Bellwood-Antis just finished a season that was full of injuries and illnesses that prevented the Blue Devils from ever getting the starting lineup head coach Ron Wilson envisioned at the beginning of the year.
Just two B-A wrestlers have had more than one year varsity experience before this season and one of them missed half the year recovering from surgery. Bellwood-Antis practices featured lots of fundamentals, rather than the normal routine of specializing procedures.
Now, Bellwood-Antis enters the second season of high school wrestling, the arduous road to Hershey and the State Championships. The last Blue Devil to qualify for Hershey was Karl Montanaro in 1992. Coach Wilson is hoping his team can surprise some people at the District Six Tournament at Tyrone this weekend.
The top seed for the Blue Devils is No. Seven seed Jared Ervine. A senior, Ervine (17-8) wrestled in New York state before moving into the Bellwood-Antis School District. Ervine will wrestle Tim Tice (7-17) of West Branch, in the preliminary round at 152, on Friday morning and probably face No, Two seed Jeremy Knott (27-2) of Claysburg-Kimmel, in the quaterfinals. Ervine edged Tice 5-3 in the West Branch dual and has split with Knott, winning by major decision 14-5 in the Blair/Huntingdon County Tournament and dropping a 5t-2 decision in the dual.
Sophomore Dwayne Cherry (14-13) is the only other Blue Devil seeded in the top 10 with an eight seed at 160. Cherry, who has won eight of his last 11 matches will wrestle the winner of the pigtail match involving John Starr (11-18) of Mount Union, and Rich Oslosky (0-16) of Ligonier Valley. Early in the year, Cherry dropped a tough 8-6 decision in overtime to Starr in the dual meet with the Trojans.
Will Edwards collected a No. 10 seed at 119, for Bellwood-Antis. Edwards (14-5), who has only wrestled at any level for the last two years, will wrestle Chuck Boring (19-8) of United, in the second round. Edwards’ worst enemy has been inactivity with just two matches since the middle of January due to several factors. The winner of their match will face undefeated No. two seed Garrett Scott (23-0) of Juniata Valley, in the quarterfinals. Edwards dropped a 16-4 major decision to Scott in the Tri-County.
The Blue Devil’s only returning Regional qualifier is senior Dan Himes who won a match at UPJ last year. Wrestling at 145, Himes (6-4) missed most of the year recovering from surgery and was sorely missed in the Bellwood-Antis lineup where he would have formed a formidable trio with Jared Ervine and Dwayne Cherry in the light heavyweight section. Himes, who last year joined his father Dan Himes as the only father-son duo at Bellwood-Antis to both wrestle at Regionals, will face Blairsville’s John Fiorilli (3-12) i the preliminaries. The winner will get No. Three seed James Moss (27-7) in the quarterfinals.
Other Blue Devils and their opening round opponents: sophomore Shane Evans (8-14) will meet No. Two seed Doug Ritchey (16-1) of Central, at 103. The pair have met three times this year. The Central sophomore pinned Evans in his first varsity match in at the Tri-County Tournament in December, decked Evans again at the East West Tournament in January, then won by a 12-3 major decision in the dual. Mike McGeary (3-20) will face James Yingling (12-11) of West Branch at 112. In the dual, McGeary was pinned by Yingling. Freshman Josh Ervine (12-14) will wrestle Andrew Lenhart (1-14) of Somerset, at 125. Ron Colyer (6-9) with five wins in his final seven matches, will meet Joel Eckenrode (2-10) of Penn Cambria, at 135. Padraig Flynn (3-13) will wrestle Corey Woodward (8-8) of Southern Huntingdon at 140. In a three-way dual, Flynn lost 9-7 in overtime to Woodward, while being under the weather in the Southern match and not being able to wrestle in the second part of the tri-meet with Southern and Tussey Mt. At 171, Mike Thomas (8-10) will wrestle David Korman (5-14) of Penns Valley. In the dual, Thomas was shut out 6-0 by Korman. Dustin Earnest (5-7), who has five victories in his last eight matches, will wrestle No. Three seed Kendall Ridenour (25-7) at 189. Chris Carrier (3-17) will meet Jason Washbaugh of Ligonier Valley (8-9) at 215.
Bellwood-Antis will have no wrestler at either 130 or 275.
“We got some good matchups inthe first rounds, especially in the pigtail preliminaries,” said Bellwood-Antis coach Ron Wilson. “I think we are going to score some points in the first round, because I think we got some some good matchups especially with the kids that we have. As far as later on in the tournament, the kids are going to have to work hard if they expect to get through. But we do have some good quality kids and hopefully they can advance.
