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Bison wrestlers 6th at Holdrege tourney
Morgan, Frazier
capture titles
HOLDREGE -- The McCook High School varsity wrestling team traveled to Holdrege Saturday for its first competition of the year.
McCook placed sixth out of 11 teams.
It was a day that had its ups and downs," said McCook wrestling coach Nick Umscheid. "We were able to place five wrestlers overall with two coming home with tournament titles."
Nate Morgan looked very solid out on the mat, said Umscheid. Morgan went 2-0 on the day and won his first high school varsity tournament. He wrestled a returning state placer in the finals from Grand Island NW and pinned him in convincing fashion.
"It was good to see Nate have alot of success yesterday," Umscheid said."He puts in so much time during the off season going to camps and competing in all sorts of tournaments and now that time put in is starting to pay off. He had been beaten by that wrestler last year and came out focused and determine to make sure it didn't happen again."
One of the biggest surprises on the day came at 119 pounds. Rusty Sullivent, who was originally scheduled to wrestle in the junior varsity tournament, was bumped up at the last second to the varsity side and wrestled well.
"Rusty is a freshman and this was his first high school tournament ever," Umscheid said. "We were going to be happy if he won one match all day and he just came out swinging. He looked a little nervous at first in his first match, but once he realized he could match up with these guys he took control.
"His only loss on the day came against a returning state qualifier from Lexington. It was a real nice surprise to see how well he performed and this should give him the much needed confidence the rest of the year."
Another placer for the Bison wrestling team on Saturday came at 171 pounds. Eric Chalupa fought back to a fourth-place finish after suffering a first round loss.
"His best match of the day came against another Grand Island NW wrestler," Umscheid said. "After the first period Eric was down 6-2 and it wasn't looking very promising. But Eric never gives up in a match and as long as he is within 14 points and there is time left on the clock he knows he has a chance to pull out a win. He fought and clawed his way back into the mathc and eventually won 8-7."
Besides Nate Morgan, Sam Frazier also brought home his first ever Holdrege tournament championship.
"Sam was in complete control all day recording three pins on the day," Umscheid said. "Sam was a state medalist last year at 189 pounds. and has jumped up to 215 pounds for this year. He seems to be able to handle the extra weight so far shown by his performance yesterday.
"Next week will be a good challenge for Sam at the Valentine Tournament. He will have some stiffer competition and we'll have a better idea of where he stands at this point in the season against the better wrestlers in the state. But if he wrestles with the mindset he had yesterday this should be a very good year for Sam."
The final placer the Bison was Matt Bair at heavyweight.
"Matt has improved tremendously from last year," Umscheid said. "He has slimmed down some and the loss of weight seems to help with his agility and quickness. He moved very well yesterday recording two pins with his only loss coming to returning state placer Hadley Cooksley from Grand Island Northwest.
"This is Matt's senior year and he has come so close in the past to making it to the state tournament. If he can wrestle like he did yesterday and improve throughout the year we will be seeing Matt in Omaha in February.
"Overall, the team competed well with some guys not wrestling up to there full potential. I believe that if we correct some of the mistakes we made and build off of our strengths, come after Christmas when we will be at full strength this team has the possibility to be a very competitive team."
The Bison junior varsity wrestling team competed very well for their fist meet of the year, said Umscheid.
"Some of them gained some valuable experience that will help them throughout the year," he said. "Up next for the JV team will be McCook's own 9/10 Open Tournament Thursday. We know that these young men will come back and wrestle hard this week and put on a good showing in front of the home crowd."
