MORRISDALE — After sitting in 10th place after Friday night’s opening rounds, the Clearfield Bison wrestling team had some strong consolation rounds and crowned one champion to move up to seventh place in the team standings of the 28-team 2nd Annual Ultimate Warrior Invitational at West Branch High School.
Winners of last year’s inaugural Ultimate Warrior, the Bison wrestlers scraped together 118 team points to just slide by the host West Branch Warriors, eighth with 114 points, and two other local schools – Moshannon Valley, 10th with 111 points, and Philipsburg-Osceola, 11th with 107.5 points. The team champions was Altoona, who scored 185 points, eclipsing by one half point Clearfield’s total from last year.
Saturday morning’s action began with the third round of consolations where the Bison went 3-4. Being eliminated were Cole Smay (8-12) at 113, Thayne Morgan (12-12) at 152, and Steven Sawyer (10-12) at 170.
Facing elimination or assuring themselves of a medal were Matt Ryan at 120, Caleb Freeland at 138, and Trae Kitko at 285.
The Bison’s two semifinalists then cam up big with wins in decidingly different fashion.
At 145, Hunter Wright trailed the number two seeded Tyler Whiteman of Juniata the entire match, only to score a reversal right at the buzzer at the edge of the meet to move on to the finals with a 7-6 stunner. The finish was reminiscent of Wright’s buzzer beater fall against Huntingdon just two days prior.
At 182, Luke McGonigal just kept doing what he’s done all year for the Bison by pinning Marion Center’s Brad Smith in just 50 seconds to reach his second Ultimate Warrior final.
Back to the consolations where Ryan and Freeland each won to move on to the fifth place medal matches, and Kitko was defeated and had to go to the seventh place medal match.
Matt Ryan (21-11) was then defeated 8-0 by Dom Vadala of Hickory and had to settle for sixth place, matching the place he earned as a 106 pounder last year.
Caleb Freeland was edged 4-2 by Shippensburg’s Ian Reed and also had to settle for sixth. The unseeded Freeland (12-14) picked up five wins in the tourney, the most of any of the Bison wrestlers.
The lone winner in the final round of consolations for Clearfield was Trae Kitko (11-3) who pinned Marion Center’s Tyler Cover, for the second time in two days, to place seventh.
And if you came to the tourney just to see the Bison finalists, you didn’t have to sit in the stands too long.
Seeded sixth, junior Hunter Wright (22-10) continued his upstart season with a great tourney, but was caught in a spladle by BEA’s outstanding freshman wrestler Gage McClenahan and was pinned in 49 seconds.
McGonigal’s final match was even shorter than that, as he took down and stacked Towanda’s Joe Koss in 42 seconds. The win, and fourth pin of the tourney, was the 89th of McGonigal’s career, certainly giving him an excellent shot at reaching the milestone 100 before the end of his junior season.
McGonigal is one of five wrestlers to own two Ultimate Warrior titles, the other four being seniors (Chandler Olson of Shippensburg, Cole Manley of Altoona, Larry Brown of Mo Valley, Cameron Tinner of Shippensburg).
Cole Manley received the George Bainey, Jr. Award as the tourney’s Outstanding Wrestler.
Bald Eagle Area 2-time state champ and PSU 2-time NCAA champion Quentin Wright was in attendance to hand out the awards to all the placewinners.
Click here for complete bracket results courtesy Escape Sports.
The Bison (6-8) will travel to Philipsburg-Osceola on Thursday night to face the Mounties in the 2nd Annual Takedown Cancer Match.
Bison Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| 12/09 & 10 | Top Hat Tourney @ Williamsport | 82 pts. | 14th place |
| 12/13 | @ Bald Eagle Area | 27 – 45 | 0 – 1 |
| 12/15 | DUBOIS | 24 – 43 | 0 – 2 |
| 12/20 | CENTRAL | 45 – 30 | 1 – 2 |
| 12/22 | PUNXSUTAWNEY | 59 – 18 | 2 – 2 |
| 01/04 | @ Penns Valley | 30 – 37 | 2 – 3 |
| 01/06 & 07 | Tool City Tourney @ Meadville | 97 pts. | 10th place |
| 01/10 | HUNTINGDON | ppd. | 2 – 3 |
| 01/12 | ST. MARYS | 30 – 33 | 2 – 4 |
| 01/17 | @ Bellefonte | 19 – 46 | 2 – 5 |
| 01/21 | CLEARFIELD BISON DUALS | ||
| 01/21 | vs. Belle Vernon | 31 – 42 | 2 – 6 |
| 01/21 | vs. Altoona | 24 – 42 | 2 – 7 |
| 01/21 | vs. Port Allegany | 45 – 20 | 3 – 7 |
| 01/21 | vs. West Branch | 42 – 28 | 4 – 7 |
| 01/21 | vs. Williamsport | 44 – 33 | 5 – 7 |
| 01/25 | @ Tyrone | 63 – 18 | 6 – 7 |
| 01/26 | HUNTINGDON | 33 – 40 | 6 – 8 |
| 01/27 & 28 | @ West Branch Tourney | 118 pts. | 7th place |
| 02/02 | @ Philipsburg-Osceola | ||
| 02/04 | District 4/9 Team Duals @ DuBois HS | ||
| 02/25 | District 9 Champs @ Clfd HS | ||
| 03/03 & 04 | Northwest Regionals @ Altoona | ||
| 03/09-11 | PIAA States @ Hershey | ||