Area schools compete hard at Twin Loup and A-M Invites
CUSTER COUNTY - Wrestling was in full swing in the area, with the Twin Loup Invite on Dec. 11 and then the Anselmo-Merna Invite on Dec. 12. In total, seven area schools competed at the invites.
At the Twin Loup Invite, the Twin Loup wrestling team was able to take home first place with 147.5 points, Broken JV ended up finishing third with 99 points, and South Loup was seventh with 68 points.
Overall the Wolves had seven kids medal at the meet and four kids who won. The winners for Twin Loup were Nolan Osborn at 106, Shawn Quandt at 145, Archer Grint at 145, and Slate Micheel at 170.
Osborn pushed his record to 8-0 by pinning everybody in his path. It took him 28 seconds in the championship to pin Angel Rodriguez of Cambridge.
At 145, Quandt was able to pin his first two opponents and then won a 6-2 decision over Haedyn Brauer of North Platte JV in the title match.
Much like Osborn, Grint was able to make quick work of all his opponents. In the championship, he pinned Eli Hernandez of North Platte in 0:58.
Of all the Wolves wrestlers, Micheel had the toughest road to winning.
In the semifinals, he had to battle back from having his head cut open. He was able to recover from the injury and beat Conor Dempsey of Neligh Oakdale 5-2.
He was then able to pin freshman Rio Redmund of South Loup in the championship match in 54 seconds.
Broken Bow JV had six wrestlers place and three who won. They were Dalton Garey at 113, Tallen Harrold at 132, and Sawyer Bumgarner at 285 pounds.
Garey earned pins in the quarterfinals and semifinals to reach the finals where he took on Carson Whitesel. He was able to pin him as well in 3:08.
At 132, it was an all Indian final with both Harrold and Brody Ridder. In a close 6-5 decision, Harrold walked away with the gold medal.
Bumgarner faced all North Platte JV wrestlers on his way to first at 285. His final opponent was Nicholas Spradlin who he pinned in 0:40.
Four wrestlers in total earned medals for the Bobcats, and their only champion was Logan Peterson at 120.
He received a bye in round one but then won by major decision 17-3 over Corbin Swanson of Ainsworth in the semifinal. He followed that up by earning another major decision ove r
Ethan Kipp of Twin Loup with a score of 18-5.
Five area teams competed at the Anselmo-Merna Invite the following day. They were Anselmo Merna, South Loup, Twin Loup, Sandhills- Thedford, Sumner-Eddyville-Miller, and Arcadia-Loup City.
Winning the meet was Grand Island JV with 171.5 points. Twin Loup came in third with 115 points, A-M was fourth with 104, S-E-M and A-LC tied for fifth with 94 points, S-T was tenth with 40, and South Loup ended up 11th with 29 points.
Six kids medaled for the Wolves and two walked away with first. They were Osborn at 106 and Micheel and 170.
Like the previous day, Osborn was able to pin his way to the championship match. In that bout, he had to go the full three periods with Coben Colson of GI JV. In the end, he was still able to pick up a 4-0 decision.
Micheel had to beat two area wrestlers on his way to first. He pinned Ashton Nichols of S-E-M in the semifinals and then did the same to Ethan Kryzcki of Arcadia-Loup City in the title match.
The Coyotes of A-M also had six of their wrestler’s medal. They had two winners in Bryce Schmidt at 138 and
Sid Miller at 195.
Schmidt was able to pin Benjamin Klemesrud of North Central in 1:42 and Sid Miller pinned Devin Fisher in 3:39.
Overall, the head coach for A-M Caleb Franklin was pleased with his team’s performance. It was the Coyotes most complete meet as a group up to this point.
“I was very proud with how everyone on our team performed as a whole,” Franklin said. “This meet was the best one we have had collectively this season with six medals, four finalists, an and two third and fourth place finishers.”
Coming in fifth with five medalists was A-LC. They had two wrestlers wr who ended the da day with first place medals medals. They were undefeated Chase Stieb at 160 and Tryon Calleroz at 152.
Stieb received receive a bye in the first round rou and then pinned Luke Wright of GI JV in the sem semifinals. He was abl able to do the same to his opponent Payton
Reisbeck of Ravenna in the title bout.
Tyron Calleroz pushed his record to 10-0 by pinning everybody up to the finals. In the championship match, he shut out Xavier Perez of Elm Creek 7-0.
Despite having one of the smaller teams at the meet, S-E-M had a good showing getting five grapplers on the medal stand, and they had three wrestlers finish runner-up.
They were Clark Padrnos at 113, Aaron Hernandez at 220, and Brendon Hall at 285 pounds. Hall and Hernandez losses both came by pin and Clark Padrnos lost a 4-0 decision.
Head coach of the Mustangs Jake Padrnos thought that collectively his team performed very well. It was a good meet to build momentum for future meets for S-E-M.
“I thought we wrestled pretty well overall,” Jake Padrnos said. “All seven wrestlers were able to get wins helping us gain some momentum for future tournaments and
we had some close losses that show us some of our weak situations during matches that we need to work on before our next tournament.”
S-T only walked away with two medalists at the meet, but they both ended up being first-place finishers. They were Brayton Branic at 285 and Reed McFadden at 220.
Despite losing his first match of the tournament in sudden victory to Zachary Pittman of GI JV, Branic was able to rally and win his next two matches. He pinned Chase Lewandowski of A-LC to take first.
Reed McFadden won by pin in both of his matches. In the championship, he was able to handle Hernandez of S-E-M in just 0:55.
South Loup was able to claim two medals on the day. They were Dawson Dogget who was fourth at 138 and Clay Witthuhn who was fourth at 195.
For complete results of both of these meets, check out the sports section at custercountychief.com.