The Phoenix Honor Coach Buskirk and Their Seniors with Wins
By Joe Walker
LOGANTON- It was a great wrestling atmosphere on Thursday night, as the fans packed the Sugar Valley Rural Charter School gym to honor a coach and their senior members, along with rooting hard for their teams to be successful and it all turned out the Phoenix way on senior night.
The fans turned out in a big way to honor retiring Phoenix Junior High Head Coach Craig Buskirk, who coached his last match in the Phoenix gym after a long coaching career. “Buzzy” over the past 40-plus years has coached elementary and junior high for Bald Eagle-Nittany, was a head coach for the old Sugar Valley Indians and has been head junior high coach for the Phoenix since they started the team.
There were alumni wrestlers from the Sugar Valley Indians and the Phoenix there, along with a big contingent of fellow wrestlers and coaches from his days at BEN and just a lot of friends in general there to salute him. The Phoenix also played an excellent video before the varsity matches, as it contained a lot of “Buzzy” photos and admiring comments from ex-wrestlers and fellow employees.
To make the night a complete success, the Phoenix junior high won both of their matches, while the Lady Phoenix posted a win over the Lady Green Hornets and then the Phoenix varsity team capped off the night with a big win as well.
PHOENIX 54 WELLSBORO 17
The Phoenix boys used five falls and four forfeits to come away with the lopsided 54-17 win over an under-manned Wellsboro Green Hornet squad of head coach Bryce Bitner, who is a former Central Mountain wrestler and football player.
The matched started at 107 and the Phoenix Leroy Straley (107), Hunter Berry (114), Tobias Conoway (121) and Taylor Cantolina (127) all proceeded out onto the mat and received forfeits to put the host up 24-0 before the first bout was wrestled.
The was not bout at 133 pounds, thus the first bout to be wrestled came at 139 pounds and Phoenix senior Jarren McCloskey got the initial takedown and then pinned Mason Nowak in 1:26 of the first period to make it a 30-0 Phoenix lead. The win boosted McCloskey’s record to 22-7 and his career win number 80, as he is currently the winningest wrestler in Phoenix history thus far.
Junior Wyatt Conoway (18-11) was not to be outdone, as he got the early takedown and then pinned Wellsboros’ Reed Richardson in :53 seconds of the first period and made it a 36-0 Phoenix lead after the 145 pound bout. Junior Dakota Jodun built up a 9-4 lead and then pinned Wyatt Kilburn in 31 seconds of the final period to increase the lead to 42-0 wrapped up the dual meet win for the host.
Senior Thayne Jefferies (8-4) really brought the home crowd to their feet when he proved that you never give up in a match. Jefferies pinned the Green Hornets’ Silas Mickey (11-9) in 31 seconds of the final period. The big thing about the fall was that Mickey was dominating Jefferies to the score of 13-2, when Jefferies reversed and pinned the Green Hornet, putting the home crowd into a frenzy, making it a 48-0 Phoenix lead after 160 pounds.
The Green Hornets finally got on the scoreboard at 172, as Even Ingerick received a forfeit and then Wellsboro standout Ryan Bowen (23-3) registered an 18-2 tech fall over Brandon Galentine (6-18) at 189 pounds, setting the score at 48-11.
Phoenix senior Lincoln Breon (14-4) got a takedown and later pinned Jayden Dumm in 49 seconds of the first period to make it 54-11. The Green Hornets’ Hayden Stevens (18-6) then recorded a fall in 1:35 of the first period over Koda Mincer (17-12) to set the final at 54-17.
“We have always told the kids to wrestle the entire six minutes and tonight Thayne (Jefferies) showed why we keep telling the boys that. The boys really came out aggressive tonight and got a lot of quick falls, which we were able to send “Buzzy” out of his home gym with wins tonight,” commented a happy Phoenix head coach Jason Bilbay after the big night.
The Phoenix improved to 13-8 on the season and are now riding a nine match win streak and will be looking to finish the dual meet season with 10 straight, as they will host the Danville Ironmen on Thursday, Feb 6th in the Phoenix gym.
LADY PHOENIX 30, WELLSBORO 18
It was a dual meet decided by all six pointers, the Lady Phoenix recorded two falls and received three forfeits to come away with the 30-18 win. The first bout was wrestled at 118 pounds and the Lady Phoenix sophomore Kohanna Yamashita (10-7) wrestling up two weights from her normal 106 and trailing 8-7 after two periods, took down and pinned Kodi Passmore in 29 seconds of the final period.
Freshman Aaliyah Hopkins (6-10) was trailing 4-0 when she brought down the Lady Hornets’ Kaeyln Peterson (2-12) to her back, but the bout was stopped and unfortunately Peterson injured her arm during the move and was forced to default 23 seconds into the second period.
Like Hopkins and Yamashita, sophomore Evie Andrus (12-9) moved up a weight to 130 and was pinned by the Lady Hornets Megan Robbins in 41 seconds of the final period, Robbins was leading 12-6 ast the time of the fall.
The rest of the dual meet was decided by forfeits, as Olivia Johnson (13-8) at 148, Olivia Clester (6-8) at 170 and Marrin Clester (7-6) at 190 received forfeit wins for the Lady Phoenix, while Lady Hornets’ Katherine Whitney (142) and Isla Twoey (100) both received forfeits to set the final at 30-18.
The win improved the Lady Phoenix dual meet record to 3-2 on the season and they will be back in action on Saturday, as they will compete in the Williamsport Girls Wrestling Classic at the Williamsport High School gym. Action will get started at 10 am.
JUNIOR HIGH
The Little Phoenix allowed Coach Buskirk to win his last two matches in the Phoenix gym, as they posted a 51-12 win over the Bucktail Little Bucks of head coach Bruce Ransom. The Little Phoenix then posted a 54-18 win over Wellsboro, while the Little Hornets posted a 31-30 win over the Little Bucks. The match ended tied at 30-30, but Wellsboro won on the criteria of most falls recorded. With their two wins the Little Phoenix are now 6-4 on the season.
In the win over Bucktail, the Little Phoenix recorded five falls in beating the Little Bucks. Winning by falls were Gabriel Standish (122), Cameron Neff (138), Kristian Oliver (145), Bentley Andrus (170) and Brody Rice (190). Brody Swanger (130) won by 14-10 decision, while Austin Bush (101), Bentley Hanscom (108) and Daedrynn Hopkins (155) all won forfeit wins. The Little Bucks’ Angelo Tarantella (115) won by way of a fall and Eli Marks won by way of forfeit at 210 pounds.
