Bison Have Six Placewinners at Top Hat Tourney

WILLIAMSPORT — The Clearfield Bison wrestling team kicked off the 2013-14 campaign with a successful trip to Williamsport for the 40th Annual Top Hat Tournament.

The Bison came back with six placewinners and a 1oth place overall out of 18 participating schools in the team race.

The Bison were led by senior heavyweight Jake Verchick, the number three seed, who was the silver medalist after dropping a 1-0 decision in the finals to top seed Connor Bassett of Montoursville.

Junior Noah Cline also bested his pre-meet seed by one slot at 132 when he placed third after going 4-1 in the tourney. His third place match was a 3-1 victory over Hollidaysburg’s Dalton Long.

At 195, making his varsity debut was sophomore Travis Ogden who was 3-1, then had to default his final two matches to place sixth.

Matching 3-2 records to also place sixth were fellow seniors Mike Beck at 152 and Tristan Caruthers at 170.

Finishing out the medalists for the Bison was 126 pounder Josiah McClarren who went 2-3 to match his eighth seed.

All but one Bison picked up at least one win over the two day season-opening tournament to contribute team points to the 10th place finish.

Complete brackets can be found here courtesy District 4 wrestling: http://d4wrestling.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Top-Hat1.pdf

The Bison will open their dual meet season on Tuesday night when they travel to DuBois to face their District 9 rival Beavers (0-0), who were snowed out in their opener.

Bison Scoreboard: