22 hours Ago
Name: Nicholas McGarrity School: Peters Township Grade: Sophomore Sport: Wrestling McGarrity’s week: In his quest to win a second title in as many tries at the TriCADA wrestling tournament, McGarrity turned into a pinning machine. McGarrity won all four of his matches by fall, including a first period pin over Burgettstown’s Darius Simmons in the 114-pound final. It capped a stellar weekend for the young wrestler, who is already 23-1 this season.
“It went pretty well,” McGarrity said. “I was happy with what I did. Winning there two years in a row feels nice, but I’m still looking forward.
I’ve got a lot of wrestling left to do this year.” McGarrity faced Simmons in the semifinals of the Chartiers-Houston Tournament and won via fall at the four-minute mark. Getting a rematch proved beneficial in the TriCADA final.
“Honestly, I think it helped me be more aggressive,” McGarrity said. “I thought he’d be coming after me and trying to get back at me for the last time, so that helped me go out there and get straight into my offense. “I got a takedown pretty early and went straight to top and finished in an armbar.
” Busy wrestler: Having 24 matches in before the middle of January is something McGarrity pleased with. He’s wrestled that many matches because he’s won both at Char-Houston and TriCADA and Peters Township has wrestled in two dual meets. The Indians had four matches at the Cavalier Duals at Kiski Area and spent two days at the Wheeling Park Duals where they wrestled eight matches.
McGarrity’s only loss came against Edward Anderson, who is from Johnathan Adler in Ohio. After winning WPIAL gold last year and placing sixth in the state, McGarrity will take all the early reps he can get to prepare for a title defense at WPIAL and possibly make a run at PIAA gold. “For me it really helps my situational awareness and my mat awareness,” McGarrity said.
“When you’re out there wrestling all the time, you get used to hearing the whistle and reacting quickly like knowing where the out of bounds line is and if I’m down a point that I can’t get hit with stalling. A lot of stuff that I know I’m going to need later in the year.” Lacrosse: In the spring, McGarrity is a member of the Peters Township boys lacrosse team.
He got into lacrosse from watching his older brother A.J. play.
A.J., who’s a senior, is also a wrestler and placed fourth at 145 pounds at TriCADA.
The younger McGarrity is a faceoff specialist for the Indians in lacrosse. “Wrestling does translate to lacrosse, because I’m used to being able to move around at such a low level like a scrum,” McGarrity said. “It does correlate a little bit.
” Board games: McGarrity enjoys hanging out with friends and family in his downtime. One of the favorite activities of his family is playing board games, particularly a game called Rummikub. “We get very competitive with it,” McGarrity said.
“It’s like the card game rummy where you have to match the numbers in a run of three or get three of the same numbers. Once you get rid of all of your cards, you win.”.
