MORRISDALE – The Clearfield Bison finished their weekend at the Ultimate Warrior Invitational hosted by West Branch High School, and they finished 18th out of 32 teams with 67 points. The Bison had four place winners overall.
The highest placewinner for the Bison was senior Jude Pallo (12-5). Pallo made it to the semi-finals at 138 pounds Friday night, but met up against buzzsaw Daniel Yetsick from Ambridge Saturday morning. Yetsick majored Pallo 12-1 to advance to the finals.
Pallo then dropped to the consolation semi-finals where he handled Juniata’s Tanner Weiand with a 5-1 decision.
In the consolation finals for third place, Pallo went against Southern Columbia’s Michael Miner. After a scoreless first period, Miner took bottom and got an escape before Pallo took him down. Another escape was awarded to Miner and the third period began with Pallo on bottom. Pallo, nearly escaping, attempted a throw from the bottom position and was caught on his back, surrendering three near fall points. After getting an escape late in the third period, Pallo wasn’t able to take down Miner and settled for the fourth place podium finish.
The next highest placewinner for Clearfield was freshman Mark McGonigal (17-7). McGonigal went 3-3 on the weekend at 160 pounds by besting Greater Latrobe’s Logan Zitterbart, West Branch’s Ethan Yingling, and Jacob Sabol from Richland. In the consi-semifinals, McGonigal was major decisioned by Towanda’s Cooper Mosier 12-4, and in the fifth place bout he lost 7-5 to Bradford’s Colby Keane. McGonigal was taken down three times in his final bout in various scrambles, and in the last 30 seconds was able to get a takedown of his own. McGonigal then cut Keane (gave him an escape), but was unable to get another last second takedown to send the match into overtime.
Freshman Nolan Barr (12-9) went 2-3 on the weekend, posting wins over Mifflin County’s Cade Rishel and Wilson’s Blake Sheridan. Barr wrestled in the consolation finals for seventh place at 113 pounds, but he was cradled and pinned just 11 seconds into the second period against Philipsburg’s Nick Coudriet. Barr placed eighth overall.
Moving up to 120 pounds, freshman Karson Kline (16-10) also placed eighth, going 3-3 and losing 7-4 to Altoona’s Damion Finnegan in the finals. Kline picked up wins over Richland’s Trevor Layton, Johnsonburg’s Cole Norlin, and Juniata’s Cameron Sweigart. In Kline’s consolation finals match, Kline gave up three takedowns to Finnegan, and was awarded with a stall point late in the third period.
Luke Freeland made it to the second day of action at 126 pounds, but on Saturday lost his first match against West Branch’s Tyler Denochick by fall in the first period. The freshman went 3-2 over the weekend, and his record now stands at 14-10.
Senior Caleb Freeland (17-6) did not place at 145 pounds, and went 1-2 on the weekend. Freeland was bested 7-5 on Saturday morning by Mifflin County’s Trey Shoemaker after being up 5-1.
At 182 pounds, junior Brett Zattoni (7-13) went 3-2 on the weekend and did not place. Zattoni lost to Greater Latrobe’s Tyler Ross Saturday morning by a 3-1 score.
Finally, at heavyweight senior Avry Gisewhite (11-11) went 1-2 on the weekend and was pinned by Shippensburg’s Sean Hess in his Saturday morning bout.
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 did not have entries at 152, 195 or 220.
Southern Columbia was crowned the champion of this year’s Ultimate Warrior Tourney, scoring 225.5 points with three champions and 10 place winners overall. In a distant second place was Mifflin County with 179 points.
The Clearfield Bison will now have one week to prepare for the PIAA AAA District IV-IX Dual tournament, held annually at the DuBois Area High School.
Full results, courtesy of FloWrestling, can be found here.
