Wildcats Claim 11th Annual Mercer VFW Wrestling Tournament
Central Clarion Wildcat Wrestling photos – Above: 2024 Mercer VFW Champion, Wildcats – Front Row (L-R) Matt Alston, Jake Henry, Grayson Aaron, Wyatt Aaron, Mason Gourley, Logan Powell, Rudy Shetler, Gavin Hannold, Seth Weckerly. Back Row (L-R) Josh Beal, Brendon Wright, Ethan Rex, Jacob Naser.
The Central Clarion Wildcat grapplers won the 11th Annual Mercer VFW Wrestling Tournament, held Friday and Saturday, January 19th and 20th at Mercer Area High School.
The Wildcats, who followed up last year’s second place finish, while still under the Clarion Area banner, took first in the sixteen team field with 168.5 points. The rest of the field included: (2) Fort Cherry 156.0, (3) Laurel 151.5, (4) Cambridge Springs 128.5, (5) Slippery Rock 123.5, (6) Sheffield 110.5, (7) West Branch 104.0, (8) Chartiers-Houston 94.0, (9) North Star 91.0, (10) Sharon 88.5, (11) Coudersport 79.0, (12) Bradford 75.0, (13) West Shamokin 56.0, (14) Seneca 50.0, (15) Mercer 37.0, (16) Youngsville 30.5.
Five Wildcats came away with medals. Logan Powell (133), with a major decision and two pins and Jake Henry (160), with three pins, won their weight classes. Matt Alston (215) finished second, registering two pins. Grayson Aaron (127) had a decision and a technical fall and Josh Beal (285) with three pins claimed thirds.
Other Central Clarion place winners included: Gavin Hannold (215) – fourth place; Wyatt Aaron (121) and Brendon Wright (139) – fifth place; Cody Heller (107) – sixth place; Seth Weckerly (133), Ethan Rex (172) and Rudy Schetler (189) – seventh place; and Kayden Ferguson (114) – eighth.
Wildcats Head Coach Braun Gourley shared his thoughts, We had a very successful trip to Mercer. Last year we finished second and our goal was to improve this year. Again all of our wrestlers made it to the second day of competition. We wrestled better as the day went on Saturday. Jake Henry had a real nice win in the semifinals coming from behind to tie it up and winning in overtime. Grayson Aaron had a tough loss Friday night but wrestled back to take third.
We had three finalist which led to 2 champions. Logan Powell at 133 and Jake Henry at 160 were our champs. Matt Alston was runner up at 215. Josh Beal and Grayson Aaron finished third. The tournament placed the top 8 in each weight class and we had place winners in 11 of the 13 weight classes.
This week we head to our toughest tournament of the year in the Ultimate Warrior tournament in West Branch. There will be 44 schools with lots of very good competition.
(Way to go, Wildcats!!!!)
Link to Wildcat Results
https://www.pa-wrestling.com/hs/teams/centralclarion/tournament_stats.htm?id=6676