Luke McGonigal Wins Tool City Tournament; Hunter Wright Impresses Crowd With 3rd Place Finish

MEADVILLE – Concluding the 39th Annual Tool City Wrestling Tournament, Clearfield’s Luke McGonigal captured the gold medal at 195 to lead the Bison to a 14th place finish out of 22 teams.

In spite of being the only wrestler to pin all four of his opponents, McGonigal (12-0) was not awarded the Outstanding Wrestler Award. McGonigal spent a combined 5:31 on the mat over the weekend, winning by fall in the semi-finals over Eisenhower’s fifth seed Matt Huling in 2:15, and then turning Harbor Creek’s third seed Lucas Folmar with a bar and reverse half for the pin in 1:46 in the finals.

The two other place winners for Clearfield were Hunter Wright (7-7), who took third place and Matt Ryan (9-4), who placed sixth. Wright had an outstanding second day, winning four matches in a row in the consolation wrestle-backs. He had wins over the third seed from Boiling Springs, Zach Martin, and the first seed from Shaler Area, Jake Pollak. He beat Martin 5-1 and pinned Pollack in 2:48.

Senior Bison Matt Ryan had a rough second day, dropping three matches in a row. He lost to the eventual champion, Tye Varndell, 7-5 in the semi-finals, and it seemed he was unraveled after that loss the rest of the tourney.

The remaining survivor from day one, junior Caleb Freeland (6-5), lost his first match. He went 1-2 over the weekend.

There were other notable wrestlers for Clearfield at Tool City. 106 Angelo Maines (4-8) went 1-2, 120 Peyton Smay (5-5) went 1-2, 132 Jude Pallo (6-6) went 2-2, 138 Quinten Edwards (3-7) went 1-2, and 220 Avry Gisewhite (6-6) went 2-2.

Seneca Valley won the tournament with 244 points, followed by Boiling Springs in second place with 189 points.

Clearfield (3-3) will wrestle away this week, traveling to Huntingdon on Tuesday, and St. Mary’s on Thursday.

Full brackets, courtesy of Coach Jeff Aveni, can be found here.

Final Team Standings