WEXFORD — Combining for five individual champions at the Section 3-AAA Championships Saturday at North Allegheny, Butler, Seneca Valley and Mars advanced 20 wrestlers to this weekend’s WPIAL Class 3A Championships.

A dozen of those belong to the Golden Tornado, including 138-pound champion Domenic Vivirito. The senior claimed his first-ever section crown. Seneca Valley picked up three section titles — Connor Smith (26-6) at 106 pounds, Tyler Chappell (29-4) at 113 and Liam Volk-Klos (18-0) at 215 — while Mars’ Christian Scheller (19-3) won the 172-pound title.

“I’ve been working the last four years for this,” Vivirito said. “It was pretty emotional for me out there. Seeing all the people who came to this tournament to support me ... I started crying.”

Vivirito improved to 26-9 on the season. His first match, against Beaver’s Nick Thompson, didn’t start the way he would have liked.

“I got taken down early by the eighth-seeded kid,” Vivirito said. “I guess I was a little nervous at the start and he caught me. But I got it together after that.”

Vivirito was not scored upon the rest of the day. He wound up pinning Thompson 25 seconds into the second period, then pinned Pine-Richland’s Rowan Foster in 40 seconds before winning the title by a 5-0 decision over North Allegheny’s Jason Flener.

Four other Golden Tornado wrestlers — Levi Donnel at 145, Mickey Kreinbucher at 172, Landon Christie at 189 and Jake Pomykata at heavyweight — lost in the finals.

“That last round was disappointing overall,” Butler coach Scott Stoner admitted “But we did get five kids to the finals and all 12 of our guys qualified for the WPIAL. We’ve never qualified every wrestler from the section tournament before.

“Yeah, I’ll be busy next weekend (at Canon-McMillan for WPIAL tourney), but as long as I’m going, I may as well be working.”

The top five placers in each weight class qualified for the WPIAL tourney. Other Butler WPIAL qualifiers are third-place Kase Chopp at 126 and Cade Savochka at 152, fourth-place Ana Malovich at 106, Kelley Schaukowitsch at 113 and Matt Zinkhann at 160, fifth-place Legend Wilkinson at 132.

Wilkinson entered the tourney as the ninth-seed with a 5-11 record.

“It’s just as important for Legend to finish fifth as it was for Dom to finish first,” Stoner said. “I’m proud of both of those guys. All of our kids did what they had to do. Our next goal is to get them all a win at the WPIAL Tournament.”

While Seneca Valley had three section champions, the Raiders only qualified one other wrestler. Manuel Santos took fourth place at 172 pounds.

“Having three section champs is nice, but we were hoping to qualify a few more kids,” SV coach Kevin Wildrick said. “We had some standout performances and I think we can fare well next weekend.”

Smith scored a technical fall over Malovich in the semifinals at 106 and pinned Casey Welker of North Allegheny in 1:40 of the championship match. Chappell made quick work of his opponents at 113, pinning Caiden Herbert of West Allegheny in 44 seconds and NA’s Will Bentrim in 1:38.

Volk-Klos stayed unbeaten at 215 by pinning Andrew Szymczak in 3:48 and decisioning Aiden Buggey of North Allegheny, 7-5, in the finals.

“I got a takedown early in the third period and was able to ride him out,” Volk-Klos said of his final match. “I’d had success against Buggey before. I just had to wrestle a smart match.”

Volk-Klos has been wrestling with a torn meniscus and missed the first three weeks of the season.

“I’m not having any trouble with it,” he said of the knee. “I was always confident I’d be strong and competitive enough once I got back. My goal is to medal at the state tournament. I can’t do that if I’m worrying about my knee.”

Mars senior Scheller captured his first section title while wrestling with a torn ACL. He missed nearly half of this season while rehabbing and strengthening his knee.

“It probably cost me a shot at 100 wins,” Scheller said. “I was about 32 short at the start of the season, but missed out on too many matches.”

Scheller pinned his first two opponent Saturday — West Allegheny’s Seth Weese in 56 seconds and Santos in 4:53 — before decisioning Kreinbucher 12-2 in the finals.

“I couldn’t be happier for him,” Mars coach Bob Jox said of Scheller. “He’s a great kid and he’s so determined. He deserves to have a big senior year. Christian has overcome so much.”

“While I couldn’t wrestle for more than a month, I stayed with the proper eating habits and conditioning,” Scheller said. “When I came back, I was ready. All of that paid off.”

Three other Planet wrestlers qualified for the WPIAL tourney by placing fifth in their respective weight classes — Liam Hein at 126, Jaden Fotta at 145 and Riley Lefcakis at heavyweight.

The WPIAL tourney is Friday and Saturday at Canon-McMillan High School.

WPIAL Section 3-AAA Finals

106-Connor Smith (Seneca Valley) pinned Casey Walker (North Allegheny), 1:40; 113-Tyler Chappell (Seneca Valley) pinned Will Bintrim (North Allegheny), 1:38; 120-Dominic Ferraro (Pine-Richland) pinned Tyler Zubryd (Moon), 3:24; 126-Dylan Coy (North Allegheny) dec. Anthony Ferraro (Pine-Richland), 8-4; 132-Khyvon Grace (Moon) dec. Nathan Monteparte (North Allegheny), 3-1; 138-Domenic Vivirito (Butler) dec. Jason Flener (North Allegheny), 5-0; 145-Ty Watters (West Allegheny) dec. Levi Donnel (Butler), 6-1; 152-Kelin Laffey (Pine-Richland) dec. Nico Taddy (West Allegheny), 7-1; 160-Shawn Taylor (West Allegheny) dec. Adam Rohan (North Allegheny), 5-2; 172-Christian Scheller (Mars) dec. Mickey Kreinbucher (Butler), 12-2; 189-Matt Serwatka (North Hills) pinned Landon Christie (Butler), 1:58; 215-Liam Volk-Klos (Seneca Valley) dec. Aidan Buggey (North Allegheny), 7-5; Hwt.-Joey Schneck (Pine-Richland) pinned Jake Pomykata (Butler), 5:29