Bison Matmen Come Up Short on Senior Night

HYDE — With Senior Recognition celebrations and a chance to even their dual meet record, the Clearfield Bison wrestlers welcomed the visiting Huntingdon Bearcats to the Arthur J. Weiss Gymnasium Thursday evening. The visitors proved to be the better team on the evening, taking a 40-33 victory from the Bison.

The dual meet started at 160 pounds and the Bison immediately found themselves in a hole as they had to forfeit the opening match. Huntingdon’s Seth Baney was more than happy to have his hand raised in victory because it marked his 100th career win.

Things went from bad to worse for the Bison at 170 when senior Zane Morgan (8-9) hurt his shoulder and had to injury default midway through the second period. The Bearcats increased their early lead to 18-0 as nationally ranked, and defending PIAA AA state champion, Jacob Oliver pinned another Bison senior, Steven Sawyer (10-10) in the first period at 182.

The Bison finally got on the scoreboard at 195 pounds when Luke McGonigal notched his 21st win of the season with a third period fall against Alex Mykut. Trailing 5-2 after one period, McGonigal (21-1) turned up the heat the rest of the way to give the Bison their first points of the meet. The Bearcat’s Landon Fisher quickly returned the favor with a 40 second pin against Avry Gisewhite (6-14) at 220 to increase Huntingdon’s lead to 24-6.

The dual meet then got interesting and entertaining for the Bison faithful as they saw their wrestlers run off four straight victories. In a wild bout at 285, Clearfield’s Trae Kitko and Huntingdon’s Brady Shope entered the third period tied 9-9. Kitko (8-1) let it all hang out and tossed the Bearcat to his back, registering a fall at 4:35, cutting the visitors’ lead in half.

Peyton Smay (8-11) followed with his own win at 106, eking out a 3-2 decision over Roland Mills. Cole Smay (8-10) kept things rolling for the Herd at 113 when he flattened Caden Reemer halfway through the second period.

At 120, junior Matt Ryan (18-8) built a commanding 17-4 lead over Chandler Laver but wasn’t settling for anything other than a pin. His determination paid off as he turned and pressed Laver to the mat at 4:49, helping the Bison storm all the way back to take the dual meet lead, 27-24.

The Bearcats evened things up at 126, with Izac Benson’s 11-4 decision over Jude Pallo (7-12), but give credit to the gritty Bison sophomore as he fought off everything Benson could throw at him to keep it to a regular decision, knotting the score at 27-27.

Unfortunately, the Bison would never see the lead again. Huntingdon’s Jacob Wagner pinned Quentin Edwards (3-12) at 132 and teammate Tyler Scott scored a major decision over Clearfield’s Caleb Freeland (7-11) at 138 to give the visitors a 10-point lead.

In search of bonus points, Clearfield’s Hunter Wright (19-9) literally staged wrestling’s answer to a buzzer-beater when with six seconds to go in the match, he locked up a cement mixer on Trenton Sheaffer and recorded the fall as the buzzer sounded. The referee had to consult with the scoring table to see if time had expired, but after a brief discussion, awarded Wright the fall in a time of 5:59 plus.

Still needing a bonus point victory for the dual meet win, Clearfield’s Thayne Morgan (9-10) battled hard for three periods but fell a little short, dropping a 5-3 decision to Joe Baily and giving Huntingdon the 40-33 triumph.

With the loss, Clearfield falls to 6-8 on the year while Huntingdon goes to 13-1. The Bison don’t enjoy any rest as they head to Morrisdale Friday and Saturday to take part in the West Branch Ultimate Warrior tournament.

In Junior High action preceding the varsity match, the younger Bison continued their winning ways, defeating Huntingdon 61-27, raising their record to 12-2.