Bobcats’ Take Second Place At 10Th Annual Mercer VFW Wrestling Tournament; Mason Gourley 152LB Champ; Six Other Cats Also Place
All Photos by Coach Ashby Diaz- Above: Front (L-R) Jake Henry, Josh Beal, Mason Gourley, Logan Powell, Logan Edmonds, Ben Aaron. Middle (L-R) Grayson Aaron, Matt Alston, Zane Vantassel, Brenden Wright, Jacob Naser. Back (L-R) Sebastian Burkhart, Seth Weckerly.
The Clarion Area Bobcats did a great job at the 10th Annual Mercer VFW Wrestling Tournament, on Friday and Saturday (January 20th and 21st), as they came away with a Second Place Finish.
The Top 10 Teams (points in parentheses) were: 1. Sharpsville (195), 2. Clarion (146), 3. Sheffield (128), 4. Chartiers-Houston (111), 5. Slippery Rock (97), 6. North Star (90), 7. Coudersport (86), 8. Cochranton (77), 9. Cambridge Springs (76.5), 10. Sharon (76).
Mason Gourley led the way for the Bobcats, winning the Championship at 152. He pinned North Star’s Cayden Turner in 150 in the Quarterfinals, then downed Christian Hacker from Sharon by fall in 2:48, in the Semifinals. He then defeated Sharpsville’s Caullin Summers 3-2 in the Championship Match.
Logan Powell and Josh Beal came away with Second Place Finishes at 114 and 285 respectively.
Logan opened in the Quarterfinals with a win by fall over Garrett Spangler from North Star in 1:21. He followed that with a win by fall in the Semifinals over Elwood City’s Garrett Spangler in 1:17, before dropping the First Place match by fall to Jorden Williams from Chartiers-Valley in 0:51.
Josh won his first two matches by fall, defeating Sharpsville’s Caleb Rogers in 1:42 in the Quarterfinals and Coudersport’s Cooper Rossman in 1:08 in the Semis, before falling to Sharon’s Mike Mazurek 5-0 in the First Place bout.
Jake Henry at 145 and Logan Edmonds at 215 were the Bobcats’ Third Place Finishers.
Jake opened by pinning Ian Mancuso of Youngsville in 3:15, in the Quarterfinals. He fell 9-5 in the Semifinals to Coudersport’s Owen Deutschlander. But he came back with two straight wins by fall, defeating Sharpsville’s Kaden Hoovler in 2:40 of the Consolation Semis and Mancuso in 0:29 of the match for Third Place.
Logan opened with a 7-5 win, in the Quarterfinals, over Max Hernandez from Sharpsville. He fell to Slippery Rock’s Braiden Reich, in a close 10-8 Semifinal match. He came back with two wins, defeating Mauth Maani from Sharon 8-6 in the Consolation Semis and pinning Cochranton’s Noah McMaster in 2:02 of the Third Place match.
Grayson Aaron at 121 and Jacob Naser at 189 were Clarion’s Fourth Place Winners.
Grayson lost by fall, in his Quarterfinal bout to A.J. Barnes from Sheffield in 0:41, but bounced back by winning his next two. In Consolation Round 3, Grayson pinned Youngsville’s James Johnson in 2:20. He then won a 12-4 Major Decision over Knoch’s Matt Frank in the Consolation Semis, before losing by fall in 2:54 to Colton Frazier of North Star in the Third Place match.
Jacob lost by fall in 3:52 to Robert Foster from Slippery Rock in the Quarterfinals. He then pinned Cambridge Springs’ James Sherman in the Consolation Semis, before losing to Foster in the Third Place match.
Brendon Wright finished in Sixth Place at 139 and Matt Alston took Seventh at 172, for the Cats, with both finishing with 2-3 records. Seth Weckerly and Zane VanTassel both had 1-2 records. Sebastion Burkhart competed at 285 as a Junior Varsity wrestler.
Clarion Head Coach Lee Weber said, “All contributed to our 2nd place finish! Mason beat a wrestler he lost to last year at Regionals. And Josh did the same in the semis. (The) kids are getting better all around!”
The Bobcats’ next meet is Thursday (January 26th) at home vs Brockway and then they will compete in the Ultimate Warrior Tournament at West Branch High School in Morrisdale on Friday and Saturday (January 27th and 28th).
(Congratulations to Mason, Logan Powell, Josh, Jake, Logan Edmonds, Grayson and Jacob on your Individual Place Finishes and to the Bobcat Team on your Second Place Finish!!!! Thanks to Coach Diaz for his photos!!)