WRESTLING
WILLIAMSPORT — Senior 165-pounder Nolan Barger (Clearfield) avenged his only loss of the season in one of his five wins in the 29th annual Budd Whitehill Duals Friday and Saturday at Lamade Gym that moved him into second place on Lycoming’s all-time wins list and landed him on the All-Tournament Team.
Freshman 197-pounder Travis Ogden (Clearfield) won three of his five bouts for the Warriors, who finished third for the second time in three years by defeating Wisconsin-Eau Claire 25-17 after losing to No. 8-ranked Messiah 24-14 in the semifinals.
The Warriors had ambushed Wesleyan (Conn.) 32-14, Millikin (Ill.) 23-17 and Waynesburg 27-16 on the first day.
Barger, ranked No. 7, pinned Wesleyan’s Aaron Cranston at 1:41, beat Millikin’s Jake Tisza 6-1, major decisioned Waynesburg’s Dan Verhovsek 10-1, edged Messiah’s No. 6-ranked Larry Cannon 3-2 and pinned Wisconsin-Eau Claire’s Toby Mosley at 3:44 for 128 career wins that are second only to teammate and No. 2-ranked Seth Lansberry’s 131.
The falls padded his career total to 40, second to Royce Eyer’s 51 in the Warrior record book, but his biggest win was against Cannon, who had knocked him out of the No. 2 perch in the national rankings with a 6-1 decision in the finals of the season-opening Messiah Tournament.
The difference in their rematch was a first-period takedown.
Barger is 18-0 in duals and 27-1 overall with nine falls, three technical falls and four major decisions.
Ogden improved his rookie season totals to 14-4 for dual meets and 22-8 overall by tech falling Millikin’s Evan Betz 17-0, shutting out Waynesburg’s Adam Rigney 4-0 and major decisioning Wisconsin-Eau Claire’s Cecil Philson 19-8.
His losses were 16-1 to Wesleyan’s Devin Carillo and Messiah’s Kyle Koser 9-5. He lost 13-6 to Koser in his second match of the Messiah Invitational in early November.
Ogden is tied with Barger for the team in lead in falls and tied for second in tech falls with three.
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CLARION — Redshirt senior 149-pounder Jake Keller (Curwensville) earned his second win of the season as Clarion (3-6) defeated West Liberty (W.Va.) 39-3 to complete a double-dual meet sweep in Tippin Gym Sunday.
Keller decisioned Josh Cornell 6-4 for a 2-3 record in duals.
Earlier, he suffered a tough 2-0 overtime loss to Ryan Burkett in the Golden Eagles’ 28-5 victory over Hofstra.
Keller (2-5) also came out on the short end of a close match with Gino Fluri, 5-3, in Clarion’s 25-11 loss to Rider at Lawrenceville, N.J., last Thursday.
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MEN’S BASKETBALL
GREENSBURG — After being named Pitt-Greensburg’s Male Athlete of the Week for the first week of January, sophomore forward Cody Spaid (Clearfield) posted career-highs in points, rebounds and assists for the Bobcats in a pair of Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference losses last week.
The 6-7 rookie came off the bench to score 12 points against La Roche at Pittsburgh Wednesday and grabbed 10 rebounds against Pitt-Bradford in Chambers Hall Saturday. Both were one better than his previous best efforts.
Spaid shared Bobcat scoring honors in the 84-48 lost to La Roche with five field goals in nine attempts and two free throws in four tries. He also was second in rebounds with seven.
Spaid made his fifth start against Pitt-Bradford and pulled down a game-high 10 missed shots, including five under the offensive boards, to go with nine points, four assists, one steal and two blocked shots in a season-high 30 minutes.
The four January performances, 41 points and 31 rebounds, have Spaid No. 1 on the Bobcats (0-16, 0-9) in rebounds with 77 and No. 4 in points with 101 on 38-for-72 shooting with five three-pointers from the field and 20-for-33 shooting at the foul line.
He has been credited with 12 assists, four steals and 11 blocks.
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DUBOIS — Freshman guard Caleb Strouse (Clearfield) saw limited action for Penn State DuBois on a weekend road trip to Eastern Pennsylvania.
The Lions squeezed past Penn State Brandywine 86-84 at Media Friday night and lost 90-72 to Penn State Lehigh Valley at Bethlehem Saturday.
They are 8-6 with a 4-3 Pennsylvania State University Athletic Conference record that has them locked in a three-way tie for fourth place.
Strouse has four points, four rebounds and one steal in six games.
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MEN’S SWIMMING
PITTSBURGH — Sophomore Michael Spencer (Clearfield) won the 50-yard freestyle against Carnegie Mellon and led off for the Westminster 200 free relay foursome that finished second against both opponents in a double dual meet in CMU’s Jared L. Cohon University Center Saturday.
Spencer lowered his season standard in the sprint race to 21.81 seconds, which was good for third place against SUNY Geneso.
His 22.10 split helped the Titan relay quartet to a 1:26.94 time.
Spencer placed sixth in the 100 free in 49.70 seconds and seventh in the 100 backstroke in 58.23 seconds against both teams.
The Titans (4-3) lost 213-77 to Carnegie Mellon an 230-69 to SUNY Geneso.