Sports
Quaker Valley Youth Wrestling Grows in Size and Ability
With more than 40 children enrolled, many of them first-year wrestlers, the successful program is reaching new heights—and dominating the wrestling scene.
If you ask Jason Richey, the wrestling coach will tell you that Quaker Valley Youth Wrestling is dominating the local wrestling scene.
The first-year program has grown in size and ability over the course of the year with more than 40 local wrestlers ranging from ages 5 to 12 enrolled in the Quaker wrestling program.
Of the 42 wrestlers, only the captains—John Rocco Kazalas, Jack Kazalas and Justin Richey—have any previous experience.
Find out what's happening in Sewickleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
"Often a lot of the other coaches come up to me at the end of an event and say there is no way all of your kids are first year wrestlers, but I tell them they are," Coach Jason Richey said in a news release.
"Our Sewickley kids are tough, committed, able to learn the moves and love their sport," he said. "I could not be more proud of them."
Richey said the team has had unbelievable success at every tournament and match they enter. Here are the results:
Find out what's happening in Sewickleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Avonworth Open
Quaker Valley entered five wrestlers at the Avonworth Open and all five brought home trophies against an excellent North Hills competition:
First Place: Jack Kazalas; Elijah Faulkner
Second Place: Braden Steffey; John Rocco Kazalas
Third Place: Justin Richey
Freedom Novice
Quaker Valley sent 11 wrestlers to the Freedom Novice on Sunday, Feb. 10 and have the following results:
First Place: Logan Richey; Mason Diemert; Jack Diemert
Second Place: Marcus Richey; Tommaso Floro; Kaden Lynch; Sean Mariner; Christian Brown;
Third Place: Alexander Quigley
Freedom Open
QV sent its three experienced wrestlers and captains to Freedom and walked away with three trophies as follows:
First Place: John Rocco Kazalas; Justin Richey
Third Place: Jack Kazalas
North Allegheny First-Year Tournament
QV had an unbelievable day at North Allegheny. The results are as follows:
First Place: Braden Steffey; Mason Diemert; Tommaso Floro; Elijah Faulkner; Mason Steffey
Second Place: Sam Brackney; Logan Richey; Alexander Quigley; Nick Straka; Sean Mariner
Third Place: Bobby Patterson; Lex Lendick Finkin; Jakub Pickett
Fourth Place: Jack Diemert; Will Straka; Maguire Smith
Freedom First-Year Tournament
Quaker Valley Wrestling had a huge day at Freedom with at least 80 percent of the kids attending placing in the event. The place winners (Freedom only gave three places) are:
First Place: Christian Brown, Elijiah Faulkner, Marcus Richey, Logan Richey, Luke Flowers, Jakub Pickett, Braeden Steffey
Second Place: Evan Davidson, Tommaso Floro, Mason Steffey
Third Place: Jackson Quigley, Sean Mariner
Hampton Novice
QV took 10 wrestlers to a difficult Hampton Novice Tournament featuring many Area VII teams. The results are as follows:
1st Place: Elijah Faulkner
2nd Place: Justin Richey; Christian Brown
4th Place: Mason Steffey
South Fayette Novice
Quaker Valley Wrestling likely had the most wrestlers at the South Fayette Novice Tournament and definitely brought home more hardware than any other team. The South Fayette Novice Results are as follows:
First Place: Logan Richey; Tommaso Floro; Elijah Falkner; Braden Steffey
Second Place: Jack Diemert; Alexander Quigley; Weston Grant; Kaden Lynch
Finding Success
In addition to the above tournaments where the kids win individual trophies, Richey said Quaker Valley has won between 75 percent and 55 percent of the matches at each of their four WAWA conference meets.
"The success has been overwhelming so far. We hope to have a great showing at our conference tournament next week and finish the season off strong. Perhaps one of our captains may even qualify for the state championship," Richey said.
The wrestling program intends to invest in their practice facility at the Sewickley Community Center and hopefully grow the team to at least 60 wrestlers, Richey said.
Information provided by Quaker Valley Youth Wrestling. For more information visit www.quakervalleywrestling.com
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.