Here’s how Centre County wrestlers fared at the prestigious USMC/USAW Junior National tourney

Seven Centre County wrestlers made the trek to Fargo, N.D., in hopes of a top-8 finish at the United States Marine Corps/USA Wrestling Junior National Championships — and one is returning home with a national title.

State College’s Pierson Manville and James Whitbred each came away with two “stop signs” — how the tournament refers to its top-8 medals — as they placed in both freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling. But it was Manville, a recent graduate, who made the biggest impact by claiming the 144-pound title in the Junior Men Division of Greco-Roman on Saturday, while securing a fourth-place finish in freestyle earlier in the week.

It was Manville’s second career Greco-Roman title — and his first in the Junior Men division. He officially ends his high school career with eight stop signs from Fargo.

Whitbred, a rising sophomore, didn’t win a title but turned heads at the tournament by finishing as the runner-up at 144 pounds in Greco-Roman in the Cadet (16U) Division and finishing fifth at the same weight in freestyle.

“I really enjoyed it out here. The dome is incredible with so many mats,” Whitbred say Saturday, referring to North Dakota State’s Fargodome. “It can be a little bit overwhelming, but you got to get used to it. Hopefully, I’ll be coming back the next three years. The experience was great. There was lots of great wrestling and matches.”

Whitbred’s teammate was involved in a number of those memorable bouts. Manville, the No. 1 seed, needed just 1:20 to dispatch Illinois’ Wyatt Medlin in the Greco-Roman title match. Manville got a passivity point and then trapped an arm of Medlin and rolled side-to-side to capture the 9-0 technical superiority.

The State High grad ended the portion of his Greco-Roman tournament as well as he began it. He opened by pinning New Jersey’s Mario Fornini in 48 seconds. And he reached the quarterfinals with back-to-back technical superiority wins, outscoring his opponents 16-0 in 1:24 of wrestling in two matches.

Manville shut out fellow Pennsylvania wrestler Luis Alberto-Desilva in 2:06 to make the semifinals. And, in the semifinals, Manville used a late counter takedown of Ohio’s Maksym Chubenko to hang on for a 5-2 victory and to reach the championship match against Medlin.

When it came to freestyle, the soon-to-be Arizona State Sun Devil was also the No. 1 seed and made his way to the semifinals without giving up any points. Manville wrestled a total of 2.5 minutes in three matches to make the Round of 16, outscoring his opponents 33-0.

But it was the semifinals match against California’s Daniel Zepeda — the eventual champion — that prevented his path to a title. Manville lost via 3-1 decision.

But, to make it to that point, Manville dominated.

He pinned Minnesota’s Easton Dircks in 1:37 in the Round of 16 and, in his next match, he had his fourth shutout — a 4-0 win over Minnesota’s Tyson Charmoli. After Manville’s loss in the semifinals, he rebounded with another shutout — 12-0 over Florida’s Zeno Moore in 3:15 — to make the consolation finals.

He faced off with Charmoli again in the third-place match but couldn’t come out on top, falling 3-2 to collect a stop sign at fourth place.

Whitbred, whose freshman campaign saw him claim district and regional titles before qualifying for the PIAA Championships, made his first trip to Fargo an unforgettable one.

Whitbred was the No. 4 seed for his Greco-Roman action. In the finals, Whitbred saw his Fargo trip come to a close with an 8-0 defeat in 39 seconds to Texas’ Dominic Wilson.

But he still has plenty of tournament wins to think back on. Whitbred opened the Greco-Roman part of the tournament with a technical superiority victory in 30 seconds. The next round then saw him pick up a pin in 3:08.

Whitbred reached the semifinals by outscoring his two opponents 14-5. He took on the No. 1 seed in Utah’s Ladd Holman, whom Whitbred held a 4-1 career record against.

Whitbred made it a 5-1 record when he stuck Holman in 3:28 to advance to the finals.

“It was pretty cool to make the finals again. It was really cool with all the stuff they did for the finals,” said Whitbred, who won a Greco-Roman title in the 14U age group last year. “It was fun to wrestle the finals (this year). It was a little intimidating, but it was fun. It kind of compares to the finals at 14U.”

Whitbred, who was the No. 12 seed in freestyle, reached the quarterfinals, giving up just six points along the way. He suffered a 5-0 loss to Wilson, who was the No. 4 seed.

Whitbred battled his way through the consolation bracket to the semifinals, where he suffered a 12-0 loss to New York’s Camryn Howard. In his fifth-place match, Whitbred didn’t get to wrestle Arizona’s Travis Cardenas, who injury defaulted.

Even though Whitbred didn’t get a title at either style this year, he still learned things to use for his upcoming sophomore season.

“You can definitely always get better and keep training,” he added. “You always have to have a positive mindset as it really helps going into matches and stuff.”

As mentioned, there were five others competing from Centre County. They included Manville and Whitbred’s teammate Nick Berrena, Penns Valley duo Max Dinges and Brayden Lisowski, the Lady Little Lions’ Anna Lackey, and Bald Eagle Area’s Grace Crestani. All were making their first trips to Fargo.

Dinges (106 pounds) and Lisowski (150) were in the Cadet Division as Lackey (110) and Crestani (170) were in the Junior Women Division of the freestyle tournament earlier in the week. Berrena (132) competed in the Junior Men Division of Greco-Roman.

The Rams’ duo were the lone wrestlers to claim victories.

Lisowski, who was the No. 26 seed, and Dinges, the No. 3 seed, each made it to the Round of 16 without giving up a point. Lisowski outscored his opponents 31-0 as Dinges tallied 30 points.

Lisowski, a rising junior, suffered a 5-2 loss to Ohio’s Jake Hughes in the Round of 16 to be sent to the consolation bracket. He was then pinned by Kansas’ Emerson Tjaden to end his tournament.

Dinges, who is a freshman, was upset by the No. 14 seed in New Jersey’s Sean Kenny, 4-0, in the Round of 16. He rebounded with a pair of wins to make the blood round, which is the round where wrestlers win and make the podium, or lose and come up just short.

Dinges suffered a 5-0 loss to New Jersey’s Jojo Burke to end his tournament.

“Everybody in the wrestling world knows the tournament and the caliber. It is a great experience for both of them,” Penns Valley coach Joel Brinker said. “It should give them some confidence. I know it didn’t end the way they wanted it. They wanted more, which is good too.”