Buttry rolling toward the postseason

  Austin Buttry's having a lot of fun this season.
  An undefeated record so far has much to do with that. The Chestnut Ridge junior heavyweight sports a 20-0 record as the Lions prepare for a match at Conemaugh Township on Wednesday before the 27-team Thomas Tournament at Bedford on Friday and Saturday.
  I had a chance to chat with Buttry after the conclusion of this past weekend's Mountaineer Duals, where Chestnut Ridge won the team title with a 5-0 mark. He assessed his season to date.
  "It's been going great," he said. "I have great practice partners and everyone's pushing each other in the room. Everything's just falling into place, which is where I want it to be."
  Last season, Buttry was behind Northern Bedford's Quinton Hixson on the pecking order of local heavyweights. Hixson finished his career with a second state medal, while Buttry came up a little short in his quest to get to Hershey.  He lost in the opening round at the Southwest Regional to Chartiers-Houston's Nate Grandelis, 4-3 in overtime, and then dropped a 3-2 consolation decision to Carlynton's Nik Sappie which ended his season. Grandelis went on to the regional final and then placed second in the state.
  "It's never look back and just keep pushing on," he said of the mindset. "There's always going to be somebody better and you have to never stop working to be better than him."
  Buttry, who shows great athleticism and mat intelligence, hones his wrestling on a calendar-to-calendar basis. Chestnut Ridge coach Greg Lazor has often said that Buttry's year-round work ethic in the sport gives him an advantage in the weight class where outsiders may view him as just an undersized heavyweight. After the high school season last year, Buttry finished as a placewinner at the NHSCA Nationals in Virginia Beach.
  Currently, Buttry is ranked fifth in the state by both Off the Mat and PA Power Rankings.
  There have been many comparisons in the past between football and wrestling and how the two sports complement each other, especially to those wrestlers in the higher weight classes. Buttry, a Bedford Gazette All-Star lineman this past fall, is another example of the benefit of that.
  "I agree with that 100 percent," he said. "You're always battling in wrestling, and you're always battling in football. You can never stop, or you're going to basically get put to the ground or to the mat.
  "I actually look forward to the third period sometimes, because being a smaller heavyweight, I try to use my conditioning because bigger guys tend to die out more, and then I can work my stuff to score points."
   That point was exampled in his final bout on Saturday, when Buttry opened up a tight score in the third period and later pinned Centreville's Jason Park with one second remaining on the clock, part of the Lions 69-0 shutout of the Virginia team.
   With the premier events of the season quickly approaching, that final weekend of the season remains the goal for Buttry in 2013.
  "I just want to stay strong and keep moving forward. Hopefully, I can make it to Hershey and see what happens."

Chestnut Ridge's Austin Buttry maintains control of Centreville's Jason Park on Saturday at the Mountaineer Duals.