NEW BETHLEHEM — Curwensville Area High School senior Nick Sipes recorded his 100th career victory in the 37th annual Redbank Valley Christmas Wrestling Tournament Saturday morning on his way to repeating as 189-pound champion.
Sipes, who had pinned Oil City\’s Steve Roser in 1:23 Friday evening, reached the milestone with a fall in 3:44 against Rich Keagle of Coudersport in the quarterfinals.
The two-time state placewinner followed up by pinning Elderton\’s Travis Bell in 3:49 in the semis and beating Cranberry\’s Charles Huegel 8-2 in the title bout to climb past Jody Clark (100-17-1) and Jason Clark (101-17-2) on the Golden Tide\’s all-time win list.
At 102-10, Sipes ranks second behind brother Nate, who graduated in 2005 with a 110-18 record.
\”I\’m very happy to see Nick get that,\” Golden Tide coach Duane Wriglesworth II said. \”With his talent, he deserves to be in the company of those other wrestlers in our school history. His goal is, of course, to be state champion and it looks to me like he\’s on track.\”
Sipes\’ performance was worthy of Outstanding Wrestler Award consideration, but that went to Redbank Valley\’s 152-pounder Jon Brothers, who had four falls and a technical fall. His fall in 5:39 against second seed Jacques Moss of Sharon was the highlight of the finals. The top-seeded Bulldog trailed 5-1 after two periods but a reversal and near fall put him ahead 6-5 before he cradled Moss for the second time.
Curwensville had four other placewinners in the 25-team tournament, which is the longest running holiday event in the state. Unseeded Tyler Peters was third at 112, third seed Derek Brothers finished fourth at 103, second seed Brett Sutika was sixth at 119 and Jeff Thomas upheld his seventh seed at 130.
Peters battled through the wrestlebacks with five wins after being pinned in 3:14 by North East\’s Christian Drain, the second seed who went on to win the championship. Peters pinned Grove City\’s Garrett Zarecky in 4:39, nipped Elderton\’s Domingo Smith 5-4, earned a 17-1 technical fall over Cochranton\’s David Young, major decisioned Moshannon Valley\’s Joel Walstrom 9-0 and, in the consy finals, pinned Meadville\’s Nick Limano in 4:36.
\”He was a real bright spot for us,\” Wriglesworth said. \”He was only 2-4 and had a disappointing match with Preston Mahoney of Johnsonburg, but I said he would get over it, and he did. He is much better than his record showed and he proved that this tournament.\”
Brothers got off to a good start with a 15-0 technical fall against Sasha Brudnock of Marion Center and a fall in 3:15 against Matt McFadden of Cranberry before dropping a 9-6 decision to John Pas of Grove City in the semis. Brothers then defeated Knoch\’s Dylan Leslie of Knoch before being edged 3-2 by Tony Langdon of North East in the consy finals.
Sutika pinned Kevin Duncan of Oil City in 2:21, lost 11-3 to Nick Downing of Knoch, pinned Zack Broadwater of Berlin-Brothers Valley in 3:52, decisioned Caleb Null of Clarion 7-5, was pinned in 3:31 by Marty Phipps of Grove City and then lost a 10-0 major decision to Downing in a rematch for fifth place.
\”I was really pleased how he came back with some impressive wins in the consolation bracket,\” Wriglesworth said.
Thomas opened with a fall in 1:41 against Jordan Smith of Lafayette, Va., lost a tough 4-2 decision to top seed Cody Northcutt of Cochranton, beat Josh Keach of Meadville 9-8, lost 5-0 to Brendon Shaffer of Redbank Valley and then pinned Levi Smeltzer of Elderton in 2:26 for in the seventh-place bout.
\”Jeff was 6-3 and seeded seventh because that was a tough bracket,\” Wriglesworth said. \”He was very close to a reversal at the end of his match with Northcott that would have tied it up. And his match with Shaffer showed how far Jeff has come. Shaffer tech falled him last year.\”
Every Golden Tide wrestler except one managed to post at least one win. Justin Johnston was 2-2 at 134, Justin Smith 2-2 at 140, Brett McCracken 1-2 at 145, Matt Holland 1-2 at 152, Jarrett Sloppy 2-2 at 160, Jesse Hoover 0-2 at 171, Nathan Russell 1-2 at 215 with a 13-second fall over Jesse Reinwald of Cochranton and Nick Caldwell 1-2 at 285.
Johnston was injured when his opponent trapped his arm on a takedown attempt and his head hit the mat, according to Wriglesworth. The Golden Tide junior was taken Brookville Hospital as a precautionary measure but was not admitted.
Wriglesworth praised Smith for pinned Shawn Davis of Coudersport in 5:55 after falling behind 14-4.
\”I was happy he didn\’t give up,\” Wriglesworth said. \”Many wrestlers would have.\”
Wriglesworth was expecting a better finish from McCracken, who was seeded fifth. He was beaten 8-4 by fourth seed Dirk Cowburn of Coudersport and pinned in 40 seconds by A.J. Magagnotti of Redbank Valley.
\”Cowburn is a really tough freshman, and Brett got caught by Magagnotti,\” Wriglesworth said. \”I was sorry to see that because I had hoped he would place high, like top three.
\”We finished sixth overall, and I was happy to be in the top 10,\” Wriglesworth said. \”25 is a good mix of teams, with several schools from District 10. We do have a young team, and we found some areas we need to improve. We\’re going to work in the room to try to fix some of the mistakes we\’re making.\”
Curwensville takes its 1-2 dual meet record to Punxsutawney Wednesday.