The Bellwood-Antis lineup had been missing bodies all season long, but has been particularly hard hit over the past several weeks. This has come to a point where the Blue Devil have entered just eight wrestlers in the upcoming District VI-AA Wrestling Tournament set to begin at Tyrone on Friday, Feb. 20 and Saturday, Feb. 21.
The Blue Devils are paying for the extremely small number of juniors and seniors that have come up through the junior high in recent years. There are no seniors and just two juniors remaining on the B-A roster, although at least in numbers, help seems to be on the way. This year’s Bellwood-Antis wrestling lineup features two juniors, six sophomores and a freshman and there are 14 ninth graders on the junior high roster. The junior high has totaled 30 or more wrestlers in each of the last two years and the elementary program has been restarted and is in full swing again.
Josh Ervine (135) and Eli Colyer, a pair of sophomores are the top seeds for the district tournament.
Ervine, who wrestled last year as a freshman and finished 13-17, is the number seven seed at 135, going 17-6 thus far. Ervine will wrestle Justin Berrier (15-8) from Southern Huntingdon in the first round of the tourney. The two grapplers have met three times this season and each match has been decided by two points or less. Berrier decisioned Ervine 6-4 in the semifinals of the Tri-County Tournament and 4-2 in the semifinals of the Zeigler Blair/Huntingdon County Tournament. Then in the dual meet, Ervine triumphed 3-2.
At 119, Eli Colyer (16-7) is the number eight seed. Colyer a sophomore wrestling his first varsity season will face ninth grader Dave Grove (14-10) of Mount Union, the ninth seed. During the season Grove pinned Colyer in 5:36 of the first round of the Zeigler Tournament in what was a close match at the time of the fall. Colyer leads the Blue devils in team points this season with 67 in the 15 dual meets.
Junior Dwayne Cherry (11-13) is a number 13 seed at 171, where he will meet number 20 seed Anthony Panosetti (4-22) of Southern Huntingdon in a pigtail match. During the season, Cherry wrestled three Southern Huntingdon wrestlers and pinned all three. Cherry decked Panosetti in the second round of the Zeigler Tournament in 2:39.
Tyler Narehood (11-13) is the number 12 seed at heavyweight. The B-A ninth grader will wrestle Tyler Beech (20-4) of Cambria heights in first round action. Beech is the number five seed at 275.
Sophomore Brandon Beech (7-11), the number 17 seed will face number 16 seed Jon Cartwright (8-14) from West Branch at 112. Junior Ron Colyer (4-13) wrestles Juniata Valley sophomore Toby Erb (5-8). Colyer is the number 18 seed at 145, and Erb is seeded 15th. Sophomore Liam Flynn (1-13) , the 21st seed wrestles Glenn Werner (10-8), the 12th seed from Juniata Valley. Dustin Harris (4-17), the number 22 seed, will wrestle Vince O’Donnell (14-12, number 11 seed from Westmont-Hilltop.
“We were seeded pretty much where we expected,” said Bellwood-Antis wrestling coach Ron Wilson. “We only had two kids with winning records and they ended up being seventh and eighth. The other kids faired about as well as we expected coming through. This is one of the things you go through with a young team. Hopefully in the next couple years, those seeds will go from seventh and eighth seeds up to first, second and third seeds. Hopefully we will get a little better and mature and move up in seedings for next year’s tournament. As long as the kids keep getting better that’s all we can ask.”
The pigtail round will be wrestled on four mats, beginning on Friday morning at 10 a. m.., with the preliminary or first round set for 10:30 a.m. also on four mats. At 1:45 p.m. the first round consolation will be wrestled on four mats and the quarterfinals will begin at 5:30 p.m. on two mats.
On Saturday, consolations will start at 10:30 a.m. on three mats. Semifinals will go at 1 p.m. and consolation finals will begin at 5:30 p.m. both on two mats. Championship finals will get underway at 7:15 p.m.
Admission prices will be students $2.00 per session and adults $5.00 per session.
