Bobcat Grapplers Finish 7th At 22nd Annual Patrick J Morales Memorial Tournament
Photos courtesy Coach Ashby Diaz -Above: the team at Falconer – Front (L-R): Coach LeFay, Head Coach Weber, Gavin Hannold, Zane VanTassel, Logan Powell, Brendon Wright, Kaden Ferguson, Matt Alston. Back (L-R): Sebastian Burkhart, Seth Weckerly, Colten Keihl, Jacob Henry, Josh Beal, Jacob Naser, Mason Gourley, Logan Edmonds, Coach Slike, Coach Diaz.
The Clarion Area Bobcat Wrestling Team had four place winners as they captured 7th place in the 22nd Annual Patrick J Morales Memorial Tournament at Falconer (NY) High School, held Friday and Saturday, January 13th – 14th.
The Top 10 Teams (team points in parentheses) included: 1. Chatauqua Lake (242.5), 2. Corry (234), 3. Falconer (205), 4, Southwestern (156) 5. Pioneer (140), 6. Eisenhower (123.5), 7. Clarion (111), 8. Hamburg (101), 9) Randolph (86), 10. Kane (85.5). Most Outstanding Wrestler was Mason Savitz (172) from Corry.
Bobcats Head Coach Lee Weber shared this summary.
It was a good start to our individual tournament season! In the 2023 Patrick J Morales Tournament, we finished in 7th place out of 30 teams (23 varsity and 7 Junior Varsity). We had a 2nd place winner, Logan Powell at 118, and three 3rd place finishers, Jacob Henry at 145, Mason Gourley at 152 and Josh Beal at 285. Overall, I was very pleased with our 7th place finish with such a young team.
110 Kaden Ferguson, 0-2 but wrestled well until late into the 2nd period for both matches. He is getting tougher to handle!
118 – Grayson Aaron, 0-1 wrestled hard but lost by major decision.
118 – Logan Powell (2nd Place), 3-1 Dominated his first 2 opponents by fall and beat a tough Hamburg wrestler to qualify for the finals! Logan was leading 2-1 with about 20 seconds left but lost control and got reversed and lost by a final score of 6-2. Even though he was in control for over 5 minutes, in wrestling, it only takes 1 moment to lose momentum. That was Logan’s only mistake of the whole tournament. He wrestled very well the last 2 days!
126 – Seth Weckerly, 1-2 started very strong with a fall but lost his next 2 matches.
132 – Zane VanTassel, 1-2 Lost to the top seed but bounced back with a solid win in match 2. Zane was winning in his 3rd match but lost it later in the match.
138 – Brendon Wright, 1-2 He also started out with a bang with a win by fall. He gave the 3rd seeded wrestler all he could handle for 5 minutes but the more experienced opponent caught him late in the match.
145 – Jacob Henry (3rd Place), 4-1 Coming in as the 5th seed, he improved 2 positions. His only loss was to a legger. We will work on that in the near future. In his next 3 tough matches, the scores were close but Jake’s constant pressure wore down his opponents and he came through with wins by falls!
152 – Mason Gourley (3rd Place), 4-1 Mason had a fall in his first match and a WBMD in his second match. In the semi-finals with the score tied at 1-1, he had a controversial call on a takedown against him to fall behind 3-1. Mason fought hard and earned an escape to make it 3-2 but his opponent was able to fight off many of Mason’s shots until he gave up 2 more points on a desperation throw attempt for a final score of 5-2. Mason came back strong to win his last 2 matches to earn a 3rd place finish!
160 – Colten Keihl, 1-2 earned his first varsity win with a pin! Colten has a great attitude. Love having him in the room.
160 – Jacob Naser, 1-2 Jacob is getting much better on his feet. Once he figures out how to wrestle on the mat, he will be a consistent winner for us!
172 – Matt Alston, 0-2 Matt had a tough run of facing very strong wrestlers the past few weeks. This can be difficult for inexperienced wrestlers but Matt is fighting hard with what he knows. With more physical growth and experience, it will be his turn to dominate.
189 – Gavin Hannold, 1-2 Gavin is in a similar boat as Matt. He just needs more experience and strength. He also has a great attitude and pulled out 1 win at the tourney!
215 – Logan Edmonds, 1-2 He lost a couple matches he knew he could have won. Logan knows he didn’t wrestle his best tourney but I know he will come back in and work harder at fixing his flaws! He will bounce back!
285 – Josh Beal (3rd Place), 5-1 Josh dominated everyone in all 5 of his wins. His only loss is when he hooked up with a very confident thrower and Josh got pinned. He will learn from it. I love seeing the many good shots Josh was taking! This is good news for Josh and trouble for others!
(Congratulations, Logan, Jacob, Mason, Josh and the rest of the Bobcats Team!!!! Thanks to Coach Weber for his summary and Coach Diaz for his photos!!)