The Semifinal 1/8

First Period

Studs and stars: Bedford's Ryan Easter could be on this list just about every week. After his major decision of Cambria Heights' Ryan Dupas this week, he's 13-2 with seven pins, a technical fall and three major decisions. Coach Brian Creps can almost pencil him in for bonus points in every dual meet. ... Westmont's Don Shovestull deserved to be mentioned in this space last week, but I didn't look at the POWERade results like I should have. The 220-pounder is 12-4 despite having faced two of the nation's best in Thomas Haines of Solanco and John Rizzo of Richland. Amazingly, all 11 of his victories on the mat have come by way of fall.

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Upset-minded: Perhaps Conemaugh Township's 37-30 victory over Meyersdale wasn't really an upset - maybe I just underestimated the Indians - but it's still worthy of a mention here. The fact that it came without one of the team's best wrestlers in Kody Ofasnko makes it even more impressive. Coach Jarod Feathers' squad is now 4-0 with a big match at WestPAC rival North Star on Tuesday.

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Second Period

On deck: It's not a great week for dual meets, but North Star is involved in two of the better ones. Unbeaten Conemaugh Township will visit Boswell for a key WestPAC match on Tuesday night. Then, the Cougars will visit defending WestPAC winner Berlin on Thursday night. The Mountaineers won't repeat as conference champs - not after losses to Conemaugh Township and Meyersdale - but they're still formidable.
Westmont Hilltop, which has already gone to one of the nation's best tournaments in POWERade, will face more great competition at the weekend's Escape The Rock tournament.
The week's complete schedule is below:

Tuesday
Forest Hills at Cambria Heights, 7 p.m.
Westmont Hilltop at Greater Johnstown, 7 p.m.
Berlin Brothersvalley at Hyndman, 7 p.m.
Conemaugh Township at North Star, 7 p.m.
Blairsville at Northern Cambria, 7 p.m.
Bedford at Penn Cambria, 7 p.m.
Central at Shade, 7 p.m.
Richland at Somerset, 7 p.m.

Thursday
North Star at Berlin Brothersvalley, 7 p.m.
Cambria Heights at Central Cambria, 7 p.m.
Bedford at Forest Hills, 7 p.m.
Greater Johnstown at Somerset, 7 p.m.
Northern Bedford at Chestnut Ridge, 7:30 p.m.

Friday, January 13
Meyersdale at Fairmont Tournament, 1 p.m.
Westmont Hilltop at Escape the Rock Tournament
Marion Center at United, 7 p.m.

Saturday
Meyersdale at Fairmont Tournament, 10 a.m.
Westmont Hilltop at Escape the Rock Tournament
Northern Bedford at Bedford, 7 p.m.

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Third Period

Southern uprising?: District 5 has often existed in the shadow of its big brother to the north. District 6 has twice as many Class AA schools and usually is much stronger in terms of both team and individual races. But this might be the strongest District 5 has ever been from top to bottom as far as dual-meet squads go. Bedford is probably the best team in either district, and Somerset would likely do well against most District 6 schools. After that, there are a lot of talented schools that could likely knock off one another (or most D6 squads) on a given night in Berlin Brothersvalley, Chestnut Ridge, Conemaugh Township, Meyersdale, North Star, Northern Bedford.

Throw in some of the state's top-ranked individuals in North Star's Nick Roberts, Northern Bedford's Quinton Hixson and Bedford's Ryan Easter and it's clear that it's a banner year for the district.

I hope to have a story in The Tribune-Democrat soon about the strength of District 5 this season.

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Overtime

Great start: I know that this blog has concentrated almost exclusively on high school wrestling since the season started, but Pitt-Johnstown assistant coach Jody Strittmatter deserves special recognition here this week. Strittmatter, who has had a huge influence at the high school level as coach of the Young Guns Wrestling Club, picked up his first win as a college coach on Friday night. Strittmatter was filling in for legendary UPJ coach Pat Pecora, who missed his first match in 35 years due to a death in the family. But the 14th-ranked Mountain Cats didn't miss a beat under Strittmatter, as they shut out Kutztown, 35-0. Congrats to Strittmatter, who Pecora has been grooming as his eventual replacement. This could end up being the first of many wins at UPJ for Strittmatter.

As a side note, I should have a really neat story on the Mountain Cats in The Tribune-Democrat ahead of Wednesday night's home match with No. 8 Mercyhurst. We'll also have coverage of that match, so keep an eye out for more UPJ coverage.