Team Outlook: INDIVIDUAL TEAM RANKINGS | DUAL TEAM RANKINGS
#1 Valentine and #2 David City clashed for the second time this season at the Norm Manstedt Invite. Both were missing key elements of their teams, but Valentine has come out on top both times they’ve seen each other. As far as individual state tournament points go, these two teams remain pretty close on paper.
#3 Aquinas has a decent edge over the rest of the pack at this point. The Monarchs have finished ahead of Ord, Amherst, Raymond Central, Logan View, Broken Bow and Milford this season already (4th – 9th ranked teams). Not much separates T#4 Ord/Amherst and #10 Bridgeport so expect things to continue to change as the season progresses.
The Aquinas Invite saw some great matches and helped paint a clearer picture of Class C. Aquinas was runner-up behind Class B Pierce. Teams 3-6 were Conestoga, Milford, Broken Bow and Twin River. It’s likely that all of these teams will either be in the dual or tournament team rankings.
Many teams have been struggling with injuries at this point in the season. Big strides are made in January so hopefully teams and individuals are healing up, because competition is key at this point in the year as we are just one month away from the start of district tournaments.
Individual Weight Outlook: INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS
January always brings some weight drops and the inevitable injury or two. Below we’ll try to bring you up to speed on each weight in Class C.
106:
The lightest weight might be the hardest to predict in Class C at this point in the year. Trenton Arlt dropped down from 113 and immediately knocked off highly ranked Ohnoutka of Bishop Neumann 2-0. Arlt also has two wins over #6 Barrett Brandt, one of which Brandt held the lead until the final seconds. Ohnoutka beat Brandt by major decision, but lost to McGee from Logan View. Brandt beat McGee by major decision. Olberding of Fort Calhoun hasn’t lost yet to a Class C opponent and neither has Waddington of Wood River. David City’s Bongers doesn’t have the flashy record, but is battle tested this season and still a medal threat. His two losses at the Norm Manstedt were to the top two finishers at the weight. Another January drop in weight is Hardesty of Conestoga. Hardesty’s only losses since dropping are to ranked B wrestlers and to Olberding. In addition to McGee other challengers at this weight include Hernandez from Wilber-Clatonia, Luther from Kearney Catholic, Hemmingsen from Boone Central and Johnson from Twin River.
113:
#1 Benavides is still carrying an undefeated record. He’ll maintain the top ranking as he still holds the win over #2 Schluckebier from last year’s state semifinal match. #4 Dickau from Hi-Line is surging up the rankings. He’s picked up wins in recent weeks over #5 Musser, #8 Hilmer and D#1 Ashburn. #3 Hernanedez-Jimenez has struggled in recent weeks so hopefully he can round back into form to boost Logan View’s state dual title hopes. #5 Musser doubled up tournament titles on Friday and Saturday this week and that includes a win over district foe #8 Hilmer. Fillmore Central freshman Alex Schademann continues to impress. His only two losses this year are to Schluckebier. He does have a 2-1 win over returning medalist Bridgmon as well. Boone Central’s Gavin Dozler beat Bridgmon 5-1 and has yet to lose to a Class C opponent. Dozler, Schademann and Dickau should all be at Gibbon on Saturday so that will help sort things out at this weight. Lance Olberding, Ethan Williams, Cayden Lamb are a trio of tough freshman to watch as the season progresses. Schindler of David City wrestled well at High Plains and avenged a loss to Lamb.
120:
#1 Albecht has beaten or has common opponent over most of the top challengers at this weight, including a win over #2 Vandenberg. He did suffer his first loss of the season bumping up a weight in a dual this past weekend. Vandenberg won his home invite with a major over #4 Ruffner. #3 Ancheta returned from injury a few weeks ago won his bracket in Burwell this past Friday over D#4 Smith, D#5 Phillips and C#8 Bruns. Fifth ranked Garey didn’t compete at either of Broken Bow’s tournaments over the weekend. Things become a little murkier after the top five. Battle Creek’s Carter King made the drop to 120 and knocked off returning medalist Mueller at the Pierce Invite. Freshman Logan Burt beat King at the Norm Manstedt. Bruns lost to D#4 and D#5 at Burwell and won in Central City. Along with Gary being out, there are a few other injury question marks at this weight. The biggest of which is will we see Caden Arps at this weight at some point. Arps is out with injury, but was wrestling 126 prior to that. Vondra from Milford has been out since week 1 as well, he made the heartbreak round at 113 last year and would make an already tough C3 district pretty wild if he’s back in the lineup. Very deep weight with a long list of others who can challenge the top group.
126:
The big news from this previous weekend is Casey Faulkenberry returning to the lineup for Broken Bow. He had wins over B#5 Eliker, C#5 Zegers and C#8 Chini on Friday and Saturday. Zegers had a statement win over #4 Zitek. Top ranked Williams won the Norm Manstedt, surviving a bit of a scare in the finals. Escandon pinned his way to the Franklin Invite title. #6 Shields was runner-up at his home invite to D#1(120) Wells. Nathan Patak from Wilber-Clatonia continues to impress. Returning qualifier Dalton Anderson of Ponca is a heavy favorite to win the C1 district and set himself up for a state medal run. Still waiting to see if Martin Valencia will make it back for Logan View.
132:
#1 Quentyn Frank had a decisive win over #2 Bryce a few weekends ago. Those two sit pretty solidly at the top for now. We’re seeing TONS of guys make the drop down from 138; Rowse, Taylor, Harris and Janke to name a few. The depth here is incredible. #6 Taylor and #8 (138) Janke have split matches. Taylor beat #4 Harris head to head and Harris beat Janke. Valentine’s #8 Tobin Olson finished ahead of all of them at High Plains so he’ll move up in the rankings. #3 McNulty missed a few weeks, but was back this past weekend and went unbeaten for Logan View. #7 Cam Williams won the Aquinas Invite. Noah Scott didn’t wrestle for Aquinas at their home invite, but did notch a win over state medalist Carson Thompson the previous week.
138:
Krolikowski was as dominant as ever, pinning his way to a title at the Norm Manstedt Invite. His finals win was over #3 Feldner by fall. #4 Lade from Battle Creek was in the field, but did not compete the second day. #2 Nickolite won his home invite over #7 Austin Cole 6-1. Nickolite also holds a win over Feldner. The big news from a few weeks ago is Cameron Graham moving down from 145, where he was ranked #5. With so many people moving away from this weight, this seems like a solid move and he, along with Nickolite, appear to be the top challengers to Krolikowski. Graham and Nickolite are both just sophomores. #5 Garrison has the head to head win over #6 Eggleston. State qualifier Kadin Perez of Mitchell has moved down to 138 and could see Feldner this weekend.
145:
Top ranked McGinley was runner-up to A#2 Sperling at High Plains. #2 Scdoris notched a dual win over #4 Valentine two weekends ago, but dropped a match to #8 Smydra at Aquinas. #7 Lampman has a head to head win over Smydra and has yet to lose to a Class C opponent. #6 Pozehl did not wrestle until January and had a nice first weekend, but went down with injury at the Burwell Invite so we’ll keep an eye on that. #3 Widener went unbeaten in Ogallala on Saturday. The gist of this weight is right now McGinley leads the pack, especially with his wins over Lampman and Widener. Not much separates 2-8 at this weight so this one should be fun down the stretch. Cross County/Osceola’s Bryce Reed makes the drop to 145. In addition to Pozehl’s injury, Shiers from Kearney Catholic has been out recently and it sounds like Cory Carlson of Sutton is out for the season. This year ends a 19 year streak of a Carlson being in the lineup for Sutton. The 7 Carlson brothers/cousins combined for 850 wins, 19 state qualifications, 2 state finals appearances and 9 state medals.
152:
Some shakeups going on at 152. #1 Kreikemeier beat then #1 ranked Eller at the Wood River duals. #3 Garret Kluthe dropped down from 160. Kluthe was unbeaten at the Ord Duals and won the Central City Invite Title. He dropped an OT match to D#3 Gunning. North Bend’s #5 Ethan Mullaly also made the drop to 152 and beat Gunning 4-3. Mullaly is 2-1 against #6 Lindsley, who is also down from 160. Mullaly and Lindsley finished ahead of Eller at the Aquinas Invite, with Mullaly winning the head to head match. #4 Gavin Zoucha from Malcolm won his home invite and hasn’t lost to anyone from Class C yet this season. Tryon Calleroz of Arcadia-Loup City has split with Gunning. Tons of other names to think about at this weight. #7 Valdivia was beaten 3-2 by Moldenhauer of Wilber-Clatonia. Jaxson Daake from Kearney Catholic beat Moldenhauer in OT. Steven Menke from Bridgeport, Justin Chasek of Mitchell and Drake Janssen of Valentine will be tough out of the C4 district in addition to Daake. Still thinking there will be one more notable 160 to make the drop to 152. Stay tuned.
160:
Chase Olson dropped his first match of the season to A#1 Maxx Mayfield at the Norm Manstedt finals. He’s still the clear cut #1 at this weight in Class C based on his head to head win over #2 Hinrichs in last year’s state semifinals. Olson has beaten #3 Conner Halverson head to head already this year. Halverson has missed the last few weeks for unknown reasons. Another C4 competitor, #4 Conner Schutz is unbeaten on the year. #5 Dylan Jones won a 3-2 match over #6 Jaxson Jones. Jaxson Jones beat rankings contender Mendez by fall in the semifinals at Aquinas. #7 John Karpov lost by injury default to Dylan Jones over the weekend. St. Paul’s Tyson Rasmussen is down to 160 where he should compete for a medal. #8 Kunc of Wilber-Clatonia hasn’t competed for several weeks. With all of the moves to 152, this weight has thinned out quite a bit.
170:
The match between #1 Vodicka and #2 Brandt didn’t happen in their dual or the Norm Manstedt Invite. Brandt didn’t wrestle on Saturday so his status is in question. Vodicka has the head to head win over #3 Zoucha. Zoucha notched a nice win over B#3 Lyons on Saturday. #4 Battershaw of Valentine has been out of the lineup since week one, but have heard he should be back to competing soon. #5 Josh Warren from Bridgeport dropped his first match of the season to B#6 Skinner over the weekend. #6 Hoesing won the Winside Invite convincingly. #7 Meyer from Ord won the Central City Invite title on Saturday. #8 Koa McIntyre was 6th at the extremely tough 170lb weight at the Norm Manstedt. Rankings contenders Ben Kment of Aquinas, Tom Maline of Oakland-Craig, Gavin Hinrichs from