Winter Sports Preview 1: Ellwood City Wrestling

As a sophomore, Tyler Albers won the wrestling MAC tournament, placed third in the WPIAL and advanced to the PIAA state tournament. This year, as a junior, he’s hoping to improve that performance.

In addition, six other Ellwood City wrestlers qualified for the WPIAL championships last season. For Craig Alberts, now on his third year as head coach, this season is promising for both individual achievement and team performance. Although the team lost three seniors, including WPIAL medalist Mike Sinclair, six returning starters and an influx of freshmen invigorate the lineup.

“We would like to advance as many of our wrestlers as possible to the WPIAL tournament and hopefully get a few kids to advance to the regional playoff and states,” Alberts. “But more important than that is to improve. We want to win or do better against people that beat us last season.”

Seniors Carter MacMurdo and Christian Kerr bring solid experience to the team. Sophomore Tyler Baird qualified for the WPIAL tournament as a freshman and is looking to advance further into the post-season. The team expects junior Zach Power, who had to wrestle out of his weight class occasionally in the last couple years, is expected to come into his own. Among the incoming freshmen, Donavon Chambers competed in the Pennsylvania Junior Wrestling state competition.

However, individual advancement isn’t the only goal the Wolverine Wrestlers have their eyes on. Ellwood City missed the playoffs by a few points last season, losing a couple of close matches. The team finished 7-10 overall last year. Alberts is training the team hard with a playoff run as the end goal.

Roster
Freshmen: Jake Alberts, Donavon Chambers, Jeremy Figurel, Keshawn Gatto, James Radich, Mike Sinibaldi and Noah Skelly.

New Sophomore: Nate Russo

Returning Letterman:

Statistician/Scorekeeper: Erica Walley and Madison Morella

Photo by Clark’s Studios.