Luke Sipes

Altoona Area High School senior Luke Sipes and junior Braiden Weaver are both NCAA Division I college signees who bring some pretty decent street cred to their wrestling matches.

Sipes and Weaver both certainly lived up to the hype that surrounds them on the opening night of the new Class 3A Western Regional Friday at Canon McMillan High School in Canonsburg.

Both wrestlers scored a fall and a technical fall in their two matches Friday, and by doing so, both earned spots in Saturday’s 10:30 a.m. semifinal round.

Sipes, who will wrestle at the University of North Carolina, scored his 150th career victory in the quarterfinals, when he pinned Waynesburg’s Brock Evans in 3:01 at 160 pounds. Sipes, a four-time District 6 champion who is also trying to become a four-time regional champ, opened Friday’s competition with a 19-4 technical fall in 3:19 over Moon High School’s Liam Costa.

“Things were rolling, and I felt good,” said Sipes (37-4 this season), who will meet Thomas Jefferson’s Brayden White (33-7) in the semifinals. “I was getting into my offense, scoring a lot of points, doing my thing, and having fun.”

Weaver, a junior 121-pounder who has committed to wrestle collegiately at the University of Buffalo, pinned Bethel Park’s Pierce Reinhart in 36 seconds in the opening round, then tech-falled West Allegheny’s Thomas Bencho, 16-1 in 1:58 in the quarters.

“I felt really good,” said Weaver (36-6), a three-time district champion who will meet Connellsville’s Nolan Rice (32-11) in the semis. “I was getting to my attacks really well and trying to score points as fast as I could, and trying to dominate my opponents.”

Altoona coach Joel Gilbert thought that both Sipes and Weaver were extremely dominant Friday.

“They both really got their offense going tonight, and they both looked really impressive,” Gilbert said. “They both definitely looked dominant out there against their opponents. They both created a lot of offense, and they both scored a lot of points.”

Still going

There are 10 area wrestlers — six from Altoona and four from Hollidaysburg — still alive in Saturday’s second-round consolations, which begin at 9 a.m. These wrestlers will all have the chance Saturday to wrestle back for a trip to the PIAA Class 3A state tournament next Thursday through Saturday at Hershey’s Giant Center.

The top five finishers in each weight class at the West Regional will qualify for the state tournament.

Altoona’s Dominic Nardozza (107 pounds), Deklan Barr (127), Gavin Ciampoli (139), Reese Hite (145), Tykear Davis (189), and Michael Colyer (215) each split two matches Friday and remained alive in Saturday’s second-round consolations.

Nardozza pinned Obama’s Carter Alford in the opening round at 107, then lost by 17-2, 4:13 technical fall to Thomas Jefferson’s Zach Rehak in the quarterfinals. Freshman District 6 champion Barr decisioned Franklin Regional’s Mike Ruane, 5-2 in the first round, before dropping a 9-4 quarterfinal-round decision to Trinity’s Dom Canali.

Hite opened with a 6-3 decision over Allderdice’s Zach Schmitt at 145, before being pinned in 27 seconds by unbeaten Ramil Islamov of Baldwin (43-0) in the quarters. Davis major-decisioned Brashear’s Vincent Ledger, 13-2 in their 189-pound opening-round match, and Davis was pinned in the quarterfinals by DuBois freshman standout Kendahl Hoare in 3:38 in the quarterfinals.

Ciampoli, a 2024 state qualifier at 127 pounds, dropped a tough 4-1 overtime decision at 139 to Belle Vernon standout Deydon Soto – a former Connecticut state champion – before rallying to tech fall Obama’s Azrael Lewis, 17-1 in 1:58 in the first-round consolations. Colyer was pinned by Ringgold standout Jake Conroy in 40 seconds in their opening-round bout at 215, but came back to pin Brashear’s Angel Perez in 39 seconds in the first-round consys.

“Everybody was able to win at least one match for us today, and hopefully we’ll get a few more on Saturday,” Gilbert said. “They’re all tough here, but we’re taking one match at a time.”

Hollidaysburg’s Connor Sydney (107), Brayden Sidney (114), Mitchell Baronner (172) and Rocco Cacciotti (215) will also compete in the second-round consolations after each split two bouts Friday.

Hollidaysburg coach Christian Harr was pleased with the effort of his wrestlers on the first night of competition.

“I’m pretty happy with the overall performance,” Harr said. “Our kids went out there to wrestle tonight, and you can’t always base your judgment on purely wins and losses against this type of competition. We ran into some tough kids here today, and I can’t complain (about the effort).

“We’ve got to come back Saturday and fight and figure out a way to get through here.”

Baronner (now 32-14 this season), is a returning state qualifier for Hollidaysburg at 172 pounds. He began regional competition impressively, with a 40-second fall over Harbor Creek’s Eric McAdoo in the opening round, before running into a buzzsaw in the quarterfinals and losing by technical fall, 21-5, in 1:58 to University of Pittsburgh recruit Bode Marlow, a star senior at Thomas Jefferson who has won 46 matches this season and 157 in his career.

“Marlow is the real deal — he’s proven that all year long,” Harr said. “We hope that Mitchell can bounce back Saturday. We’ll take one match at a time, and see how things progress.”

At 107, freshman Connor Sidney opened with a 1:53 win by fall over Brashear’s Xavier Andrews, but was pinned in the quarterfinals in 1:36 by District 7 champion Nick McGarrity of Peters Township.

Brayden Sidney, a junior, decisioned District 10 champion Hunter Chew of Harbor Creek, 5-3 in the first round at 114, but dropped a 6-0 quarterfinal decision to Franklin Regional’s Titus Colangelo.

At 215, Cacciotti lost by technical fall, 20-3 in 3:53 to Kiski Area’s Cooper Roskovsky in the opening round, then bounced back to defeat Westinghouse’s DaeJour Pinckney, 9-6 in the first-round consolations.

“Cacciotti got it done in his consolation match,” Harr said. “Overall, this was a good team performance tonight.”

Hollidaysburg junior Landon Krupka lost both of his matches at 121 Friday and was eliminated from the tournament. Krupka dropped a 13-3 major decision to Fox Chapel’s Michael Woodson in the opening round and a 9-4 decision to Meadville’s Ben Fuller in the first round of consolations.