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TIM WEIGHT/For The Express
Central Mountain is set to compete at the District 6 girls wrestling championships today.
In a month that has been filled with wrestling, eight Central Mountain girls will take their talents and skills to the mats today in the inaugural District 6 tournament at Pittsburgh-Johnstown. Coached by Dylan Caprio, current assistant boys wrestling coach, Emma Scarborough-Perez (112 pounds), Kennedy Metzger (130), Austynn Falls (136), Sophia Hoy (142), Sophie Mitchell (155), Kendall Wagner (170), Callie Cella (190) and Ashlyn Miller (235) will represent the Wildcats.
Wrestling is set to begin at 10:30 a.m. today at the Pitt Johnstown Sports Center. Due to the lack of girls teams in District 6, Districts 5 and 9 will also compete in the tournament for rights to qualify for the Central Regional tournament on March 2 at Milton High School. The top-six placewinners from today’s event will qualify for next Saturday’s regional.
Between the eight district qualifiers, the Wildcats have totaled 73 wins on the season between 14 matches. The freshman, Falls, sports the top record at 18-3 on the year with Miller, a sophomore, at 14-10. Wagner, a sophomore, sports the third-most wins on the team with 13 but is an impressive 13-2 on the season.
Three of Metzger’s wins have been pins this season, Scarborough-Perez is 11-6 this season. Mitchell has only wrestled five matches this season but is over .500 (3-2), while Cella has four pins.
FRESHMAN PHENOM
There’s no doubt Falls is one of, if not the, focal point for Central Mountain. She has not only won 85% percent of her bouts this year, but she has 15 pins in her 18 total victories and has been pinned just twice.
Back in the 2021-22 season when girls wrestling wasn’t a sanctioned sport, Falls still posted a 3-1 record in the few tournaments that junior high schools had to support girls wrestling, and has made a leap this season on varsity.
Falls began her first season wrestling at 148 and 142 pounds, but since dropping to 136, has won seven of 10 matches, all pins, with the fastest coming in 32 seconds. Falls has wrestled some notable wrestlers who have seen great competition. She’s lost to some and won against them. She was pinned by 2023 fourth-place state medalist Josephine Dollman of Norwin but has beaten Benton’s Jordis Dohl and Kalea Day, both regional placewinners last year.
THRIVING IN BOTH
It is not uncommon for a student-athlete to play two sports in the same season, but to thrive in both isn’t the norm. Besides that fact, Wagner does it. One of Bucktail girls basketball’s leading scorers, Wagner will wrestle at Saturday’s regional before making the 145-mile trek East to play in Bucktail’s District 4 Class A semifinal game.
Both have qualifying implications, but Wagner has shown her ability to excel in both sports. On the mat, the sophomore has 11 falls in the 13 bouts she’s won, and has lost just twice, both by fall. The state’s fifth-ranked has impressively pinned five wrestlers in two minutes or less.
The rise of Wagner’s abilities haven’t come in this season only, though. Wagner went 21-7 a season ago with 19 pins, finishing second in the region and fourth in the state at 170, although not recognized by PIAA sanctions.
Wagner, who is just a sophomore, will continue her stellar journey regardless of the results of today’s duo events but has a high chance of qualifying for regionals, another step toward her journey of reaching the podium at states in Hershey in a few weeks.
KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN
While both Wagner and Falls are both impressive in their own respects, Miller is one to keep your eyes on. As a sophomore, 235-pounder, Miller has won 58% of her matches and has six falls this season. In Central Mountain’s new program with new wrestlers up and down the lineup, she’s produced six falls in under one minute.
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