3rd annual

Olean Big 30 Classic

Varsity Wrestling Tournament
@ Olean High School (Section 6)
Tuesday & Wednesday, December 28 & 29, 2004

Final Results

Notes from the Big 30 Wrestling Classic
By Tom Roof
The Times Herald
December 31, 2004

OLEAN — Some leftover notes and quotes from the 3rd Annual Big 30 Wrestling Classic held Wednesday at Olean High:

• Get used to the names you saw in the championship summaries from this year’s tournament.
Of the 30 finalists, 19 were underclassmen, including nine titlists.

While six seniors won titles, there were also four juniors, two sophomores, two freshmen, and one eight-grader — Salamanca’s Josh Becker at 96.

The juniors were Bolivar-Richburg’s Andrew Taylor at 125, Portville’s Matt Burlingame (140), Cameron County’s three-time champ Dustin Mullens (152), and his teammate Paul Baker (171).

Sophomores winning titles were Port Allegany’s Jeff Jones (130) and Coudy’s Kody Frederick (160), and freshman champions were Salamanca’s Matt Metzler (103) and Port Allegany’s Nick Nichols (112).

Meanwhile, a pair of eighth-graders placed second — Fillmore’s Kyle Ackerman (96) and Genesee Valley’s Dan McGillivray (130).

There were also two freshman runners-up (Wellsville’s Mitch Fanton 112, and Cameron’s Taylor Songer, 125); one sophomore (Port’s Shane Martin, 103); and five juniors (B-R’s Mike Sortore, 119, Derrick Dorvitt, 171, and Nick Covert, 189; Olean’s Bryan Orcutt, 135; Pioneer’s Joe Leederman, 140).

• The championship finals in the 14-team tourney went off nearly as expected as 26 of the 30 finalists were seeded either first or second.

Among the 15 titlists, 13 were seeded first with the other two, B-R’s Tyler Taylor at 145, and Port Allegany’s Jeff Jones at 130, seeded second and fifth, respectively.
Three of four seeded wrestlers who missed the finals finished third, while the other wound up fifth.

• Two former Olean Times Herald Big 30 All-Stars were matside as assistant coaches.

At Coudersport, four-time Big 30 All-Star and Pennsylvania state runner-up Aaron Wright is back with the Falcons helping head coach Clay Gooch, while Smethport graduate Rob Cosper, a 1996 selection as a senior on the first-ever Big 30 Team, is back at Bradford High with Matt DeGolier.

Cosper is also the head football coach at Smethport.

• Port Allegany’s 242.5 points in winning the team title was not only the largest total in the three-year history of the tournament, but also gave the Gators a record 66.6 point differential over runner-up Bolivar-Richburg (176 points). Port’s 49.5 point difference over Pioneer in the inaugural 2003 tourney was the previous widest margin.

• Port Allegany has had an ambitious schedule to date and it doesn’t get any easier.
With the Big 30 Classic, Erie McDowell Tournament and Commodore Perry Duals already behind them, the Gators are at the Towanda Duals on Jan. 8 and the Brookville Ultimate Duals Jan. 21-22.