Burrell senior Robert Scherer became known among by family, friends and Bucs faithful as “Bubby” because of an observation made by his grandmother years ago.
To the best of Scherer's recollection, his grandmother said he simply “looked like a Bubby.”
Scherer still isn't sure what that means, though he suspects it means he's a nice guy.
For six minutes Saturday night at South Fayette, the wrestler with the funny nickname showed a bit of his brutal side.
With relentless pressure in the first period, Scherer (34-13) built up an 8-point lead that set the tone for his 14-1 win over Indiana junior Trent Orr in the 195-pound finals of the WPIAL Class AA individual championships.
“I've wrestled him before, and he'd given me a fight every time, so I didn't think I'd go out there and win like that,” said Scherer, who pinned Orr in a dual meet in December as well as in the Section 3-AA finals last week. “But it just makes the victory so much sweeter.”
The title is Scherer's first. He placed third at 195 a season ago.
Burrell brought home two champions as senior heavyweight Al Beattie (41-1) also claimed a title.
For a third straight season, Beattie met Southmoreland's Jacob Beistel in the finals.
For a third time, Beattie prevailed. His escape and ability to ride out Beistel led to a 2-1 win in the tiebreaker period of overtime.
“I like wrestling him,” Beattie said. “It always prepares for me later on, gives me a tough match going into all these upcoming tournaments.”
Burrell pushed a tournament-high eight wrestlers through to the PIAA Class AA Southwest Regionals, which begin Friday at Canon-McMillan. The top seven placewinners in each weight class advanced.
The Bucs' group success in the individual postseason, which came on the heels of a ninth straight title in the WPIAL team tournament, contributed to coach Josh Shields claiming the Coach of the Year Award in Class AA.
Kittanning junior 220-pounder Jacob Robb returned to the WPIAL finals with a different role this season as he represented the favorite rather than the underdog.
Robb left no doubt about his ability to wrestle with a target on his back as he pulled ahead of Yough senior Tom Sever early in the finals and cruised to a win by pinfall in the title bout.
“I wanted to wrestle hard and pin everybody the whole way through,” said Robb, a runner-up at 220 as a sophomore. “I wrestled (Sever) last year (in the semifinals), and he was pretty tough. This was a gauge to see how much better I've gotten from last year.
“The difference between last year and this year is I've gotten a lot better on my feet. That's what I've been working on most of the time.”
One season after leaving the championships with multiple title winners for the first time in school history, Valley departed with less to celebrate. But two Vikings still earned berths in the Southwest Regional tournament.
A new addition to Valley's team provided the team highlight. Junior 160-pounder Phillip Petit (29-8), who previously attended Greensburg Central Catholic and competed in Class AAA as part of GCC's co-op agreement with Hempfield, placed third in his first go-round at the Class AA championships.
Petit's loss to eventual champ J.J. Walker of South Fayette in the quarterfinals knocked him into the consolation bracket, but the junior recovered with four wins by pinfall, including in the medal match, where he put Jefferson-Morgan junior Trevor Kniha flat on his back in 2 minutes, 9 seconds.
A third-place finish in the WPIAL proved much sweeter for Petit than when he occupied that same spot on the medal stand at the Section 3-AA tournament a week ago. He entered the section competition as the No. 1 seed.
“I wish I could take back sections, but that added fuel to the fire for me to battle back here,” Petit said. “My expectations here were top three, and I achieved that. ... I didn't mind losing to (Walker, a four-time champ) as long as I came back and got third.”
Bill West is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at wwest@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BWest_Trib.
