PHILIPSBURG – The Curwensville Golden Tide wrestling squad opened the 2015-16 season at the Philipsburg-Osceola Mountaineer Tournament and came away with two champions.
Senior and number one seed Shae Bloom took the title at 152 pounds while freshman Blake Passarelli was the surprise of the tournament, winning the 113 pound title as a fourth seed.
Curwensville head coach Dean Swatsworth said afterwards, “I am very proud of Shae (Bloom) and Blake (Passarelli) for the way they handled themselves today. As a young freshman it sure was a thrill to see Blake come out as a champion. He had some close matches but he hung in there to win a title. And, what can you say about Shae? Shae does what Shae does, and does it well.”
As mentioned, Passarelli came in as the number four seed at 113, but in the semifinals knocked off number one seed Curtis Dukes of Altoona 3-0. Passarelli then edged Kurt Smith of New Oxford, 2-1, for the championship.
Bloom defeated Dakota Weitoish of Philipsburg-Osceola 7-3 for his title. Bloom had a fall in the quarterfinals and another in the semi’s.
Golden Tide 195 pounder Hunter Lancaster was seeded first but settled for third place with a fall in 2:29 over Shykim Pitts of Central Dauphin East.
Curwensville also had two wrestlers finish fourth in senior Ben Junod at 182 and junior Eli Jacobs at 170.
Swatsworth then finished saying, “We didn’t come out like I thought we would and should have. We were definitely slow at the beginning and that can be expected at times in your first action of the year. But I was happy that we fought back well after the first round.”
The Golden Tide have almost a two week layoff before hitting the mats again. Curwensville will wrestle Ridgway, at home, on Thursday, December 17.
Listen to the Curwensville -Elker match on WOKW-FM, 102.9, starting at approximately 7 pm.