PLAINS – Julian Everitt had two reasons to celebrate at the Wyoming Valley Conference Wrestling Tournament Feb. 4 at Wilkes-Barre Area High School.
The Pittston Area senior reached 100 wins for his career during the semifinals, then followed it up with a tournament title at 152 pounds.
Everitt and Wyoming Area’s Connor Novakowski each repeated as champions while Pittston Area’s Brody Spindler also won.
Pittston Area finished second in the team standings for the second straight year.
Everitt stormed into the finals with a nine-second pin of Wyoming Valley West’s Reedy Crescenzo and back-to-back technical falls. He stopped Lake-Lehman’s Luke Hadsell 16-0 with three seconds remaining in the first period of the quarterfinal, then finished off Thomas Stavitzski from team champion Crestwood 15-0 in 5:29 of the semifinals for the 100th win.
In the finals, Everitt topped Myles Tirpak from Dallas 6-1 to improve to 20-1 on the season and 101-11 for his four-year career.
“It feels good,” Everitt said. “The finals match definitely wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted more pins.
“But, I’ll take the win. That’s all that matters.”
Spindler defeated top-seeded Lincoln Bibla from Crestwood 9-1 in the final at 215.
“I wrestled with a chip on my shoulder today,” Spindler said. It was just my mental state.
“I really thought that he was getting tired.”
Spindler pinned Dominick Rikoskie from Lake-Lehman in 3:01 and Liam Carroll from Berwick in 4:48 in the quarterfinals and semifinals.
Crestwood outscored Pittston Area 196½-167 for the team title. Wyoming Area was 10th of 12 teams with 66 points.
Pittston Area had four finalists.
Oscar Ciriaco, at 107 pounds, and Dominic Innamorati, at 145, were second.
Taylor Daniels pinned Ciriaco with 21 seconds left in their championship match.
Innamorati dropped a 5-2 decision to Wilkes-Barre Area’s Liam Evanko.
Jaheim Butler (121), Shawn Shimonis (133) and Jake Aftewicz (160) all finished fourth while Tibor Toth was fifth at 114 and Chase Baron was sixth at 139.
Novakowski defeated Sidney O’Donnell from Dallas 5-2 in the final at 121.
Jonathan Stone, another 2023 champion, lost to Wyoming Valley West’s Caleb Hoffman 12-5 in the 133-pound final.
Novakowski and Stone each posted first-period pins in the quarterfinals, then reached the final with another pin.
Ben Gravine added a fourth-place finish for Wyoming Area at 189.
Caiden Swartwood and Paul Panek placed sixth at 121 and 215.
