GROVE CITY — The Curwensville Golden Tide wrestling team, led by tourney champion Zach Holland and sixth place finisher Jake Carfley, scored 79 team points and finished tied for 16th out of 38 teams at the 37th Annual Fred Bell tourney in Grove City over the weekend.
The Glendale Vikings defended their 2019 team title by amassing 177 team points despite being without state champion Brock McMillen for the weekend. District 9’s Kane Wolves were second with 150.5 points.
That was a marked improvement over 2019’s Tide team that finished 30th with 34 team points.
Four Tide wrestlers made it through Friday to compete on Saturday.
Falling one match short of placing were Jake McCracken (18-5) at 170, who was edged 3-1 in the fourth round of consolations by Clarion’s Cutter Boggess and Duane Brady (15-8) who was pinned by Griffen Buzzell from Meadville in the same round.
At 106, Jake Carfley (19-7) had a busy day, needing to wrestle four times to determine his sixth place finish. In the fourth round of wrestlebacks Carfley pinned Glendale’s Nate Storm in 2:55 to assure himself of a spot on the medal stand. He then defeated Conneaut’s Kyle Lantz by an 8-0 score. A loss in the consolation quarterfinals to Cole Bish of Redbank Valley sent Carfley in to the fifth place match. There he was pinned by Falconer’s (NY) Brayden Newman in 4:20 after falling behind 6-2.
Leading the Golden Tide, however, was Zach Holland who remained undefeated on the season at 22-0 after wearing the crown at 138 pounds after only giving up one point in four matches along the way. After a pin and a 4-0 shutout on Friday, Saturday morning’s semifinals saw Holland facing off against Grant Misiura of Glendale. Scoreless through two periods, Holland got an early escape in the third to go up 1-0 and then added a takedown with under a minute to go to lock up the 3-0 win and a trip to the finals. the number one seeded Holland would face the number two seed in Penn Valley’s Clayton Royer. Holland scored the opening takedown 30 seconds in and rode the rest of the period. Royer did escape to a 2-1 deficit in the second period, Holland’s lone point given up in the tourney, while Holland picked up an escape in the third period to set the final.
The Tide (8-8) will be back in action when they travel to Clarion on Tuesday night to face the Bobcats.
