Chartiers-Houston's Kamden Stamm pulled the biggest upset at the WPIAL Class 2A individual wrestling championships Friday night at Chartiers Valley High School. Stamm, the No. 15 seed at 121 pounds, was trailing Valley's Radyn Thomas, who was seeded eighth, 9-1 with 41 seconds remaining in their Round of 16 match.

Stamm seized the momentum in the final five seconds. He scored a takedown with five seconds remaining and secured a pin fall with two ticks left on the clock. Stamm was pinned by Quaker Valley's Bruce Anderchak in the first round in the quarterfinals.

Stamm improved to 37-36 for his career and 19-15 on the season.

Geller creeps up on 100 wins
Fox Chapel senior wrestler Joe Geller started the season 31 wins short of 100. Geller, a 215-pound record, will have at least one more chance to hit the mark. During the WPIAL Class AAA championships at Canon-McMillan, No. 7 seed Geller picked up a 2-0 win over Gateway's Donovan DeLuca to get win No. 99.

Geller then ran into the No. 2 seed, Kiski Area's Cooper Roscosky. Roscosky won by technical fall. Geller will face Indiana's Jackson Higgins in the consolation round. He beat Higgins 8-1 at the section tournament last weekend.

​Josh Rizzo is the editor and publisher of PIttsburgh Preps and Colleges. Story ideas can be submitted to [email protected] or on X @J_oshRizzo

PENN HILLS - The progress McKeesport wrestling coach Adam Alfer is chasing isn't anything complicated. With a lineup full of inexperienced wrestlers, Alfer wants to see the Tigers learn from their mistakes.

McKeesport picked up its first dual meet win of the season when it beat Penn Hills, 48-24, Monday night on the road. The Tigers (1-10) received seven forfeits. Tigers freshman Jamal Hafiz picked up McKeesport's lone win on the mat when he pinned Jayden Fuqua at 121 pounds.

"We're just trying to build some confidence in all the moves that they're working on in practice and the repetition their taking," Alfer said. "We want the kids to understand the way the moves work when you hit them out here, not just in the wrestling room, we want the kids to advance into some of the moves they've been working on. Hopefully, it carries into the postseason. We're a young team and hopefully the program continues to grow the sport."

Hafiz improved to 6-8 on the season with five of his wins coming via fall. With the win over Fuqua, Hafiz snapped a two-match slide and won after not wrestling for 10 days.

"He's had an up-an-down season," Alfer said. "He understood coming in that he's been building confidence over the past couple matches and has been working hard in the mat room. He finally put it together against a good kid from Penn Hills."

Penn Hills (0-4) has struggled to keep its numbers up with injuries and eligibility issues. The Indians won four of the five contested matches against McKeesport.

Penn Hills senior Daemon Phipps, who improved to 21-5 with a pinfall win over Isaiah Johnson at 121 pounds, improved to 85-36 in his career on the Indians' Senior Night. Indians coach Jeremy Packer said his team has done the most with what they have available.

The most competitive bout of the night was the 133-pound match between Xavier Nicholas and Evan Morgan. Morgan picked up the first takedown before Nicholas rallied to score a pin. Tony Gay-Scott (172 pounds) and Zakariyaa Lahujjiddin (285) also won for the Indians, winning by pin and injury default, respectively.

"It would be nice if we had a deeper lineup and then we could be a senior-led team and then they could be leading us to wins," Packer said. "It is what it is this year. We're just kind of learning and growing in every match and trying to get better."

McKeesport 48, Penn Hills 24
107: No match
114: Brady Helfrich (M) win by forfeit
121: Jamal Hafiz (M) pin Jayden Fuqua
127: Daemon Phipps (P) p. Isaiah Johnson
133: Xavier Nicholas (P) p. Evan Morgan
139: Jayden Cotton (M) wbf
145: Tyler Faulk (M) wbf
152: Tory Anderson-Pearson (M) wbf
172: Tony Gay-Scott (P) p. Evan Leone
189: Naragana Roka (M) wbf
215: Mahiya Brown (M) wbf
285: Zakariyaa Lahujjiddin (P) injury default Alex Winowitch

Josh Rizzo is the editor and publisher of Pittsburgh Preps and Colleges. Story ideas can be submitted to [email protected] or on X @J_oshRizzo.

Jason Nolf, a Kittanning graduate, went on to accomplish great things with the Penn State University wrestling program. Nolf, 29, still stops by his old stomping grounds in Western Pennsylvania to get some work in.

Nolf, who is now in Real American Freestyle, a non-scripted professional wrestling league, challenged everyone at The Mat Factory in Lower Burrell on Christmas Eve. He offered $5,000 to anyone who could submit him in jiu jitsu. 

Nolf is 1-1 in RAF. He recently competed at RAF 04 and won his match tech fall over Andy Varela, 10-0.

Josh Rizzo is the editor and publisher of Pittsburgh Preps and Colleges. Story ideas can be submitted to [email protected] or on X @J_oshRizzo.

Some of the top WPIAL alumni is recently memory have been called upon to participate in the new professional wrestling league, Real American Freestyle.

