ALTOONA — The Clearfield Bison wrestling team, fresh off of their District 9 title, brought nine wrestlers to the Altoona Area High School Fieldhouse Friday night for the Northwest Region AAA Championships.
They will head in to Saturday morning with eight wrestlers still alive and trying to place in the top three to qualify for the PIAA State Wrestling Championships in Heshey, which begin Thursday March 6.
The Bison went 5-4 in the evening’s opening round.
Picking up falls were juniors Logan Gilbert and Tallin Norris. Freshman Luke McGonigal and junior Travis Ogden earned major decisions, while senior standout Noah Cline won by regular decision.
The sledding was a little tougher in the quarterfinals, as the Bison went 2-3.
At 132 pounds Cline (29-5) defeated Kyle Luben (26-7) of Meadville 3-0. Cline had defeated Luben in last year’s consolation finals to earn the bronze medal and his trip to the state tourney. Cline used a second period escape and a late takedown for his three points. In Saturday’s noon semifinals, Cline, with 94 career wins now, will face off with Bellefonte sophomore Brock Port, the District 6 champion who sports a 30-1 record.
The Bison’s other semifinalist will be Travis Ogden (28-3) at 195. Against Central Mountain’s Luc Long (23-10) in the quarterfinals, Ogden posted a 5-0 win. After a scoreless first period, Ogden reversed for a 2-0 lead heading to the final two minutes. It took Ogden eight seconds to turn Long, and there he stayed for the final 1:52 of the match. In the semifinals, Ogden will also face a familiar opponent in State College’s Cory Dreibelbis (21-13). Dreibelbis defeated Ogden in the opening round of last year’s regional tourney.
Gilbert lost by fall, while both McGonigal and Norris were tech falled to fall in to the second round of consolations, which begin at 10:00 Saturday morning.
There, they will be joined by their three teammates that lost in the opening round and then picked up first round consolation wins.
In unfortunate coincidences, both Josiah McClarren (22-12) at 120 and Zane Morgan (2-2) at 138 advanced by early match injury defaults after notching opening takedowns on their opponents. Both injured wrestlers needed to be taken by ambulance to a local hospital with arm injuries.
After a heartbreaking overtime loss in the opening round, Bison heavyweight Nate Lash (18-13) bounced back with a consolation win as well.
Bison freshman, and first year wrestler, a scrappy Matt Ryan at 106 went 0-2 to finish the year at 11-19.
After day one, the Bison have 18 team points and sit in 11th place out of the 29 teams represented at the tourney. In first place is General McLane with 49.5 points.
Complete results can be found here, courtesy Escape Sports.
