Fox Chapel wrestling coach Michael Frank was proud of how balanced the Foxes’ lineup proved to be at the Allegheny County Championships. The Foxes finished third in the team standings despite not having a wrestler reach the finals.

“It shows how well they wrestled as a group,” Frank said. “They all worked hard to pick up bonus points and tech falls to up the team score.”

Landon Funk (127 pounds), Milo Chiu (160), Jack Viti (189) and Joseph Geller (215) all reached the semifinals. Funk, a defending county champion, lost 3-2 in ultimate tiebreaker to Mt. Lebanon’s Evan Sala.

Funk bounced back with a win in the third-place match against Shaler’s Ayden Tavella. Funk is three wins away from 100 in his career. He is 19-4.

“I thought he wrestled well,” Frank said. “That’s the one match that is going to springboard him forward. Neither guy got a takedown, and all the points came from escapes coming from the bottom. Landon needs to get to offense better on his feet.”

Michael Worsen (121), Daniel Noel (127), Yousset Abdelsalam (133), Viti and Joseph Geller (215) all placed fifth. D’Angelo Hamilton (285) placed seventh.

“It’s definitely a good measuring stick for us to know from a team standpoint for what we are working for and what to work on,” Frank said. “There’s a lot of good competition. It’s good to nitpick individuals and what they need to work on.”

Fox Chapel (9-3, 3-1) has also qualified for the WPIAL Class 3A team playoffs and was scheduled to face North Allegheny on Wednesday (Jan. 29) in the first round.

The Foxes lost 43-21 to Kiski Area on Jan. 22, which ended Fox Chapel’s chances of defending its section title.

Worsen, Funk, Daniel Noel (139) and Adam Haines picked up the four wins for the Foxes.

Frank said before the Kiski Area match that the Foxes will have a busy schedule to navigate throughout the next few weeks.

“With the team playoffs and a couple of nonsection matches in there, we are going to be busy,” Frank said.

“Now is the time of year when we have to worry about the team aspect, but we have to balance being selfish as individuals to focus on what we need to do to make ourselves better for the individual part of the year once the team wraps up.”