Clarion Elementary Wrestlers Finish 3rd In 12th Annual Lenny Ferraro Memorial Tournament (01/22/14)
The Clarion Area Elementary Wrestling Team participated in the 12th Annual Lenny Ferraro Open and Novice Memorial Wrestling Tournament, at Brookville High School, on Sunday. The Tournament marked the first time, in a while, that the Bobcats were able to compete on the team level and they finished in 3rd Place, in the Novice Division.
(Photos submitted by Dave Smail)
Clarion Elementary Wrestlers
The young Bobcat grapplers actually finished in a three-way tie for 1st in the points standings, with Curwensville and Kittanning, with each team amassing 19 points. Curwensville was crowned Champions on tiebreakers, by virtue of having the most 1st and 2nd place winners. Kittanning finished second, with Clarion finishing third.
Coach Dave Smail shares this account:
Another great week for our elementary wrestlers! Our 4th place finishers, Hayden Weber, Brady Pierce, and Chase Makray, gave gutsy performances by coming back from early defeats. Hayden, fighting through the tears, mustered enough courage to get through the tournament. Brady had a couple of close losses that could have gone either way. Chase, coming back to the wrestling scene, is very impressive at the heavyweight division.
Our 3rd place finishers, Derek Smail, Logan Powell, and Ben Smith, showed their determination by winning tough 3rd place matches. Derek wrestled up an age division and was still able to handle most of his opponents. Logan is Mr. Intensity and we saw it out there this weekend. Ben is a force to be reckoned with in the Big Boy division.
Our 2nd place finishers, Isaac Lerch, Ashton Rex, Mason Gourley, and Dawson Smail all were very close in earning the 1st place medal. They all wrestled strong matches to very good wrestlers. Dawson, one of our hardest workers, battle his way to the finals. Mason, lost a heart breaker in overtime. Ashton came back in 2 matches, to pin his opponent in the last period. You never know what will happen if you wrestle all 3 periods. And Isaac, wrestling in his 1st tournament this year, showed he is very capable of wrestling with the finalists.
And finally, our 1st place finishers were Noah Harrison and Owen Reinsel. Owen wrestled state quality wrestlers and ended up tying with 2 other wrestlers but won by criteria by scoring more points than the other two. Owen is one of our more accomplished wrestlers and he is continuing to improve each week. Noah, in only his second season, is wrestling like a seasoned veteran. One of our more powerful wrestlers, he dominated his weight class by winning 15-7 in the finals.
Others that participated were Briggs and Braylon Beckwith, Alex Barrett, Hayden Hindman, Kameron Kerle, Kwynton Leadbetter, Jacob Smith, and Ethan Rex. They all showed great courage for stepping onto the mat and we saw the improvement by the way they wrestled.
As a 10 person team that we entered, we had 5 finalists: one 1st, two 3rds, and two 4ths. So, 9 out of 10 finished in the top 4 places.
1st – Owen Reinsel and Noah Harrison
2nd – Dawson Smail, Mason Gourley, Ashton Rex, Isaac Lerch
3rd – Derek Smail, Logan Powell, Ben Smith
4th – Hayden Weber, Brady Pierce, Chase Makray
Great Job Bobcats!
(Thanks to Coach Smail for this summary.)