CLEARFIELD — Luckily for the Curwensville Golden Tide wrestling team, the seeds don’t determine the outcome of tournaments. If that was the case, only one Tide wrestler would be competing at next Saturday’s North West AA Regional tournament. That one wrestler, freshman Ryder Kuklinskie, matched his second seed and will advance, but he will be joined by three teammates that beat their seed numbers and will be advancing as well.
The Tide went 19-17 overall at the tourney to finish sixth, with 95.5 points, in a 13-team field. The Brookville Raiders won the team title with 174 points, besting runner-up Port Allegany by 20.
The Golden Tide contingent will be led by 113 pound District Champion Jake Carfley, runner-up Kuklinskie at 132, and two third place finishers, Nik Fegert at 126 and Logan Aughenbaugh at 145.
Those four are all underclassmen. Unfortunately, both Golden Tide senior wrestlers fell one win short of advancement and had to settle for fourth place. Jake McCracken (5-7 on the season) went 3-2 at 189 and finished his career with a 66-40 record. HIs best finish at districts was last year when he was runner-up. 215 pounder Duane Brady (6-4) went 2-2 and finished up his career at 41-29.
Carfley (8-1), a junior who was a fourth place finisher a year ago, knocked off Johnsonburg’s undefeated top seed Wyatt Shaffer 7-5 in the tie-breaker2 of the semifinals and pinned Kane’s Ethan Illerbrun in 2:54 of the finals after being up 4-0 at the time.
Freshman Ryder Kuklinskie (7-1) entered the tourney undefeated and won two narrow decisions, 6-3 and 3-2, before running into Redbank Valley senior Trenten Rupp (11-1) in the finals and was defeated by a 10-1 count.
At 126, six seed Nik Fegert (7-3) defeated the number three and four seeds, while losing to the two seed on his way to his third place finish.
Freshman Logan Aughenbaugh at 145 entered the tourney at 3-3 and the seventh seed. After losing his first bout, Aughenbaugh (6-4) ran off three straight wins to finish in third place and move on to Sharon next week.
Other Tide wrestlers that competed were sophomore Chase Irwin (3-7), who went 2-2 at 160, junior Mitchell Sutika (1-7) was 1-2 at 152, and 106 pound sophomore Damian Brady (2-6) at 106, junior Zach Shaffer (4-4) at 138, and 172 pound junior Dylan Harmic (0-4), each of whom went 0-2.
Out of the 13 first seeds. eight took home titles, while four reached the finals and were defeated.
For a look at random pictures of the D4/9 AAA and D9AA tourney click HERE (photos courtesy Alise Barr).
Complete District 9 AA results can be found HERE, courtesy PA-Wrestling.com.
Championship and consolation finals results courtesy PA-Wrestling.com….
| Championship Finals | |
| 106 | Weston Pisarchick, Brockway, dec. Cayden Walter, Brookville, 5-1 |
| 113 | Jacob Carfley, Curwensville, pinned Ethan Illerbrun, Kane, 2:54 |
| 120 | Owen Reinsel, Brookville, pinned Chase Weimer, Port Allegany, 1:24 |
| 126 | Braedon Johnson, Port Allegany, pinned Mark Palmer, Brockway, 3:34 |
| 132 | Trenten Rupp, Redbank Valley, maj. dec. Ryder Kuklinskie, Curwensville, 10-1 SV |
| 138 | Nolan Shaffer, Johnsonburg, dec. Harley Morris, Kane, 9-3 |
| 145 | Isaiah Caden, Port Allegany, pinned Dalton Stahli, Johnsonburg, 5:10 |
| 152 | Taro Tanaka, Port Allegany, dec. Kaden Dennis, Johnsonburg, 3-1 |
| 160 | Cole Casilio, Johnsonburg, won by inj. default over Wyatt Griffin, Brookville |
| 172 | Noah Bash, Brockway, dec. Jackson Zimmerman, Brookville, 5-4 |
| 189 | Ethan Finch, Sheffield, pinned Hudson Martz, Redbank Valley, 1:30 |
| 215 | Bryce Rafferty, Brookville, dec. Aiden Gardner, Redbank Valley, 8-4 |
| 285 | Nathan Taylor, Brookville, pinned Justin Young, Port Allegany, 2:55 |
| Third Place | |
| 106 | Daniel Evans, Redbank Valley, pinned Chase Kyler, Sheffield, 0:55 |
| 113 | Cole Bish, Redbank Valley, dec. Jared Popson, Brookville, 7-0 |
| 120 | Ridge Cook, Redbank Valley, pinned Alex Bechakas, Kane, 3:56 |
| 126 | Nik Fegert, Curwensville, maj. dec. Anthony Maiure, Cranberry, 13-4 |
| 132 | Rayce Milliard, Johnsonburg, dec. Brecken Cieleski, Brookville, 7-2 SV |
| 138 | Scott Fuller, Port Allegany, pinned Dylan Bash, Brockway, 2:38 |
| 145 | Logan Augenbaugh, Curwensville, pinned Dalton Bish, Redbank Valley, 4:44 |
| 152 | Luke Ely, Kane, dec. Coyha Brown, Brookville, 4-0 |
| 160 | Landon Mead, Sheffield, dec. Jack Smith, Brockway, 4-3 |
| 172 | Cutter Boggess, Clarion, pinned Isaak Baumgarner, Port Allegany, 4:46 |
| 189 | Seth Stewart, Brockway, pinned Jake McCracken, Curwensville, 1:57 |
| 215 | Derek Kallenborn, Port Allegany, pinned Duane Brady, Curwensville, 1:11 |
| 285 | Kobe Bonanno, Redbank Valley, pinned Jacob Kunselman, Ridgway, 2:25 |