A-K Valley wrestlers help form building blocks for new Saint Vincent program

If a college recruiter is looking for capable wrestlers, there are few places better to look than Western Pennsylvania. And within that region, the Alle-Kiski Valley is among the most fertile areas.

Consider just a few examples:

• Kiski Area grad Jack Blumer has posted 25 career wins at West Virginia, where he is a senior.

• Kiski Area’s Jared Curcio is a returning Presidents’ Athletic Conference champion for Thiel.

• Burrell grad Rick Feroce contributes at Canadian school Simon Fraser. He placed fifth at 184 pounds in a recent tournament.

• Burrell’s Ian Oswalt has 30 matches under his belt at Brown. Oswalt is a junior.

• Kiski Area grad Isaac Reid (Lock Haven) was the Mid-American Conference runner-up at 285 last season.

Closer to home, several A-K Valley wrestlers are helping lay the foundation for the new team at Saint Vincent. The Bearcats resurrected their program this winter after a nearly 50-year hiatus.

Dom Nania heads up the young Bearcats, whose roster of 21 includes mostly freshmen. Four of them are from Kiski Area: Logan Bechtold (157/165 pounds), Jimmy Bendsten (174), Noah Henry (125) and Ryan Klingensmith (125/133).

Ten other wrestlers on the Bearcats’ roster are from WPIAL schools, including six from Westmoreland County. Nania acknowledges the advantages he will have geographically when it comes to recruiting for his program.

“When we recruit, I don’t have to drive more than 20 or 25 minutes to get a really good wrestling match,” said the Hempfield grad and former Seton Hill assistant. “Not a lot of areas you can say that. Between Powerade and WPIALs, and even our section tournaments are incredibly difficult.

“The Westmoreland County tournament … they’re incredibly difficult tournaments, and we get to see those in our backyard.”

Nania acknowledged that the top-shelf nature of wrestling in Western Pennsylvania brings big schools from all over the country to snatch the top guys. Still, the talent pool is so deep, Nania said, there is plenty left over for smaller programs such as his.

And not only is there quantity, there’s quality.

“A lot of these kids come from these small high schools in Western Pennsylvania that have coaches that were multiple-time state champs and All-Americans who came back to teach in high school,” Nania said. “You get the kids from those high schools who have had amazing coaches from the time they were 4 and 5 years old.”

Through the Bearcats visit to the Wartburg Desert Duals on Dec. 17 in Las Vegas, Klingensmith led the team in wins with nine. Klingensmith also earned a Presidents’ Athletic Conference Newcomer of the Week award for his performance against Penn State Behrend.

In SVC’s first dual meet, Klingensmith earned a 20-3 technical fall at 135, though the Lions ultimately prevailed in the match 26-17.

The “new” Bearcats made program history with their first dual-meet win three weeks later, defeating Pitt-Bradford, 39-12. Bechtold set the tone for the evening, recording a pin at 157 to open the match.

(As a footnote, Pitt-Bradford’s roster also includes an A-K Valley product, Fox Chapel grad Raymond Worsen, a freshman who has five wins, including three falls, this season.)

Through the 2023 portion of Saint Vincent’s schedule, in addition to Klingensmith’s nine victories, Bechtold has twos win and Henry a pair.

Nania still is trying to figure out which wrestlers will give his team the best chance at points. He also is hoping to build more depth by increasing roster numbers for next season. A healthy roster for this level, he said, is between 30 and 35 athletes.

In the meantime, the Bearcats will measure success in ways beyond wins and losses.

“I think the focus … we have a lot of talented guys, but let’s just get better right now,” Nania said. “Let’s not worry about wins and losses. They’re going to come. Let’s just get better every single day and get in the best shape we possibly can and really buy into each other.

“The only thing (we) can do is have all 10 guys fighting for each other and really buy into wrestling for each other. … The long-term things will come.”

Wrestlers such as Klingensmith, along with Sean Cain (Beth-Center), Ty Debnar (Beth-Center) and Chase Brandebura (Carlynton) have shown plenty of promise. Their future — even their present — excites Nania. But he said he has to resist the temptation to push his wrestlers too hard too fast.

“It’s hard not to focus on certain individuals at times because you see the talent there,” he said. “It’s hard to see the flashes of greatness, and you’re like, ‘Wow, this kid has so much potential.’ But you have to calm yourself down a little bit and make sure you’re not rushing that potential and making sure they’re still happy and healthy.”

Jake Beistel, one of the many area wrestlers (Southmoreland) on the roster, likes what he sees from the young Bearcats. A 25-year-old who came back to college wrestling after nearly two years away, Beistel said one of his main reasons he decided to use his final year of athletic eligibility was to help Nania build the program.

With so much talent in the freshman class and so much prime wrestling territory from which to recruit, Saint Vincent, Beistel said, has a solid future ahead.

“I know Dom is going to be recruiting heavy for the next year and a lot of years to come because there’s a lot of kids (in the area) who definitely want to wrestle at the next level,” Beistel said. “They might not be sure where, but I think Saint Vincent is a great place for them. For anybody.

“We’ve got an amazing (wrestling) room. Everyone on campus has been super supportive. It’s just been really cool to see.”