ALTOONA — The brackets for the Northwest Region AAA wrestling tournament were released on Monday morning; and five of the six Bison qualifiers now know their first round opponent.
Sophomore Logan Gilbert (19-14), the District 4-9 Champion at 113, is the lone Bison to receive a bye when the action commences Friday night at 5:00 p.m. at the Altoona Area High School Fieldhouse. Gilbert’s quarterfinal opponent will be the winner of the Noah Myers (23-11), District 6 fourth place finisher from Mifflin County, versus Ta’Naz Gregory (18-5), the District 10 runner-up out of Erie Cathedral Prep, match.
Fellow sophomore Josiah McClarren (19-15), the District 4-9 fourth place finisher, will tangle with the District 10 runner-up, Josh Caban (23-3) of Erie Strong Vincent in his preliminary bout.
District 4-9 third place finisher, junior Noah Cline (23-8) will face off with DeShon Hill (4-3), the District 8 runner-up from Obama Academy.
At 138, sophomore Tallin Norris (10-15), a District 4-9 fourth place finisher, will meet a District 8 champion, Jordon Oliver (7-6) from Brashear.
The fourth Bison sophomore to qualify for the regional tournament, Travis Ogden (26-11), the District 4-9 runner-up at 182, will wrestle State College’s Cory Dreibelbis (5-4), the fourth place finisher out of District 6.
Finally, the lone Bison senior to make the trip to Altoona, Jake Verchick (23-7), the District 4-9 champion at 285, will hit the resilite against Jason Oakes (19-14), the District 10 third place finisher from Titusville.
Quarterfinal action will take place at 7:15 p.m. on Friday night, right after the 5:00 p.m. preliminary round. There will also be one round of consolations on Friday night at approximately 9:30 p.m.
The top-3 finishers will advance to the PIAA State Wrestling Championships at the Giant Center in Hershey, which begin Thursday March 6.
Full brackets courtesty Escape sports can be found here: http://liveresults.escapesports.com/PIAA/2014-PIAA-Region-NW_AAA.html
