5 things to know about the Conemaugh Township Holiday Tournament

A look at some of the things that stuck out to me at Saturday's Conemaugh Township Holiday Tournament:

North Star's Shawn Costas, shown here against, Johnstown's
Matthew Oppy,won the 138-pound championship.

1. North Stars again: I doubted North Star's ability to repeat, and I was proved wrong. The Cougars just barely edged Westmont Hilltop for the team title (106-104), but full credit to coach Tim Rosa's team.

North Star's Brady Vinisky pinned
Bellwood-Anti's Cameron Nagle.

The biggest surprise for me was Shawn Costas winning the 138-pound bracket. I must admit, I didn't know much about Costas. But considering he only had four varsity wins prior to Saturday, I don't feel too bad about that. I did learn, however, that he was an accomplished junior high wrestler who, for a variety of reasons - including a serious knee injury last season - had not been able to replicate that success at the varsity level. I didn't see his 6-1 victory over Westmont's Drake Dorian, but I found that quite impressive. From what I was told, Costas got a takedown an backpoints at the end for a very big victory.
Brady Vinisky continues to improve. The heavyweight went 2-10 as a sophomore and 12-22 last season. He went 2-2 with a pair of falls on Saturday. More impressive might have been the fact that he took down United's Andrew Deitman in the final round. Deitman quickly reversed Vinisky and got a first-period fall, but his improvement is noteworthy.

"He's a kid that stuck around has really progressed in the three years he's been here," Rosa said. "Every year he's gotten so much better. We feel he's a quality heavyweight. We're glad to have him on the team."

Westmont Hilltop's Anthony Walters works for a fall against
Johnstown's Kobe March, one of four the freshman recorded
on his way to winning the Outstanding Wrestler Award.

Westmont Hilltop freshmen Carnell Andrews went
4-0 with four falls on Saturday.

2. The kids are alright: OK, so that reference is sure to fly over the heads of the Westmont Hilltop freshmen that this is about, but I'm much younger than the Who song and I can still appreciate it.
Anyway, the point is, Westmont's freshmen class was as good as advertised. I labeled them the Fab Five more than a month ago, but that was before I knew about Treazure Toney. Add him to Anthony Walters, C
arnell Andrews, Josiah Jones, Derrick Christie and Clayton Dorian and I might have to rename them the Super Six.
Jones will miss the early part of the season with a knee injury.
What did the others do? Oh, just went a combined 18-1 on Saturday with 14 falls, two major decisions and the Outstanding Wrestler Award. Not a bad debut, huh?
The Hilltoppers might have fallen just short of the team title, but the freshmen certainly did what they could to bring it back Westmont. Christie, Toney, Andrews and Walters won titles, with Walters grabbing the OW award along the way. The 170-pounder pinned returning champ Dillion Charlton - one of four on the day as well as a major decision - to impressive the coaches, who vote on the award.
As the stoic Walters said, the future looks bright for Westmont.

United's Tyler Oliver brings West
Greene's Will VanNorman to the mat.

3. Tyler Oliver came to win a title: The United standout was denied a championship last year, as he lost to Tyrone's Jared Beckwith in overtime. He avenged those loses at the Richland and District 6 tournaments, then went on to place seventh at the PIAA tournament
Oliver went 3-0 on Saturday with three falls and didn't wrestle a combined 6 minutes on the day.
While winning a Conemaugh Township tournament title might not have been the biggest goal on this list for the season, it was the first and an important one.

"It's real nice," Oliver said. "I've worked very hard for it, so I'm proud that I could come here and take the tournament."

4.  Wild, wild 145: Conemaugh Township's Brandon Stahl won the 145-pound title, but not without some nervy moments at the end. Stahl was pinned by Tyrone's Ty Snyder int he first round but rebounded with four consecutive victories, including a pin over Westmont Hilltop's Nick Mical and a 7-3 victory over Bellwood-Antis' Josh Wilson.

Meanwhile, Wilson pinned Snyder. That meant Stahl, Mical and Snyder each had 3-1 records going into the final round of the round-robin tournament. Stahl needed Mical to beat Snyder to win the title.

That looked likely, with the Westmont wrestler leading in the final seconds, but Snyder hit a desperation headlock that resulted in a match-winning takedown. Or did it? After some discussion, the takedown was waved off. (I can't say it was right or wrong, just that it was a close call that was going to upset one side either way).

How costly was the referee's decision? If Snyder gets the takedown, he wins the weight class. By not getting the call, he finished fourth.

Westmont's Treazure Toney
and North Star's Keaton
Furry square off at 113.

5. Name game: It might not have been the biggest match of the tournament, but the final-round bout at 113 pounds featured two of my favorite new names. I always look for interesting or fun names (and as a headline writer, I probably too often look for puns involving them).

Westmont Hilltop's Treazure Toney ranks right up there with the best. But to get an opening-weekend matchup withe North Star's Keaton Furry was more than I could have hoped for.

The fact that they finished 1-2 means they should be names that we all get used to hearing.