Holdrege Tournament
Team finish 6th out of 11 teams
Varsity results
103 Nate Morgan 2-0 1st
119 Rusty Sullivent 3-1 3rd
130 Alex Smith 0-2
140 Danten Downing 0-2
145 Brian Weir 1-2
152 Justin Gessleman 0-2
160 Deon Allen 1-2
171 Eric Chalupa 2-2 4th
189 Hank Lichtenwaldt 1-2
215 Sam Frazier 3-0 1st
Hwt. Matt Bair 2-1 2nd
JV results
125 Austin Edwards 1-2 3rd
125 Keldon Osterman 2-0 1st
135 Tyler Rogers 1-2
145 Andy Smith 2-0 1st
152 Ridge Abbott 0-2
152 Jeff Phelps 2-1 3rd
189 Teagen Spatz 0-2
189 Greg Younger 2-1 2nd
215 Ross Stewart 0-2
215 Chance Evans 2-2 4th
Southern Valley Tournament -- Southern Valley took fourth place and Arapahoe seventh at Southern Valley's 2007 wrestling tournament on Friday.
Franklin won with 123 points, followed by Elwood with 118, Red Cloud/Blue Hill with 114.50, Southern Valley with 107, Axtell with 92, Loomis/Bertrand with 79, Arapahoe with 77, Norton JVs with 72, Alma with 70, South Central Univied with 45, Wilcox-Hildreth with 1 point and Southern Valley JVs with 0.
Individual matches:
103 -- Trevor Popple of Axtell pinned Colby Poage of the Norton JVs in 2:46.
Mason Araujo of Elwood won by a major decision over Molly Glur of Southern Valley High School 1--2.
112 -- Mikell Johnston of Alma won by a major decision over Christian William of South Central Unified with a major decision of 13-3.
Jesse Hayes of Southern Valley pinned Toby Thompson of Loomis-Bertrand in 2:20.
119 -- Brett Terrell of Norton JV's pinned David Smith of Axtell in 1:14.
Brock Hanson of Red Cloud/Blue Hill decisioned Michael Daake of Elwood 4-0.
125 -- Taylor Premer of Red Cloud/Blue Hill pinned Michael Stapleton of Arapahoe in 3:08.
Travis Arujo of Elwood pinnned Caleb Roberts of Alma in 0:40.
130 -- Robert Kring of Axtell pinnned Ryan Woodfield of Elwood in 1:23.
Garrett Rubendall of Franklin pinned Jaed Krueger of Red Cloud/Blue Hill.
135 -- Josh Morten of Loomis/Bertrand pinned Derek Koch of Axtell in 2:38.
Brett Rupprecht of Red Cloud/Blue Hill decisioned Spencer Shirk of Norton JV's -2.
140 -- Kaid McKenna of Norton JV's pinned Brett Roberts of Axtell in 1:48.
Ethan Kahrs of Franklin pinned Gage Gregg of Loomis Bertrand in 3:37.
145 -- Brock Dawson of Southern Valley pinned Andy Gardner of Arapahoe in 3:37.
Chacse Henderson of Red Cloud/Blue Hill pinned Jacob Stoelting of Southern Valley in 1:39.
152 -- Aaron Davis of Franklin won y a major decision 11:3 over Nathan Petska of Red Cloub/Blue Hill.
Jacob Stoelting of Southern Valley pinned Nathan Petska of Red Cloud/Blue Hill 1:39.
160 -- Logan James of Franklin pinned Dane tenBensel of Arapahoe in 0:49.
Cody Barnes of Elwood won a major decision 14:3 over Corey Loenemann.
171 -- Jesse Callahan of Axtell pinned Hawk Ellis of Arapahoe in 0:49.
Russ Walton of Franklin pinned Chris Foster of Southern Valley in 3:19.
189 -- Tyler Cook of Norton JV's decisioned Kyle Freeland of Loomis bertrand 8-5.
215 -- Jacob Morten of Loomis Bertrand pinned Ryan Musgrave of South Central in 3:32.
Ethan Jenkins of Arapahoe pinned Jutin Swedburg of Axtell in 5:16.
285 -- Mike Shaw of Southern Valley pinned Derek Fouts of Franklin in 2:13.
Weston Giibson of Elwood pinned Derek Helms of Arapahoe.