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Dalton Wenner accepts the Outstanding Wrestler award from District 9 mat chairman Peter Grecco. (Photo by Chris Rossetti/YDLsports.com)
FAST ACTIN': Wenner
named D-9/10 OW
Dalton Wenner wasted no time picking up his fourth straight district crown Saturday at Clarion.
The Cranberry senior needed only 68 seconds to flattened three opponents en route to the 139-pound crown in the District 9/10 3A event.
His victims: Aven Winiarczak of meet champion Harbor Creek (20 seconds), Kamyren Overly of Meadville (15) and Lincoln Slupski of Erie (33).
Both Cranberry and Franklin wrestlers competed in district tournaments last weekend and some, such as Wenner, will advance to regionals this Friday and Saturday. Scroll down for more.
Underdog Lady Oilers
hang tough but fall to
Slippery Rock, 38-36
They went down...but not without a fight.
The fifth-seeded Oil City girls, venturing into the playoffs for the first time since 2017, came within a hair of upsetting Slippery Rock Saturday in the District 10 4A tourney, but ultimately dropped a 38-36 decision to the 18-4 Lady Rockets.
Oil City jumped out to an early lead, but the Rock overtook the Lady Oilers in the second quarter and hung on for dear life from there.
The game was tied twice in the last 1:19 on baskets by Sophia Garmong and Payton Lierderbach before the Rockets went ahead to stay on a driving hoop by their leading scorer, Madison Romanovich who had been on the bench much of the second half with four fouls. Romanovch is averaging 23.4 ppg.
She fouled out 16 seconds later, but the Oilers couldn't get any of their last three shots to fall.
So ended Oil City's season at 12-11-- only its second winning campaign since 2018 -- and the careers of Liederbach and Garmong, who teamed for almost 2,000 points.
Liederbach , who drew her fourth late and had to be careful, finished with 1,308 points, good for second on Oil City's all-time list. She left the game near the end of the first half on an awkward looking shoulder tweak. (She missed two games in mid-January with shoulder issues). But she came back after intermission to direct Oil City's deliberate offense.
Brielle Jordan got the Rock back into the game after it fell behind early. She scored all of her game-high 17 points before the break. Her repertoire included three trifectas in the second quarter.
Garmong led Oil City with 14 points and Liederbach added 13.​
​
Picutured are Sophia Garmong (30) and Payton Liederbach. Photos by Christy Fackler.
Oil City 500-Point Seasons
Photo by Richard Sayer
Nevin Stinson is the new "modern" school record holder at Oil City for single-season points.
Oilers bow to Prep again despite record
by Stinson; season over for Grove Boys
BULLETIN -- Looks like the Oil City Blue and White Boosters and Rossbacher Insurance stepped up to help DeeJ Experience pay for the cost of streaming Tuesday's game between the Oilers and Harbor Creek!
Nevin Stinson broke the school single-season scoring record, but Oil City again showed it is is no match for Cathedral Prep.
It was closer than the 115-60 schooling the state-ranked and once-beaten Ramblers handed the Oilers in the Dick Russell tournament in December. This time, two months later in the District 10 4A playoffs, the score was a much more respectable 85-61. Improvement shown.
And, what's more, because five teams from District 10 will advance to the PIAA playoffs, the Oilers lived to play another day, anyhow.
Unfortunately, for Rocky Grove, the Orioles didn't in the 2A tournament at Meadville. Cochranton, two-time losers to the Orioles in Region 2 this year, played stubborn and wouldn't go down a third time. The Cardinals survived and advanced with a 48-47 decision on Walker Carroll's basket with 15 seconds to play. The Grove had one last chance, but was called for traveling with two seconds left, and thus finished the season with a 16-7 record.
Oil City fell behind Prep 21-10 at the quarter and it was pretty much all Ramblers after that. Prep took a 70-49 lead into the fourth after a 30-point third.
Prep's biggest of big guns, Nando Mirachi, led the way with 31. Mirachi, a transfer from McDowell, averages 26.3 -- about the same as Stinson, who tallied 25 to lead the 18-6 Oilers.
Stinson now has 520 points this season, breaking the "modern" record of 498 set in 1971 by 6-4 Mike "Hoss" Emick. (Ironically this game was played at Mercyhurst, where Emick later played college basketball.)
Stinson is now in range to break Steve Cleaves' single-season record of 541 points set in 1920 when he shot all of Oil City's free throws. Thirty-four players in Venango County history have scored 500 points or more in a season, led by Tom Carroll of St. Joe who bucketed 706 in 1958. Only six others have topped 600.
Stinson also has 944 career points, five behind No. 3 Logan Way, who finished his career in 2014 with 949.
The Oilers received another big game from freshman Isaiah Van Wormer, who scored 15 points, and is averaging 7.9 coming off the bench the last 10 games.
So, with the Oilers in the losers' bracket, they'll take on Harbor Creek Tuesday. If they get by the Huskies, a 19-point loser to Hickory on Friday, they'll face Girard or Fairview in the battle for fifth place this Friday.
Last hurrah for Baughman, Carter
Rocky Grove got off to a 9-2 start against Cochranton, but the Cardinals were ahead 19-16 by halftime before withstanding a 20-point barrage by the Orioles in the fourth quarter.
