Williamsport – With two wins each on opening night, Bison seniors Caleb Freeland and Avry Gisewhite have punched their tickets into a semi-finals appearance at the Tom Best Memorial Top Hat Tournament.
Caleb Freeland began his senior season with a 16-2 major decision over Williamsport’s Owen Mahon. In the quarter finals, he bested South Western’s Cameron Steven with a 4-1 decision.
Saturday morning, Freeland will wrestle Palisades’ Ben Haubert (3-0), who beat the second seeded Cole Daugherty of Red Lion by a 4-3 score in the pigtails and Central Mountain’s Alonzo Henry 4-1 in the quarter finals to reach the semi-finals. Freeland bested Daugherty in the 2017 Top Hat tournament 9-6 to reach last year’s finals, and he also major decisioned Henry 14-4 in the opening round of the Northwest AAA Regional Tournament in March.
Avry Gisewhite pinned Hughesville’s Hunter Robbins in the pigtails before winning 6-2 against Kaleb Dunlap of Titusville 6-2. Gisewhite will wrestle Central Mountains Jacob Edwards (1-0) Saturday morning. Edwards reached the semi-finals as the number one seed by pinning South Western’s Thomas Morris in exactly one minute. Edwards was the runner-up at 285 last year’s Top Hat Tournament.
Seven other Clearfield wrestlers are still alive in the tournament. Six others reached the quarter-finals, but they all lost and will wrestle in the second round of consolations in the morning. Nate Barr (113), Karson Kline (120), Peyton Smay (126), Luke Freeland (132) Mark McGonigal (160), Nick Domico (195), and Oliver Billotte (220) all went 1-1 on the day. Freeland lost in the pigtail rounds, but picked up a major decision in the wrestle backs to stay alive.
Clearfield currently sits in 11th place out of 21 teams with 54 points. Leading the tournament is Saucon Valley with 96.5 points, but they are being closely tailed by Central Mountain with 96 points.
Wrestling is set to begin at 10 AM Saturday, with the finals beginning at 4 PM. Ticket prices are $5 per session for adults and $3 per session for students.
Full results, courtesy of FloWrestling, can be found here.
