Four Baldwin Wrestlers Heading to WPIAL Championships

Four wrestlers used a home-mat advantage on Saturday to earn bids to the WPIAL's AAA individual championships, to be held from March 1-3 at Norwin High School.

The Baldwin High grapplers represent Section 2 of AAA—the WPIAL's highest wrestling classification. Each of them—senior Said Hasanovic (120 pounds), senior Wil Ostermeyer (195), freshman DeVontae Evans (220) and senior Bobby Bush (285)—finished in the top five in their weight classes at the Section 2 individual championships hosted by Baldwin this past weekend, with the five best finishers at every weight advancing to the WPIAL championships.

This was the second straight year that Baldwin wrestling hosted an individual section championships meet, and Ostermeyer capitalized the most by going 3-0 on Saturday en route to a section title.

"Wil started wrestling in the second grade and has come up through our youth and junior high programs," said George McCormack, Baldwin H.S.'s head wrestling coach. "His hard work and dedication to the sport of wrestling has paid off for him."

Ostermeyer is now 21-9 this season. Should he or any of his teammates finish in the top three at the WPIAL championships meet this week, they'll advance to the PIAA (state) AAA championships, to be held from March 8-10 in Hershey.

Despite his young age, Evans earned fourth place in his weight at the Section 2 meet. He went 2-2 on Saturday and is now 17-9 for the season.

"To qualify for the WPIAL tournament as a freshman is quite the accomplishment," McCormack said, "not to mention the fact that he did it at 220 pounds, which is dominated by upperclassmen.

"The future is definitely bright for DeVontae Evans."

Bush grabbed fifth place in the heaviest weight on Saturday by also going 2-2. Bush lost early in the tournament but fought his way back to win a fifth-place consolation match and keep his season alive. He is now 21-13 for the season.

Hasanovic catches a break to get into the WPIAL tournament. He lost a one-point heartbreaker in the first round of his weight on Saturday before winning one match and then losing two more, including a two-point decision in the fifth-place match to the same opponent from the first round. However, the fourth-place finisher in that weight received a flagrant misconduct in the third-place match and was disqualified from the WPIAL championships, pushing Hasanovic up as the fifth-place representative.

Hasanovic is still an impressive 24-12 this season and hopes to take advantage of his section tournament break at the WPIAL championships.

Check back with the Baldwin-Whitehall Patch for updates.

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