Youth St. Vincent growing, defeats Waynesburg

Thursday was Youth Wrestling Night at Saint Vincent, and that is not a reference to the young Bearcats.

Saint Vincent coach Dom Nania invited numerous youth wrestling clubs from Westmoreland County to Robert A. Carey Center for the Bearcats’ Presidents’ Athletic Conference match against Waynesburg.

Wrestling returned to Saint Vincent this year after a hiatus of almost 50 years. The Bearcats had a program from 1963 to 1975.

The Bearcats sold out Carey Center on Nov. 14 during a 26-17 loss to Penn State Behrend, but they treated the large crowd and junior wrestlers to a 34-18 victory against Waynesburg.

The new program has created excitement for the school and community. Classes aren’t back in session until Monday, but the community came out strong.

In the crowd was former coach Tom Harbert, who was instrumental in reviving the program. Harbert coached the Bearcats from 1963 to 1971.

“This was great,” Harbert said about the win and the large crowd. “I worked five years to bring it back. Things are only going to get better.”

Saint Vincent’s lone win this season before Thursday night came Dec. 18 at Pitt-Bradford, 39-12. Saint Vincent is 2-6.

Nania didn’t set up an easy nonconference schedule. He took his team to Las Vegas, where they faced some of the top teams in the country.

Against Waynesburg, the Bearcats took advantage of two forfeits and got pins from Tyler Debnar (141) and Chase Brandebura (165). Heavyweight Jake Beistel (Southmoreland) received a win by injury default. He and Waynesburg heavyweight Jaron Polk banged heads, and Polk was unable to continue.

Charlie Mesich (Hempfield) defeated Waynesburg’s Andrew Johnson (Southmoreland), 16-5, in a tough match at 157.

Nania has been working for the past year-and-half building the program from scratch.

“Every victory for this program is huge right now,” Nania said. “I’m proud of what they’ve done so far. There is so much work they’ve put in already.

“I told the team before the match that they already wrestled the best team in the country, and it fired them up for the match. We came out strong.

“It was really cool to have the community come out and support us. Just having the little ones run around, it was just a fun environment. I wanted to make sure we had a lot of kids here.”