By Dru Kastler | @KastlerDA

Top Ten Teams
1. Valentine – won home invite by 22.5 points over #4 Broken Bow.
2. David City – 5th at Valentine Invite
3. North Bend – 3rd at Logan View Invite
4. Broken Bow – 2nd at Valentine Invite
5. Battle Creek – shorthanded at Flatwater Fracas
6. Aquinas – 2nd at Logan View Invite
7. Syracuse – 7th at Platteview Invite, 6th at Logan View Invite
8. Ord – 8th at Valentine Invite
9. Gibbon – shorthanded at Kearney Catholic Duals
10. Central City – 2nd at Boone Central Duals

Valentine Invite
Valentine showed why they are still the top team in Class C winning their home invite over several ranked teams. They had four individual champs including a helpful tournament title by Lane McGinley at 170lbs. His 28 team points were the difference over 2nd place Broken Bow. They may still have some wrestlers moving to other weights which should increase their chances of scoring more points at the state meet. Broken Bow’s runner-up finish at Valentine had some impressive individual showings by Faulkenberry at 113, Ulmer at 145 an Brooks at 220. They were without normal starter Isaac Dodge at 182 which would have made the team race even closer. David City was without a few of it’s key wrestlers as well, but still finished in 5th place. Freshman Dylan Vodicka is wrestling very well at 145 evidenced by his 4-3 over SD class B#1 Kruger and they have several other wrestlers in the lineup highly ranked, so they’ll be in the mix at the end of the year. #8 Ord finished in 8th in Valentine on the strength of a great performance by top ranked 195 Ethan Gabriel who knocked off two ranked class B opponents by fall en route to a tournament title.

Logan View Invite
Over at the Logan View Invite #3 North Bend and #6 Aquinas clashed in some marquee matchups at 170 and 182 with Hines of North Bend knocking off top ranked Coufal at 170 and Aquinas’s Reimers proving his #1 ranking with a 15-0 win over #3 Mueller. Aquinas’s depth was a little too much for North Bend as they finished 12.5 points ahead of the Tigers. Wisnieski at 195 and Buresh at 220 for Aquinas are having solid senior seasons and have made the difference for the Monarchs in some close team battles early in the year. North Bend is so impressive in the middle weights that they have dilemma on their hands at 152 with Mullaly and Strauss battling for the spot. #7 Syracuse also participated, but from a team perspective they are better built for the state tournament.

Other top tens competing
#5 Battle Creek did not have a few of their key wrestlers in the lineup at the Flatwater Fracas as has been the case for most of the season so far. #1 113 Caydon McCracken and #2 145 Ty Heimes both had excellent tournaments going undefeated and knocking off some ranked opponents from other classes in the process. Heimes has proven himself comfortable in close matches, winning several along the way by 1 or 2 points. McCracken knocked off three ranked opponents; one by major decision and the other two he did not get scored on. #2 at 132 Damien Kersten has spent some time wrestling 126 this season when Owen Lade (#4 at 126) is not in the lineup. It will be interesting to see where both settle in at towards the end of the year.

Also participating in dual tournaments were #9 Gibbon and #10 Central City. Gibbon will continue to benefit from their top end guys such as Lane Brown, Chase Smith, Jacob Tracy and Wyatt Kee. Tracy lost in OT to #1 Cooper Bates at 152. It appears as if Daniel Escandon will not take the mat this year. If Tyric Beattie comes back to the lineup he’d be at 120 where he’d be a threat to medal. Do not write Gibbon off yet. Central City finished runner-up at Boone Central losing to a tough class B Aurora team. Koby Brandenburg did wrestle some matches at 126, but may not be quite back to full strength after missing a short time with injury. Dyson Kunz is impressive as ever at 106, winning all of his matches at 106 by fall. Noah Carlson has been wrestling up at 220 since week 1, which may be the better of the two weights for him. Schneiderheinz at 160 has continued to wrestle solid all season.

