Kavolick and Billotte Win D4-9 AAA Titles; Ten Bison Qualify for North West Regionals

HYDE —  The Clearfield Bison wrestling team wasn’t able to defend their district title from a year ago, but they did mange to send ten of 12 wrestlers on to Friday and Saturday’s North West Region Tournament at Altoona Area High School. And, though the team title would have been nice, the main goal of advancement was met. The next goal is to finish top-3 at regionals and advance to the PIAA AAA Championships in Hershey on March 5-7.

The DuBois Beavers won the title this year on the strength of three champions and 193.5 points, while Williamsport also had three champs and came in second with 169.5. The Bison were third with 158.

Winning their first titles were sophomores Hayden Kavolick at 170 and Oliver Billotte at 285. A trio of Bison, freshman Evan Davis at 106 and two more sophomores in Nolan Barr at 126 and Mark McGonigal at 170, garnered silver medals.

Sophomore Luke Freeland at 138 and junior Derrick Bender at 113 placed third and fourth respectively.

Fifth place finishers who also qualified for the regionals were sophomore Karson Kline at 145, the lone senior that advanced Brett Zattoni at 182, and junior Matt Bailor at 195.

The two Bison that didn’t make it through were seniors Peyton Smay (4-13) at 132, and JD Graham (5-13) at 160.

Kavolick (24-12), the top seed, pinned his way through the tourney with a first period fall in the semis and a second period fall in the finals. He matched up with the number two seed Raivis Robby (13-11) of St. Marys in the championship finals. Kavolick built up an 8-2 lead midway through the match on the strength of three takedowns and a 2-point nearfall before getting the pin and being the first Clearfield winner in the finals after an 0-3 start to the night.

Also the number one seed, Billotte (32-3) had  a pin in the semis as well, but had to work for his 5-0 finals win over DuBois’ number three seed Alex O’Hara (23-10). Billotte had a takedown halfway through the first period and rode O’Harah for three minutes straight between the last half of the first period and all of the second. Billotte immediately escaped to start the third, got a second takedown 30 seconds later and rode another minute plus to finish out the match.

The 106 final was a topsy-turvy affair for Davis (25-13) against fellow frosh Cael Nasdeo (24-5) of Williamsport. Nasdeo went up 2-0 with a quick takedown, but Davis hit a 5-point move, which led to injury time while Nasdeo was fighting off his back, resulting in, by rule, another back point, giving Davis a 6-2 lead after one period. Nasdeo chose neutral to start the second and picked up another takedown to close the gap to 6-4. Again Davis hit a big 5-point move, nearly pinning Nasdeo on the edge of the mat, but with 10 seconds remaining in the period Nasdeo rolled through and returned the 5-point move favor, making it 11-9 Davis heading in to the final period. Ten seconds in Nasdeo needed more injury time. However after action began again Nesdeo turned and pinned Davis a little over a minute in to the period.

Barr (24-11) was the top seed at 126 and had no problems his first two matches, notching falls in each. In the finals, he was upset by Bradford’s number two seed Lucas Laktash (25-7) when he got caught on his back and pinned in 1:18.

Returning district champ and state qualifier McGonigal (28-6) had a major decision in the quarterfinals and a fall in the semis to reach his second final in two years. Unfortunately, there he ran in to a buzzsaw in returning state champion and NC State recruit Ed Scott (33-0) of DuBois. Scott had three takedowns and McGonigal three escapes before Scott notched his fourth takedown and an 8-3 lead before pinning McGonigal in 1:41. None of Scott’s three opponents made it out of the first period as he added to his District 9 pin record, which now stands at 98, and was ultimately named the tournament’s outstanding wrestler.

At 138, Freeland (23-12) went 3-1 with three pins, including a tie for the quickest fall of the tourney in 11 seconds, as he bettered his number four seed by one spot with his third place finish.

Bender (8-20) was the number five seed in a 5-man bracket, but also bettered his seed by posting a major decision over the number four seed to place fourth.

Kline (23-15) and Bailor (4-9) each had wins in the fifth place “blood round” to earn trips to next week’s tourney, while Zattoni (20-17), who lost twice in overtime in the tourney, received a forfeit in his fifth place match.

Medal round matches courtesy PA-Wrestling.com: