CLEARFIELD — The pairings have been released for the District 4/9 AAA Wrestling Championships and the host Clearfield Bison earned two top seeds.
The tournament inside the Arthur J. Weis Gymnasium on Saturday is the first of three stops on the post season journey before the ride ends in Hershey on March 13.
The top two finishers from the district tourney in Clearfield will advance to the North West Region Tournament in Altoona on February 27.
Juniors Hayden Kovalick (13-2) at 189 and Mark McGonigal (15-3) at 215 are the Bison that are favored to win their respective weight classes.
Kovalick, a district champion last year, and McGonigal, a district champion as a freshman and a runner-up last year, both have byes in to the semifinals.
Four other Bison, all juniors, received number two seeds, and just need to match their seed to advance to the regional tournament.
At 126, Nolan Barr (15-3) will look to improve upon his runner-up finish from a year ago. Barr also has a bye to the semis, where he’ll meet DuBois’ Brendan Orr, who Barr defeated 5-3 in overtime during the dual meet back on January 23.
Luke Freeland (5-5) got a late start to the season due to injury and will look to move up at least one spot from his third place finish as a sophomore. Freeland will face Nicholas Koontz (3-3) from Shikellamy in the quarterfinals.
Karson Kline (14-4) at 145 will be looking for his first district finals appearance as well after placing third as a freshman and fifth as a sophomore. Kline also has a bye to the semifinals.
285 pounder Oliver Billotte (17-1), the defending district champ and PIAA state medal winner (8th) from last year, will be moved in to the semis on the bottom of the bracket as well.
Two Bison garnered number three seeds and will need minor upsets to reach the finals and assure themselves advancement to Altoona.
They are 106 pound sophomore Evan Davis (12-6), a runner-up last year, and freshman Carter Chamberlain (10-7) at 172. Davis will face St. Marys sophomore Isaac Beyer (7-1) and Chamberlain will meet fellow freshman Cale Bastian (12-10) from Selinsgrove in the quarters.
The lone senior on the Bison post-season roster, Justin Hand (11-6) at 132, earned a number four seed and matches up with Andrew Wolfanger (6-2), a freshman from St. Marys in his quarterfinal bout.
Junior Wyatt Reorda (8-10) is a fifth seed at 160 and also has a St. Marys opponent, junior Kaden Snelick (4-3), in his quarterfinal bout.
The last Bison is freshman Will Domico (9-9) at 152. Domico wrestled most of the regular season at 138 and 145, but was pushed up to 152 as his older teammates made their drops for the post season. The sixth seed, Domico has a quarterfinal match up with Shikellamy junior Coltyn Sempko (6-1).
After the finals are over early Saturday evening, some of the third place finishers could get a second shot at moving on to the regional tourney, as there will be some “true second” place matches. Those matches will occur if the runner-up and third place finisher don’t meet up earlier in the tourney. Thus, a “true second” will be determined on the mat, as opposed to being determined by the tournament draw.
District 4’s Williamsport and Selinsgrove tied for the most number of top seeds with four a piece.
Williamsport will have returning district champs Cael Nasdeo (12-0) at 106, Carter Weaver (14-2) at 126, Riley Bower (16-0) at 145, and a district finalist from last year, Roman Morone (15-1) at 152 as their top seeded wrestlers.
Representing Selinsgrove as top seeds will be freshman Ryan Gavason (17-8) at 113, two time district runner-up Aiden Gaugler (27-3) at 132, three time state qualifier and two time district champ Coy Bastian (25-3) at 160, and 2019 state champion and 2020 state runner-up Nate Schon (30-0) at 285. The senior sports a 135-6 career record and has had only one opponent this year make it through a whole match.
District 9’s DuBois and St. Marys have two and one top seed respectively.
DuBois has freshman Davey Aughenbaugh (14-4) at 120 and senior Chandler Ho (18-3) at 138. Ho won the district as a freshman but has had to settle for second the past two years.
St. Marys’ lone top seed is senior Nick Crisp (9-0) at 172. Crisp is looking to reach the finals for the first time in his career, as he has two third pace finishes to his credit.
The complete brackets, and live scoring during the tourney courtesy the FloArena can be found by clicking here.