By Dru Kastler 

Week 5 Class C Review

1. Valentine – 1st at the Burwell Invite
2. David City – 5th at High Plains
3. Broken Bow – 1st at Aquinas Invite
4. Battle Creek – 2nd at High Plains
5. North Bend – 3rd at High Plains
6. Aquinas – 2nd at Aquinas Invite
7. Central City – 4th at Central City Invite
8. Gibbon – 3rd at Franklin Invite
9. Ord – 5th at Central City Invite
10. Wilber-Clatonia – 1st at Wilber-Clatonia Duals

At this point in the season it seems like the top six teams have separated themselves from the rest of the class C field. Valentine has a bit of separation over the 2nd through 6th ranked teams. David City was without 3rd ranked Styskal and top ranked Hernandez at the High Plains tournament and still had a solid showing. Broken Bow continues their impressive season, winning the Aquinas Invite by 50 points over the home team Monarchs. Battle Creek appears to be at full strength and should be a force the rest of the season as evidenced by their 2nd place finish at High Plains. North Bend was right on their heels just six points behind. Central City edged Ord out at their home invite. Gibbon is short from a numbers perspective and isn’t likely a state dual team, but they have 4-5 wrestlers capable of finding the medal stand at state which would almost certainly result in a top-ten finish. Wilber-Clatonia has impressed lately and with a full lineup and lots of quality wrestlers should be top-ten contender in Omaha and a good state dual team.

Burwell Invite

Valentine outlasted D#1 Burwell by 58 points to win the Burwell Invite. Wood River had an impressive tournament as well, finishing just 23 points behind Burwell.

We saw a battle of top ranked wrestlers with DJ Stephen defeating two-time class D champ Devon Walker by fall. Stephen gave up the first takedown, but managed to get one of his own so the match was tied entering the second period. He got an escape then a takedown to a fall in the 2nd period. The other battle of top ranked wrestlers at 132 didn’t happen as Burwell’s Ostrom had to injury default to Kelber. Plenty of great other matches occurred in Burwell as well:

120: UR Ryan Bond (Wood River) over D#5 Shaye Wood (Central Valley) 4-2
126: #1 @ 120 Gage Krolikowski (Valentine) over D#4 Josh Ibach (Central Valley) 6-4
138: #1 Evan Waddington (Wood River) over #4 JJ Ramon (Valentine) 12-0
160: #5 Jaden Janssen (Crofton/Bloomfield) over D#4 @ 170 Corey Dawe (Burwell) 6-1
160: #2 Caleb Long (Valentine) over #5 Jaden Janssen 6-2
170: #1 DJ Stephen (Valentine) over #5 Quentin Moles (Crofton/Bloomfield) 7-5
170: #1 DJ Stephen over D#1 Devon Walker (Elm Creek) by fall
182: UR Lane McGinley (Valentine) over D#4 Ryan Dawe (Burwell) 12-5
182: #2 Ethan Poppe (Crofton/Bloomfield) over Lane McGinley by fall
285: #4 Jakob Jerabek (Arcadia/Loup City) over D#5 Jade Buss (West Holt) by fall

High Plains

With three class C teams in the top five the High Plains tournament did not disappoint. Battle Creek finished 2nd behind tournament champion Wahoo. North Bend was right behind Battle Creek and a shorthanded David City team finished fifth.

Impressive performances by Kersten who fought off a shot attempt by Styskal and turned that into nearfall as well enroute to a major decision win in a 1 vs 2 battle. Max Hughes trailed 2-0 entering the third period, but used a Peterson roll for a reversal to White’s back to get the late fall. In a battle of top ranked C and D wrestlers, Zach Borer improved on a major decision last week by getting the tech fall over Kulhanek.

106: UR Wyatt Schoepf (Centennial) over D#6 Trenton Arlt (Oakland-Craig) 7-5 SV
120: #5 Brandon Schram (Tekamah-Herman) over D#4 Ruger Reimers (Palmer) 8-7
120: #2 Owen Lade (Battle Creek) over #5 Brandon Schram by fall
126: #2 Damien Kersten (Battle Creek) over #1 Noah Styskal (David City) 10-2
138: #2 Max Hughes (Syracuse) over #3 Justin White (David City) by fall
138: #2 Max Hughes over D#3 Jefferson McNeil (Oakland-Craig) by fall
138: UR Zach Rogers (Kearney Catholic) over #5 Brandon Wardman (North Bend) by fall in OT
138: #3 Justin White over Zach Rogers 4-0
145: #2 Ty Heimes (Battle Creek) over Gavin Avery (Centennial) TB 4-1
145: Jacob Ray (North Bend) over Gavin Avery 1-0
160: #1 Zach Borer (North Bend) over D#4 Spencer Wichmann (Palmer) by fall
160: #1 Zach Borer (North Bend) over D#1 Miles Kulhanek (Howells-Dodge) 17-2
170: #2 Joel Hines (North Bend) over B#4 Tucker Hancock (Wahoo) 4-3
170: UR Max Hansen (Tekamah-Herman) over B#6 Michael Hernandez (Schuyler) 5-1
195: Brock Ray (North Bend) over Jacob Gappa (Kearney Catholic) by fall
220: #4 Matthew Eilers (David City) over Kalten Bauers (Centennial) 7-6
285: #1 Caleb Lefferdink (Syracuse) over A#2 Jack Hasz (Creighton Prep) 5-1

Other notable results

A few that stick out here with Garey reversing a loss from last week and beating ranked Zitek of Aquinas. Gabriel of Ord knocked off another ranked class B opponent, but was pinned once again by Griess of Northwest in the finals at Central City. Koby Brandenburg picked up a nice win over class B #2 Kluck of Aurora. Bates and Warner met again in a 1 vs 2 battle with Bates coming out victorious in a 1-point match.

106: UR Trey Garey (Broken Bow) over #5 Zach Zitek (Aquinas) 7-3
113: #2 Casey Faulkenberry (Broken Bow) over B#5 William Lomax (Boys Town) by fall
113: #5 Colton Rowse (Ord) over #6 Jacob Paczosa (St. Paul) by fall
126: #3 Patrick Powers (Broken Bow) over D#5 Keegan Casey (Thayer Central) 8-7
126: #4 Koby Brandenburg (Central City) over B#2 Trevor Kluck (Aurora) 9-4
138: UR Mason Schleis (Shelby-Rising City) over #6 Dawson Hogue (Conestoga) 2-1
145: #6 Jacob Mackley (Hershey) over UR Jared Gallion (Central City) by fall
145: Jared Gallion over #6 Jacob Mackley 6-4
145: UR Dustin Stone (Sutton) over Easton Albrecht (Raymond Central)
152: #1 Cooper Bates (Wilber-Clatonia) over #2 Spencer Warner (Louisville) 3-2
170: #2 Michael Coufal (Aquinas) over #6 Issiah Borgmann (Stanton) 19-7
170: UR Aiden Smith (Minden) over D#5 Edwen Baptista (Friend) by fall
195: UR Jacob Gappa (Kearney Catholic) over #6 @ 220 Noah Carlson (Central City) by fall
195: #1 Ethan Gabriel (Ord) over B#4 Zach Reikofski (Fairbury) by fall