Thad Westley wins 100th, joins Terry Tate on victory stand at Zeigler Chevrolet Wrestling Tournament

The six schools that have a wrestling program in Blair County and the four wrestling programs from Huntingdon County met on Saturday at the Altoona Fieldhouse for the Second Annual Zeigler Chevrolet Wrestling Tournament. The combined tournament is an offshoot of what was formerly separate county tournaments held by the respective counties.
Claysburg-Kimmel showed the strength of their lineup by claiming three individual champions and placing all 14 of the Bulldog wrestlers in the top seven places at their respective weight class to outclass the competition with 290 points.
Mount Union matched the Bulldogs with three champs and placed 12 wrestlers in the top eight to finish in second place with 231.5 points and Tyrone, which won the inaugural Zeigler tournament in 2003, had two champions and 11 overall placewinners to place third with 214 points. The Eagles were short three wrestlers due to injury and ineligibilities, but placed all 11 who were at the event.
Hollidaysburg was fourth with one champ and 172 points, Huntingdon finished fifth with one champ and 159 points, followed by Southern Huntingdon (one champ) 155.5, Altoona 131, Juniata Valley (two champs) 124, Bellwood-Antis 104 and Central (one champ) 80.5.
The 10 teams were divided into two pools to begin the tournament and each athlete wrestled all other wrestlers in their pool. Then according to number of participants, a semifinals was wrestled with the position of the wrestler in his pool determining the matchups. Finally the winners and losers of those matches were matched up in the finals.
A major highlight of the tournament was Tyrone senior Thad Westley carving out his 100th career victory in the third round. Westley pinned Eric Fye of Huntingdon, in 2:45 to join Bruce Wallace as only the second Tyrone wrestler in the long history of the program to accumulate 100 wins on the mat.
Westley (14-1) drew a bye in the opening round at 135, pinned Dolan Mosser of Claysburg, in 1:37, decked Fye, pinned Hollidaysburg Dustin Ott in 1:16 and then won his first Zeigler title after finishing second last year and as a sophomore in the Blair County Tournament in 2002, by scoring a 17-2 technical fall in 4:21 over Justin Berrier of Southern Huntingdon in the finals.
“This (100th win) is a testament to Thad’s hard work,” said Tyrone coach Blair Packer. “He is dedicated to the sport. Only one other wrestler at Tyrone has won 100 matches. Thad is arguably the hardest worker on our team. This milestone is something that the kids shot for when they set up their goals. Thad has had this in mind for a long time and now he has accomplished it. He is really focused. We are looking for good competition for Thad that will make him better between now and the post season tournament.”
Tyrone junior heavyweight Terry Tate joined Westley on the victory stand with his second straight championship after placing second at the Blair County Tournament in 2002.
Tate (15-1) pinned his way through the tourney to earn the title. Terry opened the act at 275 with a fall over Altoona’s Chris Welles in 0:34, pinned Mike Wilson of Mount Union, in 0:29, Brad Boonie of Juniata Valley in 0:28 and Tyler Narehood of Bellwood-Antis in 1:06 to reach the finals. Tate took a bit longer against Huntingdon’s Joe Gongloff, but the result was the same, showing Gongloff the lights at the 3:25 mark.
“I was really impressed the way Terry went through this tournament,” said Packer.
T. J. Albright (103), Robert Waite (112), David Miller (140) and Heath Walk (171) also wrestled into the finals, but each finished in second place.
Albright (14-5) began with a 9-0 major decision over Snuff Walters of Mount Union, then pinned Shane Evans of Bellwood-Antis in 1:11 and decisioned Southern Huntingdon’s Cody Myers 7-2. In the semifinals, the Eagle freshman pinned Kelly Sell of Claysburg to reach the championship finals. T. J. fought a tough match, but was out-pointed by Doug Ritchey of Central, 8-5.
Waite (12-6) drew a bye in round one, then pinned Brandon Beech of Bellwood-Antis, in 1:47 and Willis Sneath of Juniata Valley, in 3:10 before besting Jason Foor of Southern Huntingdon, 8-5 to reach the finals. Waite ran into pinning machine Jason Grove of Mount Union, who recorded five falls in as many matches to win the 112-pound weight class. Grove pinned Waite with one second remaining in the first period in the final.
Miller (14-4) pinned Imran Sulemankhil of Hollidaysburg, in 1:57 to jumpstart his tournament at 140, won by 18-1 tech fall over Michael Jodon of Southern Huntingdon, in 3:38 and decisioned Chris Meyers of Huntingdon, 15-8. In the semifinals, Dave rolled Johnny Weyandt of Claysburg rolled each other all over the mat, before Miller finally pulled out a 13-12 win. In the finals Shane Hower of Mount Union pinned Miller for the title in 4:20.
