Many fans in the crowd of at least 1,500 at Chartiers Valley on Saturday night wanted to witness a notable moment in WPIAL wrestling history.

Kittanning senior Jason Nolf made sure the folks in the stands for the WPIAL Class AA Individual Championships didn't wait too long to get what they wanted.

On the mat for just 1:22 in his 145-pound title bout, top-seeded Nolf (37-0) pinned No. 2 seed and Beth-Center sophomore Tony Welsh (32-4) to become the 23rd WPIAL wrestler to claim four individual championships.

“It felt pretty cool when everybody started cheering,” said Nolf, a two-time PIAA champion who will wrestle at Penn State. “It's still just another step, though.”

Of his four WPIAL finals appearances, his last ended with the most authority — one reason he went home with the tournament's Outstanding Wrestling award. He pinned South Allegheny's Russ Losteter as a freshman, but that fall took almost an entire match. He managed a 16-2 major decision over Jefferson-Morgan's John Demaske as a sophomore and had a 3-0 win over Keystone Oaks' Nick Zanetta as a junior.

“My goal is to pin everybody,” Nolf said. “I wanted to pin (Welsh) as soon as I took him down. Then he got an escape, so I had to take him down again.”

Sophomore 220-pounder Jacob Robb's first trip to the finals ended differently. Robb, a 195-pounder for most of the regular season, ran into unbeaten Avella senior and defending WPIAL champ Jake Temple.

Temple (36-0) overwhelmed Robb on the way to an 18-3 technical fall. But the result hardly ruined a memorable tournament for Robb, who, despite giving up 20 pounds to most of his opponents, pinned his way into the title bout as a No. 2 seed.

The top seven finishers in each weight class advance to the PIAA Class AA Southwest Regional tournament, which begins Friday at Cambria County War Memorial in Johnstown. Kittanning had five qualifiers: in addition to Nolf and Robb, sophomore Brendon Malia (sixth at 113 pounds), junior Brody Trumbull (fifth at 120) and senior David Grafton (sixth at 285) also advanced.

Another postseason tournament brought forth another first for West Shamokin's third-year wrestling program.

Junior 182-pounder Brendon Glover and sophomore 106-pounder Bill Hockenberry became the first regional qualifiers in Wolves history, as the former took third and the latter placed sixth — Hockenberry claimed West Shamokin's first individual section title last week.

Elderton's wrestling program, a precursor of sorts to West Shamokin, last had regional qualifiers in 2008, when Zack Reefer won the WPIAL heavyweight title and Levi Smeltzer took sixth at 130.

A berth in the regionals proved particularly sweet for Glover, who missed last season's WPIAL tournament with a hip injury and went 0-2 in the competition as a 152-pounder for Elderton during his freshman season.

“Last year, I came and watched the whole tournament, and it was just brewing in me that I wanted to wrestle,” Glover said. “Here, I didn't do quite as well as I wanted.”

Able to break through where his older brother, Tucker, a 2012 Elderton grad, and other predecessors fell short, Glover hopes his run isn't close to its conclusion.

“I've worked hard so many years, and we always strive to go as far as we can in the postseason,” he said. “This is groundbreaking for me, and hopefully it doesn't stop next week.”

Bill West is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at wwest@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BWest_Trib.

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