Bison senior has gold-medal mat dreams

Steve Kodad/McCook Daily Gazette McCook senior Nate Morgan (top) looks over at his coaches as he works to pin Kearney's Andrew Smith in the 119-pound championship match at the Decatur Community Invitational wrestling meet at Oberlin, Kan. last Saturday. Morgan claimed the 100th win of his Bison high school career earlier Saturday. [Click to enlarge]

It took McCook High School senior Nate Morgan over three years to amass 99 victories in a standout prep wrestling career.

It took Morgan just 11 seconds to reach that magical 100th win.

Morgan claimed the 100th win of his prep wrestling career with a fast pin over Kyle Helberg of Hill City, Kan., last Saturday in a 119-pound match at the Decatur Community Invitational at Oberlin, Kan. Morgan pinned Helberg in just 11 seconds.

"I was trying to get the fastest pin (school record)," Morgan said in an interview at the conclusion of Saturday's meet. "I was trying to do that, because I thought that would be kind of cool to get on the100th win, but I couldn't quite get it."

Morgan said Drew Peterson holds the McCook school record for fastest pin in a match at eight seconds.

Morgan is among the top wrestlers in the Nebraska high school ranks this season. Nate enters Thursday night's Bison home dual meet against Hastings with an unbeaten season record. He has been top-ranked in Class B at 119 pounds the entire season, and he will be a favorite to win a gold medal at the Nebraska State High School Wrestling Championships Feb. 18-20 at the Qwest Center in Omaha.

Nate is the son of Mike and Jill Morgan. He is a two-time state meet medalist, finishing second at 103 pounds as a sophomore and third last year at 112.

Morgan lost a 3-2 decision to eventual state champion Zach Cottle of Omaha Skutt Catholic in last year's semifinals, then came back and two two straight matches to place third. The one-point decision was Morgan's only loss last year. In 2008, Morgan lost a 5-0 decision to Cottle in the 103-pound state title match.

Cottle was a senior last year, so Morgan will not have to face his state meet nemesis again this season.

The memories of competing in the state finals, and just missing an undefeated season last year, are fueling Morgan's mat dreams in his final year of high school competition. An undefeated season would be icing on the cake, Nate said, but the ultimate goal is winning that elusive state championship.

"Just to have the feeling that I had my sophomore year of being in the finals -- it's something I regretted last year, that I wanted so bad," Nate said. "I really want to get back to there, and I really want to go undefeated, which would be cool, but I don't need that."

Tough tests at Lexington

Morgan will likely face several tough tests Saturday at the Lexington Invitational, including Andrew Smith of Kearney (Morgan won a 9-0 decision over Smith in the Oberlin meet finals last week). He may also have a rematch with two-time Kansas state champion Francisco Antillion of Scott City, Kan. Morgan beat Antillion in triple-overtime in the finals of the Norton (Kan.) Invite Jan. 9.

"There's a lot other good kids (at Lexington) -- I just need to work hard and train hard to get ready for that," he said.

Morgan was asked the reasons for his wrestling success.

"First of all, I just want to give God all the glory -- he helps me, and I pray before every match," Nate said, "and just working hard, having good practice partners and a good coach, and a lot of off-season wrestling."

Morgan said he spends much of the summer traveling all over the country competing in meets and attending wrestling camps to help hone his mat skills.

McCook head wrestling coach Nick Umscheid said Morgan has been a hard worker and a leader on the Bison team, even in his younger years.

"Nate, ever since he was a freshman, he has had a great work ethic, great personality," Umscheid said. "He's a born leader. He has a lot of great leadership qualities about him. He's a real easy to coach young man. He comes from a good family, good parents.

"A lot of those qualities have rubbed off on a lot of his teammates last year and this year. They see how he works in practice, they see how he trains in the off-season by going to camps and going to off-season tournaments A lot of the other guys strive to get to Nate's level and we see more and more of our guys doing a lot of those things. It used to be I'd have to push them, but Nate's kind of set the bar and taken charge of getting those guys together. It's really helped with our success the last couple years."

Fifth Bison to 100 wins

Morgan became the fifth wrestler in McCook High School history to win 100 career matches.

"Everything that he's gotten, he deserves," Coach Umscheid said. "He's a very talented young man, but he also works hard, too. For him to get 100 wins, it's a great accomplishment. Only four other guys have done it."

Stuart Frazier owns the McCook school record of 149 wins during his Bison career that ended with back-to-back state titles in 2002-03.

Coach Umscheid said Morgan has a target on his back with the perfect record so far this season, but that is probably motivation to the Bison standout.

"He's definitely not going to sneak up on anybody," Umscheid said. "Every time he goes out on the mat, that guy wants to be the one that knocks Nate off his pedestal.

"Everybody's gunning to be the guy that could hopefully beat him. I think that drives him, that motivates him. He's not one to back down from the tough competition. In fact, he gets upset more when there's not tough competition in his bracket on Saturday, or if some teams kind of duck him by not putting out their best wrestlers in a dual against him so they can maybe not take a loss."

Undersized freshman

Morgan wrestled at 103 pounds as a freshman, but Umscheid said he weighed probably 95 pounds or less, so he was giving up quite a bit of weight.Morgan missed qualifying for state in his first year of high school wrestling.

"He was a small 103-pounder," Umscheid said. "He did quite well his freshman year, he had a winning record. He had a lot of techniques and skills, he just didn't have the size and strength to go along with that."

The McCook coach said if Morgan has a weakness, it might be having to face muscular opponents.

"It hasn't been exposed so much this year, but I'd say in the past, where he's had troubles is maybe with his strength," Umscheid said. "This year it doesn't seem to be as quite a problem as it has been in the past. Sometimes just more muscular wrestlers he has had more difficulty with. He's learned to adapt his style of wrestling to not get put in those situations where a stronger wrestler might give him some trouble."

Strengths, weaknesses

Umscheid sees Morgan's main strengths in his balance and mat awareness.

"It's very difficult to score on Nate," Umscheid said. "He always knows where he's at on the mat. He can get out of almost any situation and that comes from natural athletic ability, but it also comes from a lot of experience. He's been in those situations before, he knows how to defend wrestlers pretty well."

Morgan said he thinks his mat strengths are quickness, good conditioning from Bison team workouts and learning extensive techniques during his long hours of off-season work.

Morgan also competes on the McCook cross-country team in the fall along with soccer on the local club team.

Nate said he started wrestling in the local youth program when he was four years old.

"Not hard-core, just a few meets here and there," he said. "I've always liked wrestling. I've looked forward to it every year. I really liked it in junior high -- I realized that I really like this and maybe I can do this in college."

Division I talent

Morgan has NCAA Division I aspirations. He has visited Big 10 Conference power Penn State and has contacted Missouri of the Big 12 Conference. He said the home-state Huskers are a possibility, although he hasn't had contact with the NU coaches.

"Maybe," he said about Nebraska, "But I would kind of like to go somewhere else, experience something else."

The most important experience in Nate Morgan's near future will be next month in Omaha.