By Kenny Varner

HERSHEY -Known for its rich tradition in wrestling, Centre County was well represented Thursday in the opening day of the PIAA wrestling championships.

Early on, the Class AA matmen were primed and ready to go.

At 114-pounds Philipsburg’s Caleb Hummel won his opening match defeating Bo Aveni from Clearfield 10-0, moving onto the next round.

He finished his day with a forfeit win in his second bout.

Penns Valley’s Max Dinges went up against Thomas Boyce of Cornwell Egan winning by a 6-1 decision.

At 121-pounds, Bald Eagles Tanner Guenot made it an easy 17-0 victory over Derry’s Dylan Bateman, securing a trip to day two.

Penns Valley’s Erik Carlile fell in his first match 10-1 against a very tough Michael Gorrell from Conwell Egan.

Bald Eagles was well represented at 133 as well.

Caden Judice added to the Bald Eagles’ win tally as he dominated Gage Evans from Towanda via a 12-2 major decision.

Teammate Dawson Lomison lost a heartbreaker in the first round 5-4 to Camp Hill’s Noah Doi.

In his consolation match, Lomison rebounded and took a dominating pinfall over Hector Mateo of Saucon Valley, at 3:30.

SW champion at 189, Caleb Close blanked Chestnut Ridge’s Jayden Imler, 7-0.

Class AAA

State College’s 133-pounder Nic Berrena led off the Centre County Class AAA group, facing off against Isaiah Jackson of Gettysburg.

Berrena started out with grabbing Jackson’s leg and lifting it up, trying to sweep the other leg. However Jackson countered and was able to pick up the takedown, leading 3-0. Berrena escaped, cutting the deficit to 3-1 before the first period ended.

State College took the down position in the second and reversed the hold, putting Jackson in Berrena’s control, tying it at three.

Jackson was able to escape, giving him back the advantage and the lead.

Going into the third, Jackson clung to the slim 4-3.

Jackson took the down position in the third. He escaped to add another point to his lead. Berrena fell 5-4 sending him to the consolation round.

At 152, Bellefonte’s Ezra Swisher as he went head-to-head with Freedom’s Ivan Bonilla.

The two locked up, Bonilla was able to pick up the takedown. With a Swisher escape the score was 3-1.

Swisher continued to be aggressive and hit a take down of his own, putting him ahead for the first time.

In the second, Swisher started in the up position. Swisher was able to keep Bonilla at bay for period, plus picked up a penalty point, upping his lead to 5-3 going into period number three.

Swisher chose the down position for the final period.

Bonilla let Swisher up in hopes of going in for a takedown. However, it backfired as Swisher padded his lead by taking him down one more time, leading 9-3.

From there, the Bellefonte matman controlled things from there en route to the 9-3 victory to advance to the next round.

Swisher fell in his second outing falling to Gavin Carroll of Quakertown 5-0.

Also wrestling at 152, was State College’s James Whitbred as he faced off against Gettysburg’s Caden Shearer.

Shearer started out quick with an opening period takedown. Whitbred escaped but then was taken back down by the aggressive style of Shearer. But Whitbred continued to battle, cutting the Shearer lead to 6-5 as the match went into the second.

With the match tied at seven in the second both wrestlers tried to get the advantage, neither could.

In the third, Whitbred got the advantage and jumped ahead on a reversal to go ahead 10-8. From there Whitbred was able to ride it out and get the victory.

At 172-pounds State College’s Asher Cunningham went up against Matty Shoemaker from Methacton.

Cunningham wasted little time notching a takedown. He then allowed Shoemaker to escape to just take him back down for another takedown. Before one could blink their eyes, Cunningham had picked up a 17-2 tech fall, sending him into tomorrow’s action.