Elijah Brown entered Saturday\u2019s bout in the 52nd edition of the Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic at Peters Township High School\u2019s AHN Arena without an ounce of apprehension.<\/p>\n
The Belle Vernon senior, who will continue his career at Penn State, was up against his toughest competition of the year in Arizona State commit Kal-El Fluckiger of Chandler, Ariz., in the main event at 215 pounds. But Brown didn\u2019t let Fluckiger\u2019s reputation affect his performance in earning a 15-0 technical fall in 1:12.<\/p>\n
Fluckiger, who represented the United States All-Stars, was ranked seventh in the country by FloWrestling at 215, while Flo had Brown at No. 16. Fluckiger won the Super 32 championship with a fall in the finals against DuBois\u2019 Kendahl Hoare, who handed Brown his only setback this season.<\/p>\n
It should be noted Brown avenged his loss to Hoare, but Fluckiger was considered the favorite.<\/p>\n
Brown didn\u2019t seem to care, as he used a double leg five seconds into the first period, and followed up with three tilts in the next 67 seconds for the victory that pulled the Pennsylvania All-Stars within nine of Team USA at 23-14. <\/p>\n
Dean Bechtold of Owen J. Roberts followed Brown with another technical fall for the home team, but it wasn\u2019t enough as Team USA earned a 23-19 victory, which was its fifth consecutive win in the main event of the Classic, and the 13th in 14 years.<\/p>\n
Brown enjoyed the atmosphere and was happy to perform at his highest level against someone he may wrestle in college.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when I competed at states and some of the other bigger tournaments, I was a little bit conservative in my approach,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI could have probably blown those matches out, but I wanted to be cautious due to the significance of them. I didn\u2019t have any pressure at the Classic. I wrestle my best when I just go out there and have fun. Once I get to that point, subconsciously, it will make me really tough to beat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown finished his high school career at 173-20 with two state championships.<\/p>\n
In addition to victories by Brown and Bechtold, the Keystone State had three other individual winners in the main event in Will Detar, Keanu Dillard and Adam Waters.<\/p>\n
In a No. 1 vs. No. 2 battle at 189, Waters, of Faith Christian Academy, scored a takedown with one minute remaining for a two-point lead before hanging for an 8-7 decision over Michael White, who was ranked first in the country by Flo.<\/p>\n
Detar earned a 4-1 decision in sudden victory at 127, and Dillard won in double overtime, 5-1, at 133.<\/p>\n
While the Pennsylvania All-Stars came up short, Team WPIAL dominated the Oklahoma All-Stars, 56-3, in the second dual meet of the event.<\/p>\n
Canon-McMillan\u2019s Collier Hartman finished his high school career in style with a fall in 1:34 over Brayden Mixay at 139. Hartman scored a takedown six seconds in the bout and earned four near-fall points for a 7-0 lead before allowing Mixay to escape with 54 seconds left in the period. Hartman scored his second takedown and pinned Mixay 28 seconds later.<\/p>\n
Hartman will continue his academy and wrestling career at the Naval Academy. He ended his high school career with a record of 151-41 and two fourth-place finishes in the PIAA Class 3A tournament.<\/p>\n
Beth-Center\u2019s Malachi Peak earned a fall in 5:19 over Connor Wines at 189. Peak, a California student who wrestles for the Bulldogs as part of a co-op, built up a 7-2 advantage with an escape and two takedowns before pinning Wines.<\/p>\n
Peak, who will continue his academic and wrestling careers at Washington & Jefferson College, finished his high school career with a record of 103-38 and a berth in the state tournament as a senior.<\/p>\n
Peak\u2019s future teammate, Lucas Barr, escaped in the third period and hung on for a 5-4 decision over Eric Casula in the first of two bouts at 133.<\/p>\n
Barr took a 3-0 lead with 18 seconds remaining in the first period following a takedown. Casula escaped and recorded a takedown for a 4-3 lead in the second period with 56 seconds left in the frame. <\/p>\n
Barr tied the bout with an escape seven seconds later before Casula allowed him to escape to start the third period.<\/p>\n
Barr finished his high school career as the Highlanders\u2019 all-time wins leader with a record of 177-36. A four-time state qualifier, Barr placed sixth in the PIAA at 133 his senior season.<\/p>\n
The WPIAL All-Stars didn\u2019t have any trouble in winning 11 of 12 individual bouts. <\/p>\n
Team Pennsylvania women hammered Team Oklahoma, 51-3, in the first event of the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elijah Brown entered Saturday\u2019s bout in the 52nd edition of the Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic at Peters Township High…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-151969","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-pittsburgh","9":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","10":"tag-pittsburgh-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}