Bison matmen prep for districts with GNAC home meet

Monday, February 7, 2011
Steve Kodad/McCook Daily Gazette Jake Fahrenbruch (top) of McCook puts Stephen Gnagy of Hastings on his back during third-place final match at 125 pounds at the GNAC wrestling meet at McCook High School Feb. 5. Fahrenbruch won a 12-4 major decision over Gnagy to finish in third place.

The annual Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference wrestling meet offers tough competition in every weight class.

McCook High School hosted the other seven wrestling teams for the rugged 2011 GNAC meet last Saturday. The Bison, competing with several holes in the lineup, finished sixth in the final team standings.

Kearney won the team title with 239 points, followed by Norfolk, a distant second with 164, and North Platte third at 158.5. McCook was sixth with 93 points, just 1.5 points ahead of Lexington.

Steve Kodad/McCook Daily Gazette McCook's Skyler Kalinski (top) controls Kalen Mazankowski of Kearney during 145-pound championship match at the Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference wrestling meet Feb. 5 at the McCook Senior High gym. Kalinski won a 1-0 decision to claim the GNAC gold medal and run his season record to 33-1.

The Bison entered just nine competitors, leaving five weights open as McCook has most of the year. Coach Nick Umscheid's squad advanced three matmen to the championship finals, with senior Skyler Kalinski claiming a gold medal at 145 pounds.

Kalinski battled with Kalen Mazankowski of Kearney in Saturday evening's title bout. Kalinski scored the lone point of the match when Mazankowski gave him an escape to start the third period.

Kalinski's 1-0 win pushed his season mark to 33-1.

Clayton Korus also reached the finals at 119 pounds, but he struggled against Asa Standbury of Kearney in a 7-0 loss to settle for second place. Korus won a 12-1 major decision over Marcos Garcia of Scottsbluff in the semifinals.

Rusty Sullivant also reached the finals at 152 pounds, but he forfeited the title to Grant Holscher of North Platte due to a nagging injury. The McCook staff decided to try and save Sullivant for district competition next weekend. Sullivant won a 4-2 decision in the semifinals over Joey Delancey of Columbus.

Coach Umscheid was pleased with the efforts of his three GNAC finalists.

"Clayton wrestled very well at 119, I'm sure he wished he could have done a little bit better," Umscheid said. "Skyler had a very close match with the kid from Kearney. That's a good wake-up call for Skyler going into districts next week -- lets him know he has to bring his 'A' game every match. He can't just coast. Rusty Sullivant was also in the finals, and he beat a good kid from Columbus in the semifinals.

"To see those three in the finals says a lot about how those guys are wrestling at this time of the year."

One point short

Umscheid said Jake Fahrenbruch narrowly missed a berth in the finals at 125 pounds. Fahrenbruch dropped a 4-3 decision to eventual champ Austin Marshall of Kearney in the semifinals. Fahrenbruch came back to claim third place with a 12-4 major decision victory over Stephen Gnagy of Hastings.

Keldon Osterman claimed a fourth-place medal at 140 pounds. Kyle Groshong (130) and Ross Stewart (285) each finished fifth for the Bison.

"Keldon, Kyle and Ross, on any given day can preform at a very high level," Umscheid said. "But there's also a few more things they need to work on also because things can go the other way real quick, too."

Austin Swartz (160) and Trevor Gleason (215) also competed for the Bison, but both went 0-2.

"Overall it probably wasn't too bad a day team-wise," Umscheid said. "Individually there was a couple matches out there that we could have or should have won."

The Bison head coach knows that the GNAC meet is very tough.

"It's the smallest tournament that we go to team-wise, but the quality of teams that are in it, there's no easy matches," he said. "There's not a lot of quick pins out there. Every match is contested, because every team in our conference is a decent wrestling team."

District meet weekend upcoming

Umscheid hopes the tough weekend competition will help his squad get ready for districts and hopefully state in a couple weeks.

McCook will enter the Class B-4 District meet at Scottsbluff High School Friday and Saturday, Feb. 11-12. First-round matches are set to start Friday at 5 p.m. CST, with action resuming Saturday at 9:30 a.m. CST.

The top four individuals in each weight class at districts qualify for the Class B state meet at the Qwest Center in Omaha Feb. 17-19.

GREATER NEBRASKA ATHLETIC CONFERENCE WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Saturday, Feb. 5 at McCook High School

Team Standings

1. Kearney239
2. Norfolk164
3. North Platte158.5
4. Scottsbluff154
5. Columbus142
6. McCook93
7. Lexington91.5
8. Hastings53

