Burrell sophomore 125-pounder Dave Makara went back to the drawing board earlier this week.

Apparently, he worked out the glitches.

Makara controlled the tempo from start to finish and defeated Shady Side Academy's Matt Tadich, 8-0, Saturday night in the WPIAL Class AA finals at Chartiers Valley High School.

Makara avenged a 7-4 loss to Tadich at last week's Section 3-AA championships.

"It was real sweet," Makara said. "I worked hard all week on the stuff I did bad last week. I fixed those mistakes. Mainly, my coaches helped me with being on the bottom (position)."

Makara (31-9) is the younger brother of Joe Makara, who won four WPIAL titles during his career and is now a Burrell assistant coach.

Shady Side Academy senior Dane Johnson, a New Kensington resident, was the only other local wrestler to capture a title. Johnson became the 18th wrestler in the history of the league to win four WPIAL crowns.

However, the title-clinching win was anticlimactic for him.

Chartiers-Houston's Michael Innes withdrew from the final earlier in the day because of a rib injury, and Johnson made a brief appearance on the mat to have his hand raised for the victory.

"I really wanted to wrestle," said Johnson, a Pitt recruit. "The fourth one, I didn't want to get it like this. But I'll take it. When I found out, I was disappointed I wasn't going to have a match in the finals."

Saturday proved to be a remarkable day for area wrestling. Eight local wrestlers, including four from Burrell, pushed into the finals. That is the highest number of local finalists in the last three years.

The local finalists who finished second were Burrell's Jeremy Landowski (119 pounds), Travis McKillop (135) and Brian Beattie (215), Highlands' Mike Henderson (103), Kittanning's Keith Cornman (112) and Valley's Kyle Dudley (189).

The top six finishers in each weight class move on to the PIAA Class AA Southwest Regional, which will be held Friday and Saturday at the Cambria County War Memorial in Johnstown. That's the last hurdle before the state tournament.

Henderson, making his first appearance in the finals, lost to Fort Cherry's Andrew Lucarini, 14-6.

Henderson was trailing, 3-2, in the second period when Lucarini pulled off a reversal for two points and put him on his back for four points. Henderson also injured his neck during that sequence but returned to the mat.

"He had a game plan going in to win on his feet," Highlands coach Luke Pollick said. "That six-point move sets a different tone in the match. Still, I'm proud of the way he wrestled."

Shady Side Academy's Geoff Alexander dominated Cornman, 11-2, and Keystone Oaks' Anthony Zanetta beat Landowski, 11-3. Zanetta is 39-0.

McKillop was defeated by Avella's Mitch Spencer, 6-2. Spencer claimed the Most Outstanding Wrestler award.

Dudley lost to Shady Side Academy's Roman San Doval, 9-3.

"I thought Kyle did a nice job up to the finals," Valley coach Steve Ansani said. "But he had to wrestle a returning state champ. He just needs to get some confidence that he can wrestle on that level, too."

Beattie was stopped by Burgettstown's Ryan Watson, 5-2.

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