BUTLER TWP— Butler proved to be the biggest dog in the Brockway Big Dog Wrestling Tournament earlier this week.

The Golden Tornado won the 13-team tournament, tallying 332 points. Runner-up Clearfield had 301 points while St. Marys had 279.

Other participating teams included Penn Cambria, Saegertown, Harbor Creek, Attica (N.Y.), Brookville, Port Allegany, host Brockway, Mercer, Moon and Iroquois.

"This was a very competitive tournament,"Butler coach Scott Stoner said. "Some of those smaller schools up north, those kids get involved in wrestling at a young age."

The Tornado finished fourth in the Brockway tourney in 2006 and finished second last year.

"I love the format they use. That's why we go up there,"Stoner said. "Kids can get a lot of matches in."

The tournament took place Monday and Tuesday. The first day consisted of pool play matches, with each wrestler facing the wrestler in his weight class from each of the other schools in his respective pool.

The second day was a double-elimination tournament.

Butler had 11 of its 14 wrestlers place, with Cole Baxter (13-0) staying unbeaten at 145 pounds by winning his weight class.

The sophomore pinned four of the six opponents he faced. He scored a 4-3 decision over Jaron Licatovich of Brockway in the finals.

"I believe those were the first three points earned against Cole this season,"Stoner said.

Two other Butler wrestlers, sophomores Dillon Weston at 135 pounds and Mike Crawford at 140, respectively, placed second.

Weston won six consecutive matches, five by pins, before losing a 7-6 decision to Adam Armstrong of Saegertown in the finals. Crawford also won six straight matches before getting pinned by Saegertown's Tim Clark in the finals.

"Mike beat that kid in a physical match earlier in the tournament. He just got caught in the first period of the finals,"Stoner said.

Fourth-place finishers for Butler were Brandon Bauer at 103 pounds, Cody Hartman at 130, Dakoda Collins at 152 and Chris White at 189.

Eric Tuck at 125, Matt Pribis at 160 and Marino Quercio at 215 finished fifth. Heavyweight Alex Truman claimed sixth.

"From 103 through 160 pounds, all of our wrestlers were freshmen or sophomores,"Stoner said. "That's pretty significant. These guys are going to be around for a while."

Crawford is 12-2 on the year while Quercio is 12-4.

"We hadn't competed in 10 days before this tournament,"Stoner said. "But a lot of our kids physically outconditioned some of the other kids.

"We've been going hard in the room, but you get tired of going up against the same kid in practice day after day. You start doing a lot of the same stuff all the time."

Butler returns to action Wednesday at Ambridge. The Tornado host Fox Chapel in a key dual match Jan. 8 before competing in the Fort Cherry Duals the following day.

"We're in for a busy week,"Stoner said.