Notable Results

106: #6 Landon Zeckser (Doniphan-Trumbull) over D#3 Kaiden Mrsny (Pender) 5-4
106: #6 Landon Zeckser over D#2 Eli Lanham (Plainview) by fall
113: #1 Caydon McCracken (Battle Creek) over A#2 @106 Eliceo Ramirez (Grand Island) 12-4 major
113: #1 Caydon McCracken (Battle Creek) over 6A#2 @ 106 Tate Sauder (Manhattan, KS) 7-0
113: #1 Caydon McCracken (Battle Creek) over B#6 Drew Arnold (Beatrice) 2-0
113: #3 Casey Faulkenberry (Broken Bow) over #5 Colton Rowse (Ord) by fall
113: #3 Casey Faulkenberry (Broken Bow) over #2 Seth Styskal (David City) 6-4 SV
120: #2 Spencer Gaffney (Broken Bow) over B#4 Jace Russman (Cozad) 7-6
126: #2 Noah Styskal (David City) over #3 Patrick Powers (Broken Bow) 4-3
126: UR Riley Wehrer (Wilber-Clatonia) over #6 @ 132 Lane Brown (Gibbon) 13-11
126: UR Cristian Carranza (Cross County) over D#4 Logan Henn (EPPJ) by fall
132: #1 Jordan Kelber (Valentine) over #5 Jacson Valentine (David City) 23-7 tech
132: #1 Jordan Kelber (Valentine) over B#4 Wyatt Hotz (Gothenburg) 13-7
138: #1 Max Hughes (Syracuse) over B#4 Blake Sears (Crete) by fall
138: #3 Justin White (David City) over #4 Julian Ramon (Valentine) 6-2
145: #2 Ty Heimes (Battle Creek) over B#6 @ 138 Ray Loftis (West Point-Beemer) 6-4
145: UR Easton Albrecht (Raymond Central) over D#4 Josh McFarland (Elkhorn Valley) 7-5 SV
145: UR Easton Albrecht (Raymond Central) over #3 Gavin Avery (Centennial) 3-0
145: UR Dylan Vodicka (David City) over SD#1 Sam Kruger (Winner) 4-3
152: #1 Cooper Bates (Wilber-Clatonia) over #4 Jacob Tracy (Gibbon) 3-1 SV
152: #2 Spencer Warner (Louisville) over A#4 Tre’Vion Williams (Omaha Central) 5-2
152: #2 Spencer Warner (Louisville) over #5 Chandler Stone (Sutton) 4-2 SV
152: #4 Joel Myers (Broken Bow) over #6 Brody Benson (Valentine) by fall
160: #1 Caleb Long (Valentine) over B#1 Cauy Shaw (O’Neill) 1-0
160: #1 Caleb Long (Valentine) over B#5 Lane Applegarth (Alliance) 2-1
170: #3 Brady Hull (Logan View) over D#2 Miles Kuhlhanek (Howells-Dodge) 8-7
170: UR Issiah Borgmann (Stanton) over B#6 Michael Hernandez (Schuyler) by fall
170: #2 Joel Hines (North Bend) over #3 Brady Hull (Logan View) 9-1 major
170: #2 Joel Hines (North Bend) over #1 Michael Coufal (Aquinas) 2-0
182: #1 Joseph Reimers (Aquinas) over #3 Dalton Mueller (North Bend) 15-0 tech
182: #3 Dalton Mueller (North Bend) over #5 Luke Fairbanks (Bishop Neumann) 16-6 major
182: #4 Haydn Deinert (Malcolm) over #5 Luke Fairbanks (Bishop Neumann) 7-4
182: #4 Haydn Deinert over A#5 Nolan Johnston (Omaha Westside) 1-0
195: #1 Ethan Gabriel (Ord) over B#5 Cody Ybarra (Gering) by fall
195: #1 Ethan Gabriel (Ord) over B#2 Noah Gugelman (Gothenburg) by fall
195: #3 Ryder Fuchs (Pierce) over D#4 Levi Stacken (Creighton) 12-3 major
195: #2 Wyatt Kee (Gibbon) over #5 @ 220 Hunter Kocian 2-1 TB-1
220: #1 Bryan McGahan (Hershey) over D#1 Anthony Starr (Southwest) by fall
220: #3 Treyvon Brooks (Broken Bow) over #2 Matthew Eilers (David City) by fall
220: UR Caleb Cast (Centennial) over D#2 Brandon Rezac (East Butler) 9-6
285: #3 Evan Welsh (Bishop Neumann) over B#1 Noah Stafursky (York) by fall
285: #1 Caleb Lefferdink (Syracuse) over #6 Riley Moses (Fillmore Central) by fall