Top Six Individuals

In Each Weight Class

103 Pounds

1. Hunter Bramford, Kearney

2. Brady Mueller, Norfolk

3. Alam Alvarez, Lexington

4. Christian Barazza, Scottsbluff

5. Chris Bailly, Columbus

6. Marcos Estrada, Hastings

112 Pounds

1. Colton Adams, Scottsbluff

2. Aaron Houser, North Platte

3. Ryan Bauer, Kearney

4. Reid Fullner, Columbus

5. Giovanny Rodriguez, Lexington

6. Lucas Rasmussen, Norfolk

119 Pounds

1. Asa Stansbury, Kearney

2. Clayton Korus, McCook

3. Defino Benitez, North Platte

4. Mauricio Calmo, Lexington

5. Austin Peace, Columbus

6. Marcos Garcia, Scottsbluff

125 Pounds

1. Austin Marshall, Kearney

2. Terrance Hessler, Scottsbluff

3. Jake Fahrenbruch, McCook

4. Stephen Gnagy, Hastings

5. Reece Ureste, Lexington

6. Lane Carpenter, North Platte

130 Pounds

1. Jacob Oertle, Kearney

2. Danny Iberra, Lexington

3. Joe Froehner, Columbus

4. Paul Kraye, North Platte

5. Kyle Groshong, McCook

6. Jon Follette, Norfolk

135 Pounds

1. Zach Denney, North Platte

2. Tyler Nation, Scottsbluff

3. Zach Rees, Kearney

4. Blake Andersen, Norfolk

5. Logan Richards, Columbus

6. Kaleb Neugin, Hastings

140 Pounds

1. Noah Gable, Kearney

2. Sheriff Zahra, Norfolk

3. Rory Little, North Platte

4. Keldon Osterman, McCook

5. Josy Richards, Columbus

6. Nick Hall, Lexington

145 Pounds

1. Skyler Kalinski, McCook

2. Kalen Mazankowski, Kearney

3. Robbie Kosmacek, North Platte

4. Mitchell Lienemann, Norfolk

5. Brad Anderson, Hastings

6. Brandon Krichau, Scottsbluff

152 Pounds

1. Grant Holscher, North Platte

2. Rusty Sullivant, McCook

3. Joey Delancey, Columbus

4. Colby Lind, Norfolk

5. Chris Brening, Scottsbluff

6. Isaac Almquist, Kearney

160 Pounds

1. Cody Merchant, Norfolk

2. Jed Weis, Scottsbluff

3. Dalton Thomlison, North Platte

4. Jon Avilez, Lexington

5. Trey Schlender, Kearney

6. Derrick Hammons, Columbus

171 Pounds

1. Willie Schwartzkopf, Scottsbluff

2. Cole Vonderohe, Norfolk

3. Dominic Sorensen, Kearney

4. Matt Geiger, Hastings

5. Weston Greenlee, Columbus

6. Jose Cohetero, Lexington

189 Pounds

1. Josh Kloppel, Columbus

2. Cody Neujahr, Kearney

3. Jesse Henne, North Platte

4. Kolby Aulick, Scottsbluff

5. Jose Muniz, Lexington

6. Jason Newman, Norfolk

215 Pounds

1. Keith Fowler, Norfolk

2. Grady Donohoe, Kearney

3. Avery Montanez, Scottsbluff

4. Keenan Hall, Columbus

5. Steven Torres, North Platte

6. George Tovar, Lexington

285 Pounds

1. Jose Leon, Columbus

2. Ian Dickie, Norfolk

3. Chris Williamson, Hastings

4. Quinton Ross, Kearney

5. Ross Stewart, McCook

6. Edwin Perdomo, Lexington

_

McCook Individual Match Results

119 -- Clayton Korus: first-round bye; major dec. Marcos Garcia, Scottsbluff, 12-1; dec. by Asa Stansbury, Kearney, 7-0. Korus placed second.

125 -- Jake Fahrenbruch: first-round bye; dec. by Austin Marshall, Kearney, 4-3; pinned Lane Carpenter, North Platte, 2:21; major dec. Stephen Gnagy, Hastings, 12-4. Fahrenbruch placed third.

130 -- Kyle Groshong: dec. by Jon Follette, Norfolk, 4-2; pinned Nate Morrow, Hastings, 3:29; dec. by Joe Froehner, Columbus, 8-1; dec. Jon Follette, Norfolk, 5-1. Groshong placed fifth.

140 -- Keldon Osterman: pinned Nick Hall, Lexington, 5:56; dec. by Noah Gable, Kearney, 5-1; dec. Josy Richards, Columbus, 3-0; pinned by Rory Little, North Platte, 1:47. Osterman placed fourth.

145 -- Skyler Kalinski: pinned Nery Cabrera, Lexington, 2:57; dec. Robbie Kosmacek, North Platte, 6-2; dec. Kalen Mazankowski, Kearney, 1-0. Kalinski placed first.

152 -- Rusty Sullivant: first-round bye; dec. Joey Delancey, Columbus, 4-2; lost by injury default to Grant Holscher, North Platte. Sullivant placed second.

160 -- Austin Swartz: pinned by Cody Merchant, Norfolk, 5:40; pinned by Jon Avilez, Lexington, 2:38. Swartz did not place.

215 -- Trevor Gleason: pinned by Keenan Hall, Columbus, 1:40; dec. by George Tovar, Lexington, 9-7. Gleason did not place.

285 -- Ross Stewart: pinned by Chris Williamson, Hastings, 1:52; consolation first-round bye; dec. by Quinton Ross, Kearney, 6-0; dec. Edwin Perdomo, Lexington, 6-3. Stewart placed fifth.

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