-9-17-44.

MAPLEWOOD — L. Miller 6-2-2-14, A. Miller 1-0-0-2, Turner 0-0-0-0 Covine 0-1-2-1, Krepps 0-0-0-0, Merritt 6-1-6-14, Smith 0-4-6-4, Nicols 5-2-4-12. 3-pt. goal: Meritt 1. Totals: 18-10-20-47.

JV — Maplewood, 36-32. Covine 15 for Maplewood.

———

KENNEDY    14    13    14    12    53

VINCENTIAN    28    19    17    6    70

KENNEDY CATHOLIC — Kress 2-0-0-4, Hood 1-2-5-4, Kish 5-0-0-11, Burns 3-4-6-10, Ricketts 6-4-4-19, Bocian 2-1-2-5. 3-pt. goals: Ricketts 3, Kish 1. Totals: 19-11-17-53.

VINCENTIAN ACADEMY — Bartoszewicz 0-0-0-0, Wise 8-13-14-30, Key 4-1-2-9, Cash 3-4-4-10, Joiner 2-0-0-5, Elliott 1-0-0-3, Muth 1-0-0-2, Marusic 4-0-0-11, Galbraith 0-0-0-0. 3-pt. goals: Marusic 3, Wise 1, Joiner 1, Elliott 1. Totals: 23-18-20-70.



BOYS BASKETBALL

BROOKFIELD    9    12    6    12    39

WEST.RESERVE    14    6    17    20    57

BROOKFIELD — Ji. Quinlan 3-0-3-6, Harkulich 2-0-2-4, Dixon 2-0-1-4, Je. Quinlan 7-4-4-21, Mosora 1-0-2-3, Tarver 0-1-4-1, Wallace 0-0-0-0. 3-pt. goals: Je. Quinlan 3, Mosora 1. Totals: 15-5-16-39.

WESTERN RESERVE ACADEMY — Roberts 3-1-2-7, Saucier 4-5-6-14, Bryant 2-1-1-5, Kramer 0-0-0-0, Barba 6-4-4-17, Dains 2-0-0-4, Coffman 1-1-2-4, Fleischmann 2-2-2-6. 3-pt. goals: Saucier 1, Barba 1, Coffman 1. Totals: 20-14-17-57.

JV — WRA, 43-19.

———

N’ WESTERN    11    14    11    14    50

REYNOLDS    13    16    18    15    62

NORTHWESTERN — Panko 2-2-2-6, McKeen 8-2-5-19, Balog 1-0-1-2, Hites 1-0-0-3, Shinko 5-0-0-11, Yochim 2-0-0-4, Garlepy 2-0-0-5. 3-pt. goals: McKeen 1, Hites 1, Shinko 1, Garlepy 1. Totals: 21-4-8-50.

REYNOLDS — Woods 3-2-3-9, Torok 3-2-6-8, Frable 8-1-2-17, McConnell 9-5-10-23, Beck 2-1-3-5. 3-pt. goal: Woods 1. Totals: 25-11-24-62.

JV — No score reported.