Bison Upset Top Seeded Selinsgrove; Edged by Williamsport at D4-9 Team Wrestling Championships

DUBOIS — At the District 4-9 AAA Team Wrestling Championships at DuBois High School on Saturday, the Clearfield Bison took care of business in their opening match, upset the number one seed in their second dual and almost pulled off a trip to Hershey for the PIAA Team Wrestling Championships this upcoming weekend in their third.

The number four seed Bison beat the five seed St. Marys Flying Dutch for the second time this year, the first time 39-24 and this time 37-29, in the quarterfinals to set up their semifinal matchup against the top seeded Selinsgrove Seals.

The St. Marys match was a back and forth affair that saw six different lead changes and wasn’t decided until Nolan Barr picked up a major decision to give the Bison a 37-23 lead with only two bouts remaining. St. Marys did win the final two bouts to close out the match and tighten the final score.

Picking up falls for the Bison against the Dutch were Luke Freeland and Evan Davis. Brett Zattoni, Oliver Billotte, and Derrick Bender got their wins the easy way, via forfeit, while Mark McGonigal had the lone regular decision.

Next up against Selinsgrove, the Bison got off to a slow start and was down 24-9 at the halfway mark. After seven bouts the lone winners were McGonigal with a second period fall and Hayden Kavolick who had a match winning takedown in the second period and rode out the third period on top in a 3-2 win.

Billotte and Davis each had falls at 285 and 106 to breath some life in to the Bison, setting the score at 24-21. A regular decision loss at 113 kept the Bison within striking distance with four bouts to go.

Barr had his second big win of the day, getting a pin with 10 seconds left in the first period to knot the score at 27.

The Seals got a tech fall at 126, meaning the Bison needed the final two bouts of the dual to get the win.

They got exactly that as Justin Hand came up big with an 8-1 win at 132, setting up the dual’s final bout as the match winner.

Freeland notched his second fall of the day at the 1;34 mark to secure the upset victory 36-32 and send the Bison faithful in to a frenzy.

That win set up a finals match against another District 4 opponent – the Williamsport Millionaires, 37-31 winners over the DuBois Beavers in the other semifinal.

The finals match turned out to be a polar opposite of the semifinals.

The Bison raced out to a 32-3 lead after seven matches, but only managed one win in the second half of the dual and were edged 37-35.

The Bison got pins from McGonigal and Kavolick, two forfeits, to JD Graham and Jon Doran, while Zattoni had a 24-9 tech fall and Billotte had a 5-0 shut out.

The lone Bison to win over the final seven bouts was Barr, whose major decision at 126 gave the Bison a 36-21 lead with three bouts to go.

Hand’s controversial loss by fall, after only being down 6-2 at the time with five seconds remaining in the second period, proved to be the difference. The Bison were also deducted a team point, making it essentially a seven point loss on the scoreboard.

Williamsport got a fall and a major decision to earn the win and the right to represent District 4-9 in the PIAA Team Wrestling Championship.

A trio of Bison sophomores went a perfect 3-0 on the day – Nolan Barr (22-9), Mark McGonigal (25-5), and Oliver Billotte (29-3). Two more sophomores went 2-1, Luke Freeland (19-11) and Hayden Kavolick (22-11). Senior Brett Zattoni (19-14) and the lone Bison freshman, Evan Davis (23-11) also went 2-1.

The Bison (11-6) have one remaining dual meet on their schedule as they will host the Bellefonte Red Raiders (11-5) on Tuesday night at the Art Weiss Gymnasium.