Williamsport – The Clearfield Bison wrestling squad performed as expected at the two day season opening Top Hat Tournament at Williamsport. The Bison were able place fourth out of eighteen teams, while nine out of 14 competitors placed in the top eight.
Leading the Bison stampede to the medal stand was 103-pounder Shane Peters, who won a silver medal.
The next two weight classes were the ‘coming out parties’ for two highly touted freshmen – Christian Stone and Nolan Barger. They did not disappoint in their varsity debuts. Head Coach Jeff Aveni stated that, “…both wrestled outstanding tourneys. They both battled every match and learned from their early round loss to bounce back nicely. Both beat quality kids.”
Barger ended up in third place, while Stone was fourth.
Also earning a third place medal for the Bisons was heavyweight Andre Buck, who will also wrestle at 215 during the season.
Logan Shadeck made a nice run through the consolation bracket to place fifth. Aveni noted that, “ Logan wrestled hard every match and actually placed higher than the kid that beat him in the winner’s bracket.”
Cliff Hill also placed fifth by “wrestling better every match”, Aveni commented.
Despite being the number one seed, Bison junior Derek Danver placed sixth. After an overtime loss in the semi-finals, Danver didn’t win a consy match. Aveni made no excuses for his star wrestler, “Derek needs to be able to come back better. Some bad calls really cost him in the semis, but he needs to wrestle better as the favorite instead of as the under dog, as in past seasons.”
See complete tournament brackets courtesy the District 4 website:
http://www.d4wrestling.com/tophat2009.htm
Bison weight by weight re-cap:
103 – Shane Peters, 3-1, second place
112 – Christian Stone, 4-2, fourth place
119 – Nolan Barger, 5-1, third place
125 – Kodie Lowder, 1-2
130 – Max Von Gunden, 0-2
135 – Andrew Hill, 2-3, eighth place
140 – Troy Danver, 1-2
145 – Shane Harper, 1-2
152 – Derek Danver, 1-3, sixth place
160 – Wil Beauseigneur, 2-3, eighth place
171 – Logan Shadeck, 4-2, fifth place
189 – Cliff Hill, 3-2, fifth place
215 – Jordan Lancaster, 0-2
285 – Andre Buck, 3-1, third place
The Bisons will be back in action when they open their dual meet season at home Thursday night against Bald Eagle Area, who placed 12th at this tournament.