JOHNSTOWN — The 2018 edition of the Pennsylvania Junior Wrestling Junior High State Championship was held Saturday March 3 and Sunday March 4 at the Cambria County War Memorial.
After qualifying for the state meet the previous weekend at the Area V Championship in St. Marys High School, eight members of the Clearfield Junior High wrestling team competed in Johnstown.
Four brought home medals to lead the junior Bison to a seventh place tie in the team standings with Kiski Area. Narrowly edging out Southern Columbia 134.5 to 133 was team champion Waynesburg.
Earning fourth place medals were Mark McGonigal at 140 and Oliver Billotte at 187.
McGonigal lost in the round of 16 to eventual state champ Erik Gibson of Forest Hills, then ran off five straight wrestleback wins to reach the third place match where he was defeated by Wesley Barnes of Souther Columbia.
Billotte made it all the way to the semifinals before getting beat by state runner-up Logan Harmon of Apollo Ridge, then won his consy semifinal bout before finishing fourth after a 2-1 loss to Jeffery Meader of Lake Lehman.
Finishing in eighth place were Nolan Barr at 107 and Nick Domico at 187.
Barr lost in the quarterfinals to eventual fifth place finisher Noah Gnibus of Mount Pleasant, then won three in a row to make the medal round before losing his final two matches for an eighth place finish.
Domico lost in the quarterfinals to state champ Brayden Roscosky of Kiski Area then managed to reach the seventh place bout where he was defeated 4-2 by Nicholas Miller of Central Mountain.
Luke Freeland at 124 and Hayden Kovalick at 167 each went 2-2 for the tourney.
Karson Kline went 1-2 at 107 and Evan Davis went 0-2 at 77.
The Curwensville Golden Tide had six wrestlers at the tourney.
Andrew Freyer at 132 and Duane Brady at 157 each won a match before being eliminated, while Jacob Carfley at 82, Spencer Hoover at 102, Nick Fegert at 107, and Matthew Brown at 252 each went 0-2 at the tourney.