Save for a Connor Ritchey three-pointer with 33.9 seconds left, they held onto the lead before Carroll's basket got it back.
The game ended the storied careers of two of the Orioles' GOATS. Noah Baughman and Landen Carter scored their 1,000th points in the same game in December and finished 3-4 on the Orioles' all-time scoring list, Baughman with 1,350 points and Carter with 1,320. Dylan Gravatt, Venango County's all-time leading scorer, is No. 1 with 1,904 and Chad Sanner is second with 1,428.
Grove's all-time leading scorers
The storied high school careers of Rocky Grove's Landen Carter (2) and Noah Baughman (15) came to a close Friday night. (Photos by Christy Fackler).
Playoffs
District 10
CLASS 4A BOYS
​
OPENING ROUND
Tuesday's Results
1. Cathedral Prep vs. bye
8. OIL CITY 77, 9. North East 69
4. Hickory 69, 13. FRANKLIN 42
5. Harbor Creek 57, 12. Ft. LeBoeuf 45
2. Sharon vs. bye
7. Girard 42, 10. Farrell 40
3. Fairview vs. bye
6. Warren 55, Grove City 43​
QUARTERFINALS
Friday's Results
Prep 85, OIL CITY 61
Hickory 70, Harbor Creek 51
Sharon 33, Girard 30
Warren 49, Fairview 36
SEMIFINALS
Tuesday, Feb. 24
Prep vs. Hickory, 6 p.m., Mercyhursat
Sharon vs. Warren, 6 p.m., Farrell
CHAMPIONSHIP
Friday, Feb. 27​
5TH PLACE BRACKET
Tuesday, Feb. 24
OIL CITY vs. Harbor Creek, 6 p.m., Edinboro
Girard vs. Fairview, 7:30 p.m., Hagerty
Winners play Friday, Feb. 27 for fifth place
3RD and 4TH PLACE
Friday, Feb. 27​​
Top 5 places advance to PIAA tourney​
​
District 9
DISTRICT 9 3A BOYS
CHAMPIONSHIP
1. CRANBERRY vs. 2. Brookville, 8 p.m., Tuesday, Clarion High School
(One team advances to the PIAA tourney. It will be determined by a sub-regional Feb. 28 against the District 10 champion at Penn West Clarion​
​
DISTRICT 8-9 2A GIRLS
QUARTERFINAL
4. Moniteau 45, 5. Westinghouse 42
SEMIFINAL
1. Karns City vs. Moniteau, Tuesday, Union, TBA
3. Brookville vs. 2. CRANBERRY, 6 p.m., Tuesday, Clarion High School
CHAMPIONSHIP
Karns City-Moniteau winner vs. CRANBERRY-Brookville winner, TBA
(Two advance to PIAA tourney)
* Farrell also has 13 WPIAL titles
Cranberry: 9 titles in D9 and D10
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On the mat, in the pool
Regional
qualifiers
District 9/10 3A champs Aiden Thompson and Dalton Wenner of Cranberry.
Thompson, Wenner claim District titles; 11 more Berries, Knights place
Cranberry's Aiden Thompson (133) and OW Dalton Wenner (139) claimed titles in the District 9/10 AAA wrestling tournament Saturday at Clarion.
The Berries finished fourth among eight teams; Harbor Creek won the event. Franklin, led by 107-pounder Seth Hollerman, was 12th among 24 teams in the D-10 2A event at Sharon High School. Cathedral Prep was team champion.
The Berries also received a second from Noah Lucarelli (285), third from Brett Hurrelbrink (107), fourths from Alex McLaughlin (172) and Clark Findlay (189), a fifth from Jamarcus Cooke (160) and a sixth from Ethan Schreffler (152). Lucarelli and Hurrelbrink qualified for regionals.
The district crown was the fourth for Wenner and the second for Thompson.
Gary Kiselka was fourth for Franklin at 215. Orvis Davis (139) and Ethan Hart (152) were seventh and Kaden Kiselka (285) was eighth. All the Franklin place-winners advanced to regionals.
Regionals are Feb. 27-28. The 3A will be at Canon-MacMillan and the 2A will again be at Sharon.
Oil City and Franklin coaches -- brothers Eric and Charlie Smith -- are putting their athletes through final paces in preparation for the District 10 meet.
All four local squads have outstanding individuals entered in the meet, including the Franklin girls who claimed the region title this season. (Photos by Christy Fackler)
District 10 swimming
set this week at
Ohio's spire institute
Football
Franklin finds
its man
Austin Ion was introduced as the new Franklin football coach at a school board work session on Jan. 19. He officially became Franklin's 26th paid coach at the board's Jan. 26 meeting.
Ion succeeds Matt Turk, a former Knight all-star, who resigned after six years at the helm.
Ion is a 2017 Keystone High School graduate who played football, basketball and baseball for the Panthers.
He played wide receiver at Grove City College, where he majored in accounting.
He has coached at Keystone for eight years and most recently served as jayvee coach under coach Todd Smith.
The commiittee to select a new coach at Franklin consisted of athletic director Becky Barnes, high school co-principal Tom Holoman, Central Elementary principal Joe Keenan and assistant AD Chris Romanowski.
Ion was the choice among "nine good applicants," according to Barnes.​