5 things I learned this weekend

Huntingdon's Jacob Oliver was named the
Outstanding Wrestler at the Sheetz Holiday Classic.

1. Huntingdon is really, really good: I know this doesn't really sound like something I should have just learned, considering that the Bearcats have been one of the best teams in District 6 for quite a few years now.
But that has always come with a caveat. They've always been extremely deep. They were the type of team that could send eight, nine or 10 guys to regionals ... and possibly none to states. That era is definitely over.
Collin Glorioso made sure of that last year, as the then-freshman brought home PIAA bronze at 106. He should be contending for state medals for the next three years. He could very well be joined in that group by Jacob Oliver. All the freshman 145-pounder did at the Sheetz Holiday Classic on Saturday was win the toughest weight there - mostly in dominant fashion - and claim the Outstanding Wrestler award. Huntingdon had three champions - Glorioso and 182-pounder Matt Norris were the others - to go along with two runners-up and 12 total placewinners.
Now not only do the Bearcats have the solid top-to-bottom lineup that has become a trademark over the past few years, but they have some certifiable studs, too.

Central Cambria's Max Murin didn't score in the first 5:54
against South Park's Dallas Bulsak, but that was enough.

2. So is Max Murin: I have to admit, I didn't really know anything about the Central Cambria 106-pounder two weeks ago. But as I started asking around about the top youngsters for my Preseason News and Notes post, his name kept popping up.
I'm glad I listened and put him in my list (even if it now looks way too low). All he's done is start the season 11-0, including wins over Nolan Link, C.J. Manley and Dallas Bulsak, and has captured a Sheetz Holiday Classic title. He could have easily been the Outstanding Wrestler, too, if not for Oliver's impressive performance.
"I wrestled a pretty good," Murin said to me after his finals match. "I felt I wrestled good against good opponents."
Murin doesn't score many points, but he doesn't need to, because he rarely gives up any. He only gave up one point in four matches at Penn Cambria, with a first-period fall over Forest Hills' Gage McCall, an 8-1 victory over Saint Mary's Ray Dent, a 1-0 tiebreaker win over Manley and a dramatic, 2-0 win over Bulsak. In the finals, Murin got a locking-hands call with six seconds left in the third period, and, after Bulsak put him off for the restart, held on for the win.

Richland's Adam George lifts Berlin Brothersvalley's Joe
Swank seconds before pinning him for the 126-pound title.

4. Adam George had a great tournament: The 126-pound weight class wasn't quite as loaded as 145 or 106, but it wasn't weak by any means. You had a returning state placewinner in Forest Hills' Triston Law, and 30-match winners in Mount Pleasant's Mike Novak, Canandaigua Academy's Nate Gilligan and Berlin Brothersvalley's Joe Swank. So who ended up winning the weight class?  George, who was 21-14 last season.
"George, he deserves it," Richland coach Mike Naglic said after the junior pinned Swank for the title. "He works hard. He does nothing but wrestling now. He's been wrestling year-round since the summer. He comes to all my open stuff. He works. He works for it."
It's hard to say for sure that George will consistently be in the upper echelon locally - his 9-0 loss to Law last week suggests otherwise - but he certainly was this weekend. He beat Gilligan 7-5, then knocked off Novak, 3-1, in the semifinals. Some might see his fall over Swank in the finals as a fluke, since he wasn't in control when he got the fall, but he certainly didn't look overmatched, either. Swank led 2-0 when the fall, which technically was from the neutral position, came with two seconds left in the second period. George was in deep on a double and, with Swank on his shoulder, sat back, flattening Swank's shoulders and getting the pin.
It will be interesting to see how George progresses throughout the season.

Berlin Brothersvalley's Bryce Fochtman lost 6-5 to
Canandaigua Academy's Mitch Fisher in the title
match at 160 pounds.

4. Berlin Brothersvalley is not as good as I expected it to be ... yet: I'm not ready to write off the Mountaineers after one tournament, but I was disappointed in some of what I saw.
It wasn't a bad performance - four in the finals, 10 placewinners and second place in the team standings - but it also wasn't quite what I thought I'd see out of the defending champions, who look to be better than they were last season.
"We had a decent tournament," coach Jason Cornell told me after the finals. "We have plenty to work on."
The Mountaineers only had one top seed - Bryce Fochtman at 160 - so I guess I shouldn't be too hard on them for not winning an individual title, but it just felt like they lost a number of matches they shouldn't have throughout the tournament. Joe Swank (126), Stew Trulick (220) and Anthony Collins (285) also took second, with Swank losing a match I thought he'd win.
"We dropped a bunch there in the last round," Cornell said. "Not making excuses, we just weren't prepared."
Part of that comes from the fact that Berlin's football team reached the District 5 final, which cut into the time that Cornell had to whip them into wrestling shape. There is plenty of talent on the Mountaineers, and I'd say they're still the favorites in District 5, but they'll need a better performance than they had on Saturday to get where they want to go this season.

5. Our area's best still have some catching up to do: Bedford had two placewinners at the King of the Mountain tournament. Ryan Easter was fifth at 132 pounds while Jonathan Gabriel was sixth at 113. Easter, a PIAA Class AA runner-up last season, probably was disappointed with his finish, but it is a very tough tournament (Ryan Spring has complete results here). Many of the top guys were from Class AAA and I expect Easter to drop to 126 later in the season, so he probably won't encounter a lot of them. I'm not sure if Gabriel will dropping to 106 or not.
Another local standout, Justin Patrick, went 2-2 at the Walsh Ironman Tournament in Cleveland this weekend. A two-time PIAA placewinner at Ligonier Valley, Patrick transferred to The Kiski School this year and is finding the schedule a bit more difficult.
The tough competition that Bedford, Chestnut Ridge and, in Patrick's case, Kiski prep face might add a few more losses to their wrestlers' resumes, but it certainly will prepare them for big matches in the future.