MORRISDALE – The Bison had a successful first night of wrestling at the Ultimate Warrior Invitational hosted by West Branch High School, keeping eight wrestlers alive out of the 11 who are participating.
At the helm of the Bison is senior Jude Pallo, who improved his record to 11-3 with victories over Towanda’s Skyler Allen and Lake Lehman’s Josh Bonomo. Pallo pinned Allen late in the second period, and then bested Bonomo with a commanding 7-1 decision. Pallo will meet up against the number one seed Daniel Yetsick from Ambridge Saturday morning with a trip to the finals on the line. Yetsick has been a two time sectional third place finisher for District 7, but has not yet placed in the Southwest Region tournament.
Remaining alive in the consolation wrestlebacks are freshmen Nolan Barr at 113, Karson Kline at 120, Luke Freeland at 126, and Mark McGonigal 160, junior Brett Zattoni at 182, and seniors Caleb Freeland at 145 and Avry Gisewhite at 285.
Three wrestlers were eliminated for Clearfield in the first day of action. Junior Peyton Smay went 2-2 at 132, while seniors Jonathan Thomas at 106 and Cole Smay at 170 were both winless Friday night.
The Bison herd, in spite of missing three wrestlers this weekend, is currently in 13th place out of 32 teams with 51 points. Southern Columbia is leading the tournament with 127.5 points, while Mifflin County trails in second place with 101.
Wrestling is set to begin at 9 am Saturday with the fourth round of consolations, while the semi-finals will begin firmly at 11. Following the consolation semi-finals, there will then be an intermission before the consolation finals begin at 3:30, with the parade of champions beginning around 5:45.
Full results, courtesy of FloWrestling, can be found here.