Clearfield Falls to Brookville, 40-28

Jessica Shirey, Team Reporter
January 5, 2012

CLEARFIELD – Although the Clearfield wrestling team dropped its fifth straight dual meet this year, it showed glimpses of improvement during a 40-28 loss to the visiting Brookville Raiders Thursday night at the Arthur J. Weiss Sr. Gymnasium.

The Raiders claimed seven of the 11 bouts wrestled, including four falls and a major decision. Bison Jordan Lancaster earned his team’s lone pin at heavyweight, while teammates Nolan Barger and Kody Mayhew collected forfeits at 145 and 152 pounds, respectively.

“We saw some improvement tonight. We got better performances out of our heavyweights. To an extent, we tried to slow our guys down in order to slow their guys down and sort of let our conditioning pay off,” said head coach Jeff Aveni.

“We did some different things with them and taught them a few lessons here the past couple of days. They had to see to understand . . . We did better up there. We stayed off our backs and in some battles. If you look at the kids they have from 160 up, they have better records than us by far. A lot of those kids are already close to 15 wins.”

The dual meet got under way at 160 pounds, where Raider senior Brett Smith pinned Mike Beck in 1:11. Smith recently earned his 100th career win at Brockway’s Big Dog Tournament and received its Outstanding Wrestler award.

At 171, Brookville’s Taylor Cudworth used four takedowns, posting a 10-2 major decision over Kody Hepfer. In the next bout, Bison Garrett Timko limited Tyler Dombrowski, who entered the dual meet with 15 wins, to a 7-4 decision win.

“We wrestled some solid kids and stayed in the match and scored some points in them, too. It wasn’t like we were out there lying on the bottom the whole time,” Aveni said. “If you stay off your back in the first period, you’re going to have two more periods.

“The longer the match goes on, the more conditioning is going to pay off. And, the one thing I hoped we proved to ourselves tonight is that we are in shape to wrestle six minutes. We just have to make sure it goes that long.”

Brookville’s Logan Stout, now 16-3, pinned sophomore Devin Sinclair in one minute and 17 seconds at 195 pounds, while Jacob Cieleski (10-4) won by fall in 58 seconds over junior Shane Billings at 220, pushing the team scoreboard to 25-0.

However, Lancaster ended the Raiders’ five-bout win streak when he pinned Nathan Nosker at heavyweight. The end came with 10 seconds remaining in the middle stanza.

“We needed Jordan to turn the corner for us, and he did. He went out, stays patient, doesn’t make a mistake, where he ends up in a flop and gets his opportunity on top. He wears the guy down and pins him. That was exactly what we needed out of Jordan,” Aveni said.

“We turned the corner sharp, and we’re stretching it from there. We either needed a major upset in the heavyweights, or to pull out something special there in the lightweights. We didn’t get that to happen, but, overall, I thought we improved. I think we took a big step toward being a better team.”

Clearfield freshman Noah Cline showcased a high tempo offense at 106 pounds, where he dominated Devin Joiner en route a 9-1 major decision. Joiner, also a freshman, entered the dual meet 10-5, while Cline had three wins and four losses.

Cline took down Joiner and nearly had him flattened in the first period. The Bison held a 5-0 advantage after one and then spun behind Joiner for a reversal in the second. After he let Joiner up in the third, Cline garnered in a takedown for the major.

“You know, Noah hasn’t wrestled since before Christmas, but he’s worked his tail off in the room. He’s following a strong line of hardworking lightweights in Kodie Lowder and Shane Peters,” Aveni said.

“Noah is working just like they did the first time they came into the room. Every day, I watch him get better. I see him work harder, and every time he takes the mat, he gets better. He’s going to be a different wrestler come February, too.”

Brookville’s Brady Mineweaser received a forfeit at 113 pounds, which stretched his team’s lead to 31-10 with six bouts remaining.

At 120, Bison Frankie Aveni scored the opening takedown against Raider senior Trey Constable, a returning Class AA District 9 Champion. Constable knotted the bout with a reversal and used a second-period takedown for a 4-2 lead. Aveni escaped and trimmed his deficit to one (4-3) heading into the third.

There, starting in the offensive position, Aveni surrendered another reversal (6-3) to Constable. He escaped with one minute and 22 seconds remaining in the bout. However, Constable took Aveni down, setting the 8-4 final.

“You can’t move up two weight classes and win a lot of matches. You put a kid at his own weight, and all of a sudden, he’s right in the mix of things. That’s a returning District Champ, a real solid kid with probably 25 or 30 wins last year,” Aveni said of Constable.

“Frankie stood toe-to-toe with him, and it was a two-point match. That whistle shot at the end needs to be a little better there. We gave up an easy takedown. We could have hopefully been in a scramble, (where we would have the chance) to come out on top and put that to overtime.”

In the next bout, Clearfield junior Christian Stone hauled in a pair of first-period takedowns, going up 4-1 over Daulton Zimmerman, who entered the dual meet 16-4. The two swapped reversals (6-3) before finishing the bout with two scoreless periods and Zimmerman riding Stone the entire final stanza.

“Christian was working on some stuff on top that he worked on with Matt Kyler over break. He’s trying to get more offense out of his legs. He can ride a guy all day with legs. He could have ridden him, but he wouldn’t have scored any points,” Aveni said. “He was trying to get in position to score points up there and ended up getting reversed.

“We established dominance on our feet early in the match and then we took it to the mat. Zimmerman really wrestled with us on the mat, and I was surprised by that. It was a great performance from the Zimmerman boy. I thought he did a real nice job slowing Christian down.”

Aveni added, “Zimmerman rode Christian for two minutes. One of the things that Christian always has to work on is getting off the bottom. In a lot of big matches, he ends up getting ridden. I just think it’s a mental thing for him on certain days.”

Raider Cole Clever pinned Jonathan Sponsler, who had moved up two weight classes to 132 pounds, with seven seconds left in the first. With the fall, he pushed the Brookville team advantage to 40-13.

At 138, Bison junior Dylan Graham pulled out a 5-3 overtime decision over Jimmy Miller. The Raider entered the bout 8-1 overall, while Graham had five wins and four losses.

Graham entered the third period up 3-0 at which time Miller would escape. Miller converted a takedown with 11 seconds left in the bout, forcing the extra period. At the whistle, Graham needed only one shot attempt about seven seconds in to secure the victory.

“The kid was tough to wrestle. Dylan had some opportunities he missed there. I guess I got frustrated during the match because it was stuff we’ve been doing the past two weeks. Dylan wasn’t capitalizing on it,” Aveni said.

“As soon as he realizes the position he was in, he’s going to realize he could have scored about six takedowns, and that it’d been over long before that. But it was experience paying off. He goes out as a junior, and that kid is a freshman. He takes a shot early, is in deep on a double, locks his hands, gets the takedown and wins the match.”

Barger and Mayhew then had their hands raised in the final two bouts of the night.

Clearfield returns to action this Friday and Saturday at Meadville’s Tool City Tournament. The team returns to dual meet action Tuesday on the road at District 6 rival Bellefonte.

“You’re never happy with a loss, but we took a big step towards getting better. We’re probably through the toughest part of our schedule dual meet-wise. We wrestled two of the best teams in the region and the best District 9 Class AA team,” Aveni said.

“Hey, let’s move on. We’re going to be back next week and wrestling Bellefonte. They are solid and then we have Philipsburg coming up. They are solid. We got some matches coming that are tougher. But I think that we’re more prepared for them now than we were before Christmas.”

Match Results

Back to top