The Pitt-Johnstown men’s wrestling team traveled to Erie on Friday to compete in the Super Region 1 tournament and finished in third place.

The Mountain Cats have been Regional Champions 21 times, according to assistant coach Aaron Konitzer.

“We had 10 guys go, and we had a solid foundation with leaders like juniors Cody Law and Tyler Reinhart,” Konitzer said.

“With freshmen that can make some noise and surprise people with wrestling above their seeds helps us.”

The wrestlers worked on refining and perfecting moves in preparation for the tournament.

“At that point, we just refined skills and fine-tuned some things to make sure our guys were peaking going into the tournament, and making sure our guys were staying fresh,” Konitzer said.

“We have guys that will wrestle a great match and get bonus points from their matches help us.”

Wrestlers who competed in the tournament were 125-pound freshman Sam Holandez, 133-pound sophomore Tanner Cahill and 141-pound freshman Chris Eddins.

Also, 149-pound sophomore Corey Faleroni, 157-pound junior Cody Law and 165-junior Tyler Reinhart competed.

More Mountain Cats who showed in the tournament were 174-pound senior John Blankenship, 184-pound Levi Niebauer and 197-pound junior Nico Pecora.

In the heavyweight, 285-pound junior D.J. Simms competed.

Five Mountain Cat wrestlers qualified for the National Tounament Saturday.

The Mountain Cats were led by Eddins and Law who won Super-Region 1 championships.

Defending National Champion Reinhart and All-American Blankenship both placed third to qualify. Niebauer finished fourth to round out the five national qualifiers.

The championship is scheduled to be held March 10 and 11 at Birmingham Ala.