Franklin Regional graduates Nico Megaludis and Spencer Lee, along with Kittanning's Jason Nolf, all lost their first match. Nolf fared much better during his second opportunity Saturday night at Fisher's Event Center in Fisher's, Ind. Nolf beat Andy Varela via technical fall, 10-0.

Nolf was a three-time NCAA champion at Penn State. He also won three Class 2A championships during his high school career at Kittanning and finished with a career record of 176-1.

Josh Rizzo is editor and publisher of Pittsburgh Preps and Colleges. Story ideas can be submitted to [email protected] or on X @J_oshRizzo.

The Highlands-Valley match produced more excitement than most people were hoping for Wednesday night. The Golden Rams won 55-8, but match's result was barred by a fight that broke out. Read more about the match in the Valley News Dispatch.

Jason Nolf, a Kittanning graduate and former Penn State University wrestling standout, will attempt to be the first WPIAL wrestler to find success at a Real American Freestyle event. Franklin Regional graduates Spencer Lee and Nico Megaludis recently competed for the organization and came up short.

This will be Nolf's second attempt at picking up a win in the fledgling league. ​Nolf also competed at RAF 01, losing 10-8 to Evan Wick in a middlweight bout.

Nolf, 29, will be taking on Andy Varela, 33 in a welterweight battle at RAF 04 at Fishers Event Center in Fisher, Ind. Varela is an accomplished grappler who have five professional MMA fights under his belt.

Much like Lee and Megaludis, Nolf shined as a collegiate wrestler. During Nolf's time at Penn State, won three consecutive national NCAA Division I championships from 2016 to 2019. Nolf made a run at qualifying for U.S. wrestling team for the 2024 Paris Olympics, but was turned away by Kyle Dake.

Josh Rizzo is the editor and publisher of Pittsburgh Preps and Colleges. Story ideas can be submitted to [email protected] or on X @J_oshRizzo.

Chris Heater had nothing against the Kiski Area wrestling team participating in the Trinity Duals again this season. The Cavaliers' opened last season there and enjoyed the event. But Heater chose to take his team to the Sheetz Kickoff Classic in Greenville instead.

The Cavaliers wanted a fresh batch of opponents. Eight of the teams in the event were from District 9 or 10. The only other WPIAL team to participate beside Kiski was Armstrong.

Kiski (6-0) won all five of its duals at the event. Mario Hutcherson, Cooper Roscosky, Gavin Murphy, Bear Joseph and Jackson Pollick all went 5-0 for the Cavaliers.

"We went to Trinity last year and we wrestled three teams that we saw again later in the season," Heater said. "I just wanted to go somewhere where we wouldn't see anybody and give our guys the chance to wrestle five matches and see where their endurance and conditioning was. It was a good opener for us."

Kiski will host another intense dual event this weekend. The Cavaliers will have a number of strong WPIAL programs -- Canon-McMillan, Hempfield, North Allegheny, Penn-Trafford, Peters Township and Waynesburg Central -- along with District 9's DuBois and District 10's Fort LeBoeuf.

Josh Rizzo is the editor and publisher of Pittsburgh Preps and Colleges. Story ideas can be submitted to [email protected] or on X @J_oshRizzo.

ALLEGHENY TWP - Brin Zehmisch once had to look for competition wherever she could find it. The Butler junior girls wrestler couldn't always find people in her weight class in the fledgling sport of girls wrestling. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Zehmisch was eager to accept matches even against opponents that outweighed her significantly.

Zehmisch, who is 35-16 in her career, opened the season by pinning Kiski's Marissa Prignon during the second period of a 130-pound bout Wednesday night on the road.

"As a kid, I wrestled a lot of guys and there weren't many girls who wanted to wrestle," Zehmisch said. "At a small tournament, there was only me and one other girl. I wanted to wrestle no matter what my weight class was. One time I wrestle a girl who was close to 200 pounds when I was 90 pounds."

Zehmisch, who has been wrestling for 10 years, has seen her experience pay off since the WPIAL and PIAA started sponsoring girls wrestling. Last season, Zehmisch finished fourth in the WPIAL at 118 pounds. Zehmisch, who was 21-10 overall, qualified for the West Regional.

Zehmisch, who finished 1-2 at the regional tournament, said she got into wrestling because of her younger sister. Her interest in wrestling was because of her dream to wrestle in the WWE. Once she started with folkstyle, Zehmisch's desire changed.

"My little sister brought a flyer home from school and it seemed like something I wanted to do," Zehmisch said. "It seemed like something I really wanted to do because I wanted to wrestle in the WWE. As I started progressing in wrestling, I didn't want to wrestle in WWE anymore. I like wrestling as it is."

Golden Tornado girls wrestling coach Nathan Bottinger said he was happy with how aggressive Zehmisch was against Prignon.

"She was forcing the pace a little bit," Bottinger said. "She's not a high-pressure kind of kid, but she likes to stay with girls, find that opening and pounce on it."

Zehmisch said she believes her style of wrestling allows her to catch her opponents off guard. During matches, Zehmisch is able to quickly shift her weight to be in better positions.

"Some of the people I practice with, they think I'm heave than I actually am," Zehmisch said. 

Josh Rizzo is the editor and publisher of Pittsburgh Preps and Colleges. Story ideas can be submitted to [email protected] or on X @J_oshRizzo