HYDE — Team wrestling is now over for the 2019-20 season and individual goals take over. The post-season march to Hershey for the PIAA State Wrestling Championships begins for Clearfield and the rest of the District 4-9 AAA wrestlers on Saturday in the Arthur J. Weis Gymnasium.
The top-5 finishers from each AAA weight class will advance to the Northwest Region at the Altoona Area High School Field House on February 28 and 29.
The defending team champion, and host, Clearfield Bison are tied with the most number one seeds at three with DuBois and Selinsgrove.
Earning those top seeds for Clearfield are a trio of sophomores – Nolan Barr (22-10) at 126, Hayden Kavolick (22-12) at 170, and Oliver Billotte (30-3) at 285.
Bison freshman Evan Davis (23-12) and sophomore Mark McGonigal (26-5) received second seeds.
Sophomore Karson Kline (21-13) is seeded third at 145. Fourth seeds went to sophomore Luke Freeland (20-11) at 138 and senior Brett Zattoni (19-15) at 182. Junior Derrick Bender (7-18) is fifth seeded at 113.
Other Bison wrestlers competing who did not receive a top-5 seed are senior Peyton Smay (4-11) at 132, senior JD Graham (5-11) at 160 and junior Matt Bailor (2-7) at 195. The hosts have no entrants at 120 nor 220.
McGonigal is one of five returning district champions from a year ago. Barr and Kline were third a year ago, while Zattoni was fifth, and Freeland was a sixth place finisher.
The other four returning District 4-9 champions from last year are DuBois’ Trent Donahue and Ed Scott, Shikellamy’s Cade Balestrini and Selinsgrove’s Nate Schon. Scott and Schon went on to PIAA state titles, while Donahue placed sixth, Balestrini placed seventh, and McGonigal was a state qualifier.
This year’s top seeds are as follows: Cael Nasdeo (22-5) at 106 from Williamsport, Brendan Orr (20-10) at 113 from DuBois, Aiden Gaugler (27-5) at 120 from Selinsgrove, Barr at 120, Donahue (25-6) at 132, Balestrini (26-3) at 138, Roman Morrone (27-8) at 145 from Williamsport, Scott (30-0) at 152, Coy Bastian (29-2) at 160 from Selinsgrove, Kavolick at 170, Derek Sunafrank ((22-6) at 182 from Bradford, Jeremy Garthwaite (24-4) at 195 from St. Marys, Schon (30-0) at 220, and Billotte at 285.
Action gets under way at 9:00 am with preliminary and quarterfinal action, followed immediately by the semifinals and rounds one and two of the wrestlebacks, and then the 5th place matches.
The Parade of Champions and Hall of Fame induction ceremony will kick off the evening session at 4:00 pm, with the championship and third place matches beginning at 4:20.
For the complete AAA bracket: Click Here