Longhorns take second at SPVA wrestling

    Although the Chase County wrestlers weren’t quite as on point as they had been the week before at Medicine Valley, the Longhorns still claimed eight medals at the SPVA conference meet Thursday in Bridgeport.
    Head Coach Matt Vlasin said one round wasn’t good for the Longhorns.
    Plus, the tournament is set up so there’s not much coming back from early round losses.
    Jaret Peterson won two matches to claim the 220 lb. championship.
    Vlasin said Peterson’s first opponent sliced the Chase County junior nose and trainers had a hard time getting the blood stopped.
    Coaches told Peterson to pin the guy and not risk his injury time, Vlasin said.
    Peterson did as asked and pinned both opponents at identical times, 2:55.
    Thomas Reeves lost the championship of the 182 lb. bracket with a 3-2 decision to Class D #9 Wyatt Reichenberg of Banner County.
    Reeves faced Gordon-Rushville’s Curtis Rittgarn in the second round and may run into Rittgarn again at districts.
    Zach Tarin returned from an injury to take second place at 285 lbs. Tarin lost an 8-3 decision in the finals to a possible district opponent, Mitchell’s Jeremiah Coley.
    For his first tournament back, Vlasin said Tarin looked good and stuck with Coley, who Vlasin expects to be the district’s second seed.
    Reaching the third place matches were Malachi Christensen, Luis Co and Westyn Mendenhall.
    Co’s only loss at 138 lbs came to Gordon-Rushville’s Kyler Vincent in the semifinals. Vlasin said Vincent, ranked No. 8 in Class C, scored four early points then wrestled very defensively for the rest of the match, which Co lost 5-7.
    Malachi Christensen lost his 126 lb. semifinal match to Perkins County’s Mason Toner. Vlasin said Christensen stuck with Toner for the whole match, but was pinned in the third period.
    Christensen lost the third place match to Gordon-Rushville’s Jace Rawles.
    Mendenhall lost his semifinal match at 145 lbs. to Sutherland’s Kason Bruns, an opponent he’s beat this season.
    In the third place match, Mendenhall faced Morrill’s Daniel Kohel, who Vlasin expects to be the district’s top seed.
    Jonathan Sosa and Tyler O’Neil each claimed fifth place.
    Both lost in the quarterfinals then won three straight matches.
    O’Neil’s only loss came to Class C No. 6 Jace Freeseman of Gordon-Rushville.
    O’Neil now has a 20-18 record on the season and Vlasin is happy O’Neil will be seeded into the district tournament.
    The tournament gave CCS a good look at C4 district opponents Gordon-Rushville and Mitchell.
    Other teams in the district include Amherst, Broken Bow, Centura, Gibbon, Hershey, Kearney Catholic, Loomis/Bertrand, Morrill, Ord, Red Cloud/Blue Hill, Valentine, West Holt and Wood River.
    Mitchell will host the Friday/Saturday tournament.
    Broken Bow is the top rated team in Class C. Valentine is ranked third and Ord is 10th.
    Among the district’s top matches will hopefully be a rematch between Peterson and the only wrestler to beat him this season, Broken Bow’s Cal Wells. The pair are ranked one and two in Class C.
WTC/SPVA/MAC/PAC 2023
Team Scores—1. Sutherland, 173; 2. Gordon-Rushville, 171; 3. Mitchell, 135.5, 4. Chase Co., 118; 5. NP St Pats, 78; 6. Hemingford, 66; 7. Kimball, 65; 8. Bridgeport, 62.5, 9. Hershey, 49; 10. Bayard, 47; 11. Perkins Co., 43; 12. Hay Springs, 32; 13. Garden Co, 27; 14. Morrill, 26; 15. Banner Co, 25; 16. Sioux County, 14; 17. Crawford, 13; 18. South Platte, 8; 19. Minatare, 7.0
Individual results
126—Malachi Christensen (16-13) won by fall over Jonathan Fritzler (Hemingford), fall 3:19; lost by fall to Mason Toner (PCS), fall 4:30; 3rd Place Match - lost by fall to Jace Rawles (Gordon-Rushville), fall 2:23.
132—Jonathan Sosa (18-6) won by fall over Jose Arreola (Bridgeport), fall 3:13; lost by decision to Uzziah Voss (Mitchell), dec 8-1; won by fall over Mason Giebler (NPSP), fall 1:23; won by decision over Brodey Hund (Hershey), dec 2-0; 5th Place Match - won by decision over Carson Gibbons (Crawford), dec 8-4.
138—Scott Hoover (9-17) lost by fall to Cauy Kohl (Sutherland), fall 2:35; won by fall over William Thomas (Mitchell), fall 1:18; lost by tech fall to Chase McGrath (Bridgeport), TF-1.5 4:12 (16-0).
138—Luis Co (30-9) won by fall over William Thomas (Mitchell), fall 3:18; won by fall over Destry Russell (CCS), fall 1:42; lost by decision to Kyler Vincent (Gordon-Rushville, dec 7-5; 3rd Place Match - won by major decision over Wesley Jacobs (Hay Springs), MD 14-5.
138—Destry Russell (7-14) lost by fall to Luis Co (CCS), fall 1:42; won by fall over Tyler Lashley (Morrill), fall 2:32; lost by fall to Collin Ramirez (Mitchell), fall 4:11.
145—Westyn Mendenhall (30-13) won by fall over Sage Krebs (Gordon-Rushville), fall 2:51; lost by fall to Kason Bruns (Sutherland), fall 3:03; 3rd Place Match - lost by fall to Daniel Kohel (Morrill), fall 1:54.
145—Tucker Mollendor (1-5) lost by fall to Harrison Barnette (Bridgeport), fall 3:13; lost by fall to Gavin Hunt (Garden Co), fall 4:46.
152—Tyler O`Neil (20-18) won by fall over Nick Krondak (NPSP), fall 0:22; lost by fall to Jace Freeseman (Gordon-Rushville), fall 3:13; won by fall over Quinten Tretter (Bridgeport), fall 2:27; won by fall over Adam Staman (Bayard), fall 0:21; 5th Place Match - won by fall over Ryker Copeland (Sutherland), fall 3:30.
170—Dawson Mollendor (20-17) won by fall over Austin Worth (Mitchell), fall 4:47; lost by fall to Traiton Starr (Gordon-Rushville), fall 1:29; lost by decision to Preston Schwanebeck (PCS), dec 5-3.
182—Thomas Reeves (35-8) won by decision over Bradyn Miller (South Platte), dec 10-4; won by fall over Curtis Rittgarn (Gordon-Rushville), fall 3:40; 1st Place Match - lost by decision to Wyatt Reichenberg (Banner Co), dec 3-2.
195—Jesus Medina (11-17) lost by fall to Tobi Berndt (Gordon-Rushville), fall 1:42; lost by fall to Logan Dodson (NPSP), fall 1:22.
220—Jaret Peterson (36-1) won by fall over Braxton Richards (NPSP), fall 2:55; 1st Place Match - won by fall over Lain Tausan (Gordon-Rushville) 19-7, fall 2:55.
285—Zach Tarin (9-3) won by fall over Charlie Koch (Hershey), fall 2:59; won by fall over Anthony Running Hawk (Hay Springs), fall 1:45; 1st Place Match - lost by decision to Jeremiah Coley (Mitchell), dec 8-3.