Walk (10-5) pinned Jason Bartlebaugh of Juniata Valley, in 2:47, majored John Starr of Mount Union, 14-2 and decked Claysburg’s Bobby Ciaverella with two seconds to wrestle in the third period. Heath won a tough 4-2 decision over Dwayne Cherry of Bellwood-Antis in the semifinals, before dropping a 6-1 match to Hollidaysburg’s Brian Shaw, who moved up from a third place finish a year ago to cop the 171-pound title in 2004.
Bellwood-Antis welcomed the return of 125-pounder Will Edwards. Edwards (4-1) got his first action of the 2003-04 wrestling season in the Zeigler Tournament and was the Blue Devils’ highest placer edging the Eagles’ Dane McCloskey 4-2 in the consolation battle for third place. Will pinned Josh Feathers of Central, in 0:28, decisioned Altoona’s Phil Friedenberger 7-5 and pinned Bryant Yohn of Southern Huntingdon, in 0:56. In round four, Edwards dropped a 5-1 match to Aaron Doroba to drop into the consy match for third place.
“Will had a good day,” said Bellwood-Antis coach Ron Wilson. “For his first time out, I think that was a good showing. Even the one that he lost, he was in the match the whole time.”
Dwayne Cherry (171) and Tyler Narehood (275) lost consolation matches to finish fourth for the Blue Devils.
Cherry (6-6) pinned Josh Bender of Altoona, in 4:28 and Anthony Panosetti of Southern Huntingdon in 2:39 before getting pinned by eventual 171-pound champ Brian Shaw of Hollidaysburg in 5:19. In the semifinals, Heath Walk decisioned Cherry 4-2 and in the consifinals, Bobby Ciaverella doubled up the B-A junior 8-4.
Narehood (7-5) opened his tourney by edging Mike Wilson of Mount Union 2-1 then pinned Brad Boonie of Juniata Valley, in 1:08 and Chris Welles of Altoona, in 1:23 before running into Terry Tate. The Eagle 275-pounder turned Narehood for the fall in 1:06. In the consolation finals for third place, Anthony Paris pinned the Bellwood-Antis freshman in 4:41.
Tyrone’s McCloskey brothers were singled out by Packer for their performances at the Zeigler Tournament.
“We expect Thad and Terry to do well in every tournament and dual meet,” said Packer. “But both Sam and Dane McCloskey had really good tournaments.”
Sam McCloskey finished fourth at 125 and very nearly pulled off the upset of the young season in the fourth round. McCloskey (6-8) pinned Jason Winters of Hollidaysburg, in 3:12 to begin his tournament and followed that up by decking Mount Union’s Steve Hanes in 1:52. Then lightning almost struck. Sam took PIAA state placewinner Brock Scott of Juniata Valley, into overtime, before Scott was able to register a takedown to win 12-10 squeaker. In the consolation finals, McCloskey dropped a 4-2 decision to the Blue Devils’ Will Edwards.
Dane McCloskey, who very quietly has compiled a 14-3 mark thus far, finished third at 130. McCloskey opened with a 3:27 fall over Bellwood-Antis sophomore Dustin Harris and pinned Luke Hammaker of Central, in 3:54, then was edged by Claysburg’s Ryan McIntyre 5-4. In the third place consolations, Dane turned Nathaniel Barroner of Hollidaysburg, for two back points to just beat the third-period buzzer for a 6-5 win.
Bellwood-Antis received fifth place finishes from Eli Colyer (119) and Josh Ervine (135).
Colyer (7-4) was pinned by Dave Grove of Mount Union, in 5:36, in the opening match of the tourney for the B-A sophomore. After a bye, Eli ran into top seed and eventual 119-pound champ Adam Whetstone of Claysburg and was pinned in 1:02. Colyer pinned Nathan Stains of Southern Huntingdon in the semis and majored Tyrone’s Josh Hunter 14-6 in the fifth-place consolation final.
Ervine (7-3) lost two matches , each by two points, his first round match to Hollidaysburg’s Dustin Ott in overtime 6-4 and third round tussle to Justin Berrier of Southern Huntingdon 4-2. In between Ervine pinned Central’s Vince Garlock in 4:47. In the finals for fifth, Josh jumped out to a big lead and held on to edge Dolan Mosser of Claysburg, 7-6.
“We did pretty well for a young group of kids,” said Wilson, whose Blue Devils improved one place and scored 12 more points than in the 2003 tournament. “I think we are getting better. It’s just taking time. We lost some matches today that we could have won, hopefully would have won, with more experience. We are into the part of our schedule where we wrestle teams our own size. Hopefully we can ghet a couple of wins in the next couple weeks.”
B-A junior Ron Colyer (152) won two matches at the Zeigler Tournament and teammates Shane Evans (103), Brandon Beech (112) and Dustin Harris (130) and Eagles Josh Hunter (119) and Justin Clark (189) each won one match.