Bisons Grapplers Eliminated in D9 AAA Duals

DUBOIS – Clearfield Head Coach Jeff Aveni predicted Thursday that Saturday’s match against St. Mary’s would come down to a handful of tossup bouts. Unfortunately for the Bison, St. Mary’s won almost all the close battles and advanced to the State Duals Championships with a 33-26 victory. “We wrestled hard, we just didn’t get it done. St. Mary’s was just better today,” said Aveni.

Kodie Lowder got the Bison off to a strong start with a dominant 14-1 win at 103 pounds. Lowder racked up two takedowns, a reversal, and eight nearfall points. The Flying Dutch answered immediately, however, with Steve Simchick earning a technical fall over Max VonGunden at 112. Zach Hoy followed with a very quick fall at 119, giving the Dutch an 11-4 lead.

Aveni elected to bump several wrestlers up early in the meet, and that meant Andrew Spicer faced Butch Yetzer at 125. The match was tied 2-2 going into the third, but Yetzer scored an escape and a takedown to win 5-2. The lineup shifts then paid dividends for the bison, however, as Holden Lowe dominated Brent Cousins at 130, winning 12-2 on the strength of three takedowns and four nearfall points. Richie Queen followed with a 35-second fall at 135, tying the match score at 14.

At 140, Derek Danver got off to a quicker start than usual, getting an early takedown and a second-period reversal to win 4-0.  Kasey Casher followed with a key pin at 145, giving the Bison a 23-14 lead and at that point it looked like the meet might go Clearfield’s way. Beginning at 152, however, St. Mary’s bumped their wrestlers up and the strategy worked to perfection. St. Mary’s won every bout from 152 to 215, winning three decisions, a major, and a fall at 215 that sealed the meet for the Dutch. “St. Mary’s made a move there in the middle of their lineup, we thought about moving with them but I hate to give up a forfeit. Looking back, it was a great move for them. Losing 171 and 189 was huge for us, those were tossup bouts and winning either one would have changed the outcome.”

Sean Owen finished up the match with a 9-2 decision over Aaron Geis. Geis was never a threat to win the match, but took Owen the full six minutes, only the seventh time Owen has been taken the distance. “[Geis] is real tough to pin, we were trying to work some different stuff there…if the match had still been in doubt I think you’d have seen a little more intensity there from Sean,” said Aveni. Owen improved to 31-1 on the season.

With the win St. Mary’s improves to 16-2 and will compete next weekend at Hershey for the State Duals title. Clearfield drops to 12-5 and will conclude their dual meet season Thursday night at Curwensville.

St. Mary’s – 33

Clearfield – 26

103 Lowder maj. Bowers (SM) 14-1                           0-4

112 Simchick (SM) TF VonGunden 15-0 4:19             5-4

119 Hoy (SM) WBF A. Hill :47                                   11-4

125 Yetzer (SM) dec. Spicer 5-2                                 14-4

130 Lowe maj. Cousins (SM) 12-2                              14-8

135 Queen WBF Sadosky (SM) :35                            14-14

140 Danver dec. Bish (SM) 4-0                                   14-17

145 Casher WBF Ackley (SM) 2:38                            14-23

152 Shipe (SM) dec. Beauseigneur 6-2                        17-23

160 Claar (SM) dec. Hall 5-2                                       20-23  

171 Brem (SM) maj. Zalno 14-2                                  24-23

189 Pyne (SM) dec. Buck 11-7                                   27-23

215 Sadosky (SM) WBF M. Hill 2:16                          33-23

285 Owen dec. Geis (SM) 9-2                                     33-26

Bison records as of 2/2/08: