ALTOONA — During the first night of action at the Altoona Area High School Field House, the Clearfield Bison wrestling team performed about as expected.
Clearfield went 5-6 on the night with junior 170-pounder Luke McGonigal the lone survivor to the semifinals.
McGonigal (31-1) was only on the mat for about five minutes as he posted a 15-0 tech fall over Bald Eagle Area’s Dylan Bisel (14-20) in 2:22 in the opening round and then pinned Mifflin County’s Austin Haubrick (18-12) in 2:32 in the quarterfinals.
To reach his first regional final, McGonigal will have to get past the District 10 runner-up, Iilyaz Veysalov (28-8) of Erie McDowell in Saturday afternoon’s semifinal.
At 160, senior Thayne Morgan (16-15) came the closest of the rest of the Bisons to joining McGonigal in the semis. Morgan had a first round fall over General McLane’s John Carrier (16-15), and was in a tight quarterfinal match against Altoona’s Hunter Stoudnour (21-17), ultimately dropping a tough 7-5 loss.
Junior Matt Ryan (26-14) at 120 also was a bout away from the semis after his opening round 17-2 tech fall over Perry’s Keenen Sheffield (19-8). Ryan gave up a 4-point move in the first period of his quarterfinal bout against Hunter Hileman (28-6), and couldn’t get his offense going in a 6-3 loss.
Freshman Peyton Smay (13-16) also managed a first round victory, a 12-11 squeaker over Erie East’s Anthony Moffett (9-13), but then was pinned by the District 10 champ, Andrew Brest (31-4) of General McLane, in the quarters.
Sophomore Trae Kitko (15-4) received an opening round BYE, then was sent to the wrestlebacks by Central Mountain’s Richard Thompson (31-10) by a 6-2 count.
Those four Bison will all be in the second round of
consolations and would need four wins on Saturday to place third and advance to the PIAA AAA State Championships in Hershey. Morgan will tangle with Erie McDowell’s Zennon Bardsley (1-4), while Kitko will face a fmailiar foe in St. Marys’ Joe Kucenski (17-9), who Kitko beat 5-1 in the semifinals of the District 4/9 tourney last week.
Smay’s and Ryan’s opponents will be determined by first round consolation action.
Losing their first matches and being dropped in to the first round of consies, which kicks off Saturday’s action at 10:00 a.m., were sophomore Cole Smay (10-17) at 113 and senior Steven Sawyer (14-14) at 182.
Smay will face Erie McDowell’s Hayden Butterfield (17-15) and Sawyer will face Warren’s Liam Stevenson.
Bison junior 152 pounder Hunter Wright was slated to compete, but suffered a season ending injury prior to last week’s District 4/9 tournament. Wright finishes his season with a 24-12 record and will take a 35-28 career record in to his senior season next year.
The Bison are tied for 13th place with St. Marys with 17 team points. Erie Prep is the day one leader with 52 points, while the top team from District 9 is DuBois in second with 35 points.
Complete results can be found here, courtesy PA-Wrestling.com.