Bisons Turn Back Tide 44-20

CURWENSVILLE – The Clearfield Bison wrestling team finished up a very successful dual meet season with a solid win over rival Curwensville. Despite the final score, Curwensville wrestled very hard and a couple of key matches set the final outcome.

Starting at 125 pounds, the Bisons got off to a quick start behind Holden Lowe. Lowe beat Brett Sutika on the strength of a tilt and an escape.

At 130, Clearfield freshman Shane Harper fell behind to Wes McGary 7-0 but earned an escape and a takedown before scoring a big fall for the Bison at 3:51. The win lifted Harper to 6-21 on the season.

Clearfield head coach Jeff Aveni had expected the ends but not the means, saying “I told Shane we expected bonus points from him tonight. It wasn’t pretty, but once he got his motor running he came through for us.”

Curwensville had no entry at 135, so Coach Aveni sent Nate Berzeznski out to collect his first varsity win via forfeit, and bumped up his lineup all the way to 215.

The plan got off to a slow start as Richie Queen lost to Justin Johnston 4-3, Derek Danver lost to Jeff Thomas 4-2, and Kasey Casher lost by technical fall to Brett McCracken, closing the team score to 15-11. “Curwensville has solid kids from 140 to 152,” said Aveni. “We were giving up five pounds or more per match…still, we weren’t quite as aggressive as they were, there are definitely some things we need to work on for the postseason.”

Will Beauseigneur began to reverse the momentum with a fall over Richie Michael in 1:07, setting the stage for the most entertaining bout of the night.

Clearfield’s Shawn Hall bumped up to meet the Tide’s Jarrett Sloppy at 171. Sloppy notched the first takedown, and led 2-1 after one period. Sloppy showed great moves from the bottom position throughout the match, but Hall seemed to have the edge on his feet. Sloppy scored an escape in the second, but Hall took him down. Sloppy then reversed Hall but Hall escaped quickly, leaving Sloppy ahead 5-4 after two periods. Hall escaped and earned a takedown in the third, but was penalized for an illegal hold. Leading only 7-6, Hall hit a tilt for three nearfall points with 15 seconds left to seal the bout and extend Clearfield’s lead to 24-11.

At 189, Lee Zalno picked up a fall in 2:25 over Matt Schultz. 215 pound Tide grappler Nathan Russell was able to eke out a 6-3 win over the Bison’s Andre Buck, before Sean Owen ran his record to 32-1 at heavyweight with a 16-0 technical fall over Walter Koontz in only 2:29.

At 103, Kodie Lowder continued his impressive work for the Bison, running his record to 25-8 with a fall over Greg Koptchak at 1:19. Tide standout Derek Brothers easily handled Clearfield’s Max VonGunden at 112, leading 8-1 before securing a fall at 1:58. The last bout of the evening went to Clearfield, with Andrew Spicer jumping out to a 4-0 first period lead and holding on for a 7-2 decision over Tyler Peters. “Andrew wrestled well, but we need better effort from him in third periods – we’ve seen this from him before,” said Aveni.

With the win Clearfield improves to 13-5, the most dual meet wins in a season under Coach Aveni. “13 wins is a great accomplishment for this team. We’re young, but now we’re experienced. The goal coming in was to have a winning season, and we’ve exceeded that,” said Aveni. Clearfield will compete in the District IX Championships at Clarion University February 23, but Coach Aveni indicated he is trying to put together an additional dual meet before then.

Curwensville drops to 6-4 on the season and will wrestle two more dual meets, at Johnsonburg Monday and home vs. Redbank Valley Wednesday.

Clearfield 44

Curwensville 20

125 Lowe (CL) dec. Sutika 4-0                       3-0

130 Harper (CL) WBF McGary 3:51               9-0

135 Berzeznski (CL) WBFF                             15-0

140 Johnston dec. Queen (CL) 4-3                  15-3

145 Thomas dec. Danver (CL) 4-2                   15-6

152 McCracken TF Casher (CL) 16-0 4:22     15-11

160 Beauseigneur (CL) WBF Michael 1:07      21-11

171 Hall (CL) dec. Sloppy 10-6                       24-11

189 Zalno (CL) WBF Schultz 2:25                   30-11

215 Russell dec. Buck (CL) 6-3                       30-14

285 Owen (CL) TF Koontz 16-0 2:29             35-14

103 Lowder (CL) WBF Koptchak 1:19           41-14

112 Brothers WBF VonGunden (CL) 1:58       41-20

119 Spicer (CL) dec. Peters 7-2                      44-20

Records as of 02/07: