By Dru Kastler

1. Valentine: 1st at Chadron Invite
2. Broken Bow: 1st at Gothenburg Duals
3. Battle Creek: 1st at Oakland-Craig Invite
4. David City: 2nd at David City Invite
5. North Bend: 3rd at Oakland-Craig Invite
6. Aquinas: 1st at Centennial Conference
7. Central City: 1st at LouPlatte Conference
8. Gibbon: 3rd at LouPlatte Conference
9. Ord: 2nd at LouPlatte Conference
10. Crofton/Bloomfield: 7th at Madison Invite, 6th at Neligh-Oakdale Invite

Valentine edged out class B rated Alliance to win the Chadron Invite. Broken Bow was impressive once again, winning the Gothenburg duals.

#7 Central City wrestled a fantastic tournament to edge out Ord at the LouPlatte Conference tournament in their first year competing in the conference. In other conference action, Aquinas won the Centennial Conference.

David City finished 2nd at their home invite behind A#1 Gretna, but ahead of #5 Millard West.

#3 Battle Creek and #5 North Bend squared off at the Oakland-Craig Invite. Probably the most notable team result of the week was Logan View edging out North Bend at Oakland-Craig. With Mueller down to 106 at 113 that allowed Hernandez-Jimenez to go 113. They didn’t have their normal 132 in the lineup either. Based on those lineup moves it looks like Logan View could make a run at the state dual tournament. They also finished 2nd at the Madison tournament on Friday.

Sutton also impressed this weekend finishing fourth at the David City Invite and second at Louisville. With a good state tournament Sutton could definitely find their way into the top ten.

Crofton/Bloomfield was without the services of rated Janssen at 160 and Gibbon without Beattie at 120. Both of these teams are better built for the state tournament.

106:

A few surprises at 106 over the weekend included previously undefeated Gilmore taking his first loss of the season to Albrecht from Raymond Central. Gilmore pinned him in their first meeting. Chris Williams knocked off Benavides and avenged one of his two season losses by defeating Ruff in the finals of the Chadron Invite.

UR Mitch Albrecht (Raymond Central) over #4 Hunter Gilmore (Arlington) 12-8
#2 Ryan Zoucha (Malcolm) over D#6 Dalton Hansen (Harvard) by fall
#5 Chris Williams (Valentine) over #3 Casey Benavides (Bridgeport) 14-4 major
#5 Chris Williams (Valentine) over #3B Paul Ruff (Alliance) 6-4

113:

McCracken had another close win over familiar foe Ellis of Winside. Really looking forward to the Ord Invite on Friday where #1 McCracken, #2 Faulkenberry and #4 Rowse will all be competing. Rowse looked solid in the LouPlatte finals, knocking off #5 Paczosa. Styskal from David City one his first matches before forfeiting in his finals match.

#1 Caydon McCracken (Battle Creek) over D#2 Koby Ellis (Winside) 1-0
#4 Colton Rowse (Ord) over #5 Jacob Paczosa (St. Paul) 9-4

120:

Krolikowski is now officially down at 120 where he promptly majored B#3 Steggs. Carlson took a few losses over the weekend to high quality wrestlers, but also knocked off returning B finalist Buchanan of Crete at David City. Lots of wrestlers vying for the #6 spot while the top-5 look to be pretty solid for the moment.

#1 Gage Krolikowski (Valentine) over #3B Evan Steggs (Alliance) 12-1 major
#3 Lee Carlson (Sutton) over B#4 Shawn Buchanan (Crete) by fall

126:

Brandenburg fought off of his back in the first period and got the fall against Brown in a highly entertaining few minutes of wrestling. Wehrer defended his ranking over Hinrichs of Sutton. Styskal had to forfeit in the finals of his home invite, so hopefully nothing too serious there.

#4 Koby Brandenburg (Central City) over #6 Lane Brown (Gibbon) by fall
#5 Riley Wehrer (Wilber-Clatonia) over Joseph Hinrichs (Sutton) 10-5

132:

Kelber took care of business in Chadron. Yawn has been rolling through his competition as well to remain undefeated on the season. Josh Miller holds strong at #3 with a NCC championship on Saturday. Copley defeated Valentine at the David City Invite and #5 Chase Smith took care of business in the LouPlatte finals.

#1 Jorden Kelber (Valentine) over D#2 Mitch McKibben (Bayard) 16-7 major
#4 Sam Copley (Milfrod) over #6 Jacson Valentine (David City) 2-0

138:

Waddington and Hughes breezed through their respective conference championships. White came up short against A#2 Cunningham 8-5 in the David City finals. #4 Ramon still isn’t back in the lineup for Valentine. #5 Rogers lost 7-3 to D#4 Johnson from Bergan. Hogue of Conestoga defeated #6 Wardman and has also beaten Johnson as well so look for him to re-enter the rankings despite a few interesting losses this season. Brass from Broken Bow has an early season win over Rogers and has wrestled a very tough schedule. Henry from Gordon-Rushville is flying under the radar and does have a common opponent over Brass.

UR Dawson Hogue (Conestoga) over #6 Brandon Wardman (North Bend) by fall

145:

Hernandez knocked off D rated Bohac and took home an individual title at his home meet. Heimes was dominating over formerly rated Ray of North Bend winning 13-0 and looks to be the top challenger to Hernadez. Olson suffered a few losses at the Chadron Invite, but still has the head to head win over Ulmer this year. Ulmer defeated Mackley again at the Gothenburg duals. Have heard it’s possible that #5 Weiss moves up to 152. Mues defeated Albrecht to win a NCC title. Lovan from Fillmore Central defeated formerly rated Morris by fall. Fully expect this to be one of the most hotly contested weights at both districts and state due to the amount of medalist caliber wrestlers.

#1 Melvin Hernandez (David City) over D#5 Dalton Bohac (East Butler) 4-2
#3 Cole Ulmer (Broken Bow) over #6 Jacob Mackley (Hershey) by fall
Talon Mues (Arlington) over Easton Albrecht (Raymond Central) 2-1
Christian Lovan (Fillmore Central) over Chase Morris (Superior) by fall

152:

#1 Bates didn’t wrestle against #4 Warner in the finals of the Louisville Invite. Warner did defeat #5 Stone in that tournament. #2 Myers went 5-0 at the Gothenburg duals while #3 Tracy won the LouPlatte tournament. #6 Heller from Battle Creek finished 2nd to class B Koch of Hartington CC. Koch lost to Haskell of Madison at 160 earlier this season and Haskell is now down at 152 so by that result Haskell would jump Heller in the rankings. However, Nolan Miller of Logan View beat Haskell at the Madison Invite on Friday. All three appear to be evenly matched. Honestly, this whole weight hasn’t really seen a dominant wrestler all season and could be one of the most unpredictable weights in class C based on all of the close scores between wrestlers.

#4 Spencer Warner (Louisville) over #5 Chandler Stone (Sutton) 6-2
Nolan Miller (Logan View) over Ryan Haskell (Madison) 2-1

160:

Borer continued his dominant season with another win over D#1 Kulhanek. #2 Long edged B#6 Applegarth at Chadron. #3 Petree, #4 Schneiderheinz and #6 Becker dominated their conference tournaments.

160: #1 Zach Borer (North Bend) over D#1 Miles Kulhanek (Howells) 12-1 major
160: #2 Caleb Long (Valentine) over B#6 Lane Applegarth (Alliance) 2-1

170:

#1 Stephen came up short against a top ranked Wyoming wrestler at the Chadron Invite. #2 Hines remained undefeated on the season with his fourth victory over Hull this year. Class B Schafer of Boone Central knocked off #3 Moles and then Hull beat Schafer in the finals of the same tournament. #6 Coufal also has a win over Schafer and won the Centennial Conference tournament on Saturday. #5 Hansen wrestled both A#1 and A#4 very tough, but dropped both matches by decision.

170: #2 Joel Hines (North Bend) over #4 Brady Hull (Logan View) 2-1 UTB
170: #3 Quentin Moles (Crofton/Bloomfield) over D#5 Brock Schaecher (Elkhorn Valley) 10-4
170: Clayton Koch (Arlington) over B#4 Tucker Hancock (Wahoo) by fall

182:

Reimers cruised to win his conference tournament. #4 Deinert had an impressive showing at the David City tournament getting a major over #6B Johnson. #2 Poppe was pinned by D#3 Duffy at the Neligh Invite after winning the Madison Invite the day before. #3 Mueller won the Oakland-Craig Invite without going the distance in a match. Perhaps the most impressive result is unranked Feldner defeating #5 Fairbanks 14-4. Feldner also pinned #6 Lech the week before after losing to him 10-3 earlier in the season. Lech was the winner of the LouPlatte conference.

#4 Haydn Deinert (Malcolm) over B#6 Kolton Johnson (Crete) 12-1 major
UR Matthew Feldner (Kearney Catholic) over #5 Luke Fairbanks (Bishop Neumann) 14-4 major

195:

For some reason 195 continues to be a hotspot for some of the state’s top wrestlers to land. This weight has state medalists from last year that are not ranked, a 3rd place finisher from 220 last year and some that didn’t even qualify that have broke through to state medal caliber status. #1 Gabriel defeated #4 Wyatt Kee for the 7th time in the last two seasons on Saturday. #2 Vasquez lost for the first time this season to class B Ybarra of Gering. Gabriel defeated Ybarra earlier this year so that will impact district seeding. Third ranked McGahan didn’t compete over the weekend. #5 Fuchs is back at 195 after wrestling 220 last week and won all of his matches at the Aurora dual tournament. #6 Schluckebier pinned his way through the Centennial Conference tournament. Gappa didn’t wrestle so we didn’t get to see that matchup although he did even the score with Kee this year winning in a Thursday dual. Kee beat Kocian from St. Paul 1-0 in the semifinals at LouPlatte. North Bend’s Brock Ray pinned two quality opponents in Marx and Hegge to win the Oakland-Craig Invite. However, he has losses this year to Fuchs and Schluckebier. Without considering who has openings at 220 in their lineups it really seems likely that someone will go up to 220 where there’s a legitimate chance of a state finals appearance opposite Hinojosa.

#1 Ethan Gabriel (Ord) over #4 Wyatt Kee (Gibbon) 3-1
#6 Logan Schluckebier (Lincoln Christian) over B#6 Wren Allen (Scotus) by fall
UR Jacob Gappa (Kearney Catholic) over #4 Wyatt Kee 8-5

220:

Top ranked Hinojosa won the Chadron Invite. #2 Brooks went undefeated at the Gothenburg duals. #3 Eilers won by fall over #6 Bauers, a match that was decided by 1-point a few weeks ago. One such wrestler that appears to officially be at 220 rather than 195 is Noah Carlson, who beat a quality opponent in Simmons from Centura to win the LouPlatte conference. Since it appears Ray will be at 195 going forward, Simmons will likely fill the #6 spot in the next rankings.

#3 Matthew Eilers (David City) over #6 Kalten Bauers (Centennial) by fall
#5 Noah Carlson (Central City) over Austin Simmons (Centura) 5-4

285:

Both #1 Lefferdink and #2 Welsh continue to roll through their seasons headed towards district and state finals matchups. #3 Jerabek won the LouPlatte conferene tournament. #4 Rempe was idle over the weekend and has just one loss on the year. He does own the earlier season win over #5 Moses, who won Thayer Central Invite. Moses other three losses are to Lefferdink, Welsh and B#1 Stafursky. Winnebago’s Derrell Zagurski also has just one loss on the season to Welsh and won the Oakland-Craig Invite this weekend.

UR Jared Hornback (Crofton/Bloomfield) over D#6 Jade Buss (West Holt) by fall