HERSHEY — Each Clearfield Bison wrestler won one match during Thursday’s opening round at the 2024 PIAA AA State Championship, enabling each of them to advance to Friday morning’s second round.
The 4-2 record for the day enabled the Bison to be in a tie for eighth place in the team standings. It was a foregone conclusion that the team race would be for third place behind the two favorites, Bishop McCort and Faith Christian Academy, this year’s team dual champion. Those two teams are tied atop the standings with 41.5 points each.
The Bison have 14 points, along with Bald Eagle Area, Berks Catholic, and Trinity.
Going 1-0 and making the 8:00 AM quarterfinals were Brady Collins and Carter Chamberlain.
Going 1-1 and making it to the second round of consolations were Cash Diehl and Ty Aveni.
A 152 pound junior making his third appearance at the state championships, Collins (42-3) made short work of West Perry’s Jenson Hockenberry-Folk (38-15) in his opening round match. Collins was up 6-1 at the end of one period, then built that lead up to 15-1 in the second before picking up a fall in 3:41. One more win during the tournament will tie Collins for the all-time season win record for Clearfield with former heavyweight state champion Sean Owen.
Collins, fourth a year ago at the state tourney, will face one of the other favorites in the quarterfinals in Bishop McCort’s Melvin Miller (54-3). Miller defeated Collins back on January 13 in the finals of the Mid-Winter Mayhem Tourney at IUP by a 3-1 score. A win in the quarters would set Collins up with a semifinal opponent, either Caullin Summers (40-5) of Sharpsville or Cameron Milheim (46-2) of Warrior Run, that he’s already beaten this season.
Chamberlain (32-8), a senior also making his third appearance at the state meet, defeated Faith Christian Academy’s Cody Wagner (32-11) in his opening round match at 189. After a scoreless first period, Chamberlain escaped only a few seconds into the second period to take a 1-0 lead. Almost another two minutes of neutral action led to the third period with the same 1-0 lead for Chamberlain. Wagner escaped quickly to start the third and knot the score, but Chamberlain notched what turned out to be the winning takedown with 1:16 remaining and rode Wagner out for the 3-1 win.
Chamberlain’s semifinal opponent will be Huntingdon’s Andrew McMonagle (44-3). McMonagle, a state qualifier last year, and Chamberlain, a state qualifier last year and an eighth place finisher in AAA as a sophomore, have not met in high school yet, despite Clearfield and Huntingdon wrestling each other during the regular season every year.
Aveni (37-20), a junior making his first state appearance, used a third period escape in his pigtail match against Notre Dame-Green Pond’s Nino Morici (22-18) stand up in a 1-0 shut out victory. In the round of 16, Aveni was then shut out himself, by a 14-0 score, by Southern Columbia’s Mason Barvitskie (33-9). Barvitskie was fifth in the state as a freshman, fourth as a sophomore, and fifth again last year.
The second round consolation opponent for Aveni is Bentworth’s Owen Ivcic (38-11), a state qualifier from a year ago.
Sophomore Cash Diehl’s valiant comeback at 121 in his opening round tilt turned into a heartbreaking 10-9 loss in his first ever state match. Down 6-1 in the first period against Hughesville’s Chase Shaner (38-8), Diehl (31-11) outscored Shaner 9-4 the rest of the way, including making it 6-5 heading into the final period, but fell just short in his comeback attempt.
The first round of consolations pitted Diehl against a familiar foe in Brookville Jared Popson (29-14). Diehl defeated Popson 5-0 in the District 9 finals recently, but dominated him even more on Thursday with an 11-3 major decision, after being up 11-0 late in the match, to extend his season.
Diehl’s second round consolation opponent will be Antonio Boni (36-3) from Central Valley. Boni placed sixth last year as a freshman.
Complete PIAA AA State Championship results can be found by clicking HERE, courtesy Flo Wrestling.
Clearfield’s first day results, courtesy PA-Wrestling.com:
Preliminaries
145 – Ty Aveni dec. Nino Morici (Notre Dame-Green Pond), 1-0
Championship Round 1
121 – Chase Shaner (Hughesville) dec. Cash Diehl, 10-9
145 – Mason Barvitskie (Southern Columbia) maj. dec. Ty Aveni, 14-0
152 – Brady Collins pinned Jenson Hockenberry-Folk (West Perry), 3:41
189 – Carter Chamberlain dec. Cody Wagner (Faith Christian Academy), 3-1
Consolation Round 1
121 – Cash Diehl maj. dec. Jared Popson (Brookville), 11-3
Clearfield wrestlers in bold.