BROCKWAY — The 2011 District 9 AAA Wrestling Championships seeding meeting was held Tuesday night at Brockway Area High School. The Clearfield Bisons tied with the Punxsutawney Chucks for the most number one seeds with four.
Earning number one seeds for the Bisons were 103 pound senior Shane Peters (27-3), 112 pound sophomore Christian Stone (27-3), and seniors Derek Danver (28-6) at 171 and Cliff Hill (22-4) at 215. Stone, Danver, and Hill each are returning district champions. Danver is looking for his third district title after winning at 145 pounds the last two years.
Three Bison wrestlers were given number two seeds – sophomore Nolan Barger (25-7) at 130, and seniors Andrew Hill (15-12) at 140 and Shane Harper (17-12) at 145.
The top three finishers at each weight class will advance to the Northwest Region championships in Altoona on March 4 and 5.
If they can hold their number three seed, freshman Jacob Verchick (2-15) at 189 and junior Jordan Lancaster (6-18) will join their teammates in Altoona.
Bison grapplers having to better their seeds to advance to regionals are four fourth seeded hopefuls – sophomore Dylan Graham (23-9) at 119, junior Frankie Aveni (1-21) at 125, senior Troy Danver (13-16) at 135, and junior Cody Lansberry (9-10) at 152. Receiving a fifth seed was Kody Hepfer, who was 3-1 on the season in limited action.
Punxsutawney’s four top seeds are Kody Young (27-2) at 125, Seth Spack (25-5) at 135, Nate McGregor (24-7) at 145, and Carl Langley (16-14) at 160.
Bradford managed three number one seeds – Zach Britton (22-3) at 130, Matt Ostrander (27-6) at 140, and Mark Havers (30-2) at 152.
Other top seeds are DuBois’ Garrett Brown (26-4) at 119, and St. Marys’ Joe McLaughlin (19-9) at 189 and heavyweight Kevin Hoy (23-10), also from St. Marys.
Kody Young and Mark Havers are looking to join the exclusive club of four-time district champions.
Action will get underway at the Waldo S. Tippin Gymnasium on the Clarion University campus at 9:30 a.m. with the quarterfinals. The semifinals will take place at noon. The consolation finals will take place at 5:00 p.m. with the Parade of Champions at 6:00 p.m., followed by the AAA and AA finals.
The complete AAA bracket can be found here (courtesy Ridgway’s Bob Imhof, posted on the www.crossfacewrestling.net website):
