HERSHEY — After losing in the quarterfinals on Friday morning, Clearfield’s Brady Collins ran off four straight wins, including two identical 3-2 scores on Saturday morning, to claim the bronze medal in the 152 pound weight class at the PIAA AA State Wrestling Championships.
He was joined on the medal stand by teammate Carter Chamberlain, who placed sixth at 189.
The third place finish for Collins closed out an historic season, as his 46-4 record includes the season record for wins for a Clearfield Bison. Sean Owen held the record after his 43-1 record his senior year of 2008-09.
In the consolation semifinals, Collins earned a measure of revenge as he beat Grove City’s Cody Hamilton (46-4), who had beaten Collins 5-4 on a late takedown in the Northwest Regional finals a week ago. Collins was down 2-0 as the third period began, but quickly got an escape to cut the lead in half. He then added what proved to be the winning takedown with 42 seconds remaining in the 3-2 victory. Hamilton, a junior, went on to place fifth this year after an eighth place finish a year ago.
In the consolation finals, Collins met up with Montoursville’s Gage Wentzel (45-10), who Collins had beaten 6-4 at the Bison Duals earlier this year. The final score of this match was cut in half from the previous match, as Collins came away with the 3-2 win. Again Collins needed to come from behind to win. Down 1-0 after giving up an escape to start the second period, Collins scored a takedown to take a 2-1 lead at the halfway point of the second period. After riding Wentzel the rest of the period, Collins was on bottom to start the third. He escaped to a 3-1 lead about halfway through and closed out the match on his feet, giving up a late stall point to set the final.
After a 5-1 weekend, with his only loss being an overtime loss to eventual state champions Melvin Miller of Bishop McCort, Collins, only a junior and now with fourth and third place medals on his resume, will take a 119-15 record into his final season. He is only 18 wins away from taking the Clearfield Bison career wins record away from 2006 grad Matt Kyler, who finished his career 136-13.
Chamberlain (34-11) also picked up his second PIAA medal, as he placed eighth as a sophomore at 189 his sophomore year.
A senior, Chamberlain went 0-2 on the final day to even his record at 3-3 for the tournament. He was beaten 7-1 by Bald Eagle Area’s Caleb Close (46-3) in the consolation round of four, the was dealt a 5-2 loss in the fifth place match by Frazier’s Jackson Angelo (39-10).
Chamberlain’s four year record of 116-40 places him tenth on the all-time Clearfield Bison win list, one spot behind teammate Collins and his 117.
Unless the Bison move back to AAA someday, Chamberlain will most likely go down in history as the only Bison to win both a AA and AAA medal in his career.
The Bison’s 4-man contingent of Cash Diehl at 121, Ty Aveni at 145, Collins, and Chamberlain amassed 32.5 team points to finish in 19th place, up 15 spots from a year ago. Faith Christian Academy was first with 167 points as they had nine place winners out of the 13 weight classes. Bishop McCort had the most champions with three and came in second with 151.5 points.
215 pound Rune Lawrence from Frazier won his fourth PIAA title and was named the tournament’s outstanding wrestler.
Clearfield was the top team out of District 9 and was third out of the Northwest Region behind Reynolds and Grove City. District 9 had seven placewinners, with Collins’ third the best performance. The Northwest Region had at least one place winner at every weight class except for 107 and Collins’ bronze was only matched by Chase Bell’s third place finish for Reynolds at 139.
Complete PIAA AA results courtesy PA-Wrestling.com can be found by clicking HERE.