Vikings finish fourth, Crusaders eighth at Holdrege Invite By The Independent Sports Staff, THE INDEPENDENT
HOLDREGE — Nine medalists paced the Northwest wrestling team to a fourth-place finish Saturday at the Holdrege Invite.
The Vikings scored 113 points. Lincoln Southwest won the meet with 196.5 points. Grand Island Central Catholic finished eighth with 24 points.
Noah Lau was the high finisher for Northwest. Lau was pinned by Lexington’s Danny Ibarra in 1 minute, 26 seconds in the 126-pound final.
Devon Schmidt (third, 106), Dylan Kemmet (third, 113), Karson Sok (fourth, 120), Cole Woodward (third, 126), Ty Johnson (fourth, 152), Zach Dammann (fourth, 160), Bailey Dishman (fourth, 182) and Trevor Hayes (third, 195) were the other medalists for Northwest.
“This is another step,” Viking coach Brian Sybrandts said. “I thought our kids wrestled well. It’s pretty good when you have nine medalists out of 14 weight classes. I’m happy with how we performed.”
GICC’s Mitch Maginnis claimed the 113-pound weight class by pinning Holdrege’s Jacob Fuehrer in 3:45.
Holdrege Invite
Team Standings
Lincoln Southwest 196.5, Lexington 151, York 140, Northwest 113, Holdrege 98, Lincoln North Star 94.5, Minden 36, Grand Island Central Catholic 24, McCook 22.5, Chase County 20, Broken Bow 10.
152 — Troy Taylor, York dec. Corbin Winkler, Lincoln North Star, 5-2.
160 — Kyle Rhodes, York, dec. Timothy Burbach, Lincoln Southwest, 13-6.
170 — Jared Torell, Lincoln Southwest, maj. dec. Quin Rutt, Minden, 10-2.
182 — Travor Birdzell, Lincoln North Star, dec. Dylan Olmsted, York, 7-6.
195 — Brett Olmsted, York, dec. Skyler Vaught, Lincoln North Star, 8-3.
220 — Edwun Perdorno, Lexington, dec. Zach Jackson, Lincoln North Star, 3-1 OT.
285 — Ronald Trevino, York, dec. Eric Oltman, Lincoln Southwest, 5-1.
Northwest Triangular The Independent Review By Marc Zavala
The Northwest wrestling team gained some confidence back.
After starting the season with a 58-18 loss to Aurora Nov. 29 and finishing seventh at the York Invite Saturday, the Vikings got back on the winning edge after grabbing a pair of lopsided victories in their home double dual Thursday at Northwest High School.
Northwest posted a 69-12 win over Broken Bow and a 78-6 victory over St. Paul. In the other dual, Broken Bow grabbed a 66-18 win over St. Paul.
“It’s nice to get back on the winning side,” Northwest coach Brian Sybrandts said. “It’s a good confidence builder for our kids.”
The Vikings won the first eight classes — on six pins and two forfeits — to go up 48-0 against Broken Bow and then won the first 13 matches against St. Paul on six pins and seven forfeits.
But there was some drama in their matches.
During the 220-pound match with Broken Bow, Northwest’s Nate Montanez fell behind 5-0 early in the first period to Jeremy Christner. Montanez fought off his back and earned an escape. He later took Christner down, put him on his back and got the pin at 1 minute, 56 seconds.
“Nate’s a first-year wrestler and he just caught that kid and got the pin for his first-ever victory on varsity,” Sybrandts said.
Later in the dual, Jacob Watson trailed 8-6 deficit to start the third period with Garrett Ulmer at 160. The two wrestlers earned reversals against each other in the period, but Watson escaped with five seconds left to get the 11-10 win for the Vikings. The match was the only one in the three duals that went the full six minutes.
During the St. Paul dual, Dillon Paczosa scored the first points of the match in the third period on a reversal on Northwest’s Karson Sok at 120. But a Sok reversal tied the match. Then he put Paczosa on his back and got the pin at 5:54.
“Karson just kept battling and didn’t quit,” Sybrandts said. “He found a way to put him away in the third period. Jacob’s really battled in his match with the Broken Bow kid and it was back and forth. He got the escape when he needed to. Good win for him.”
Sok, along with Zach Damman (170), Bailey Dishman (180) and Trevor Hayes (195) were the only Vikings that wrestled two matches and won a pair during the evening. The other Northwest wrestlers either wrestled one match and got a forfeit win, or went 1-1.
Sybrandts said there are still some things the Vikings need to improve on in the early stages of the season.
“We still need to work off the bottom and work on getting ourselves in position to do something,” Sybrandts said. “But for the most part, the kids came out and were very aggressive. They were looking for pins and they performed a lot better than they did this past weekend. Hopefully they can carry it over into the weekend.”
Chris Svoboda was the only St. Paul wrestler to go 2-0. He received a forfeit victory at 195 during the Broken Bow dual, but moved up to 220 against Northwest and pinned Montanez in 0:49.
St. Paul coach Sean Cunningham said most of the Wildcat lineup was wrestling their first matches of the season.
“Just to get these guys on the mat for the first time after only two weeks of practice was a good thing,” he said. “It was a learning experience for most of those kids and I hope they continue to get better. I give them a lot of credit.”
Zack Sanchez was the only Broken Bow grappler that went 2-0 while wrestling two matches at 138. He pinned Northwest’s Austin Cooper in 5:49, and stuck St. Paul’s Caden Lothrop in 0:32. Also, Cody Ducker pinned Northwest’s Shayne Arrida in 1:29, while receiving a forfeit victory in the St. Paul dual to go 2-0 on the day at 145.
Northwest and Broken Bow will be at the Holdrege Invite Saturday, while St. Paul will wrestle at the Wood River Invite.
New Season
Nothwest Kicks off their 2012-2013 Season with a dual against long time rival Aurora. The meet is November 29th at 6:30 p.m. in Aurora. The Vikings came out with a victory the last time they went head to head. The Vikings will be defending that victory and will do whatever it takes to add a second victory over the Huskies. The Huskies are not just going to hand the victory over to the Vikings, but the Vikes are working hard to insure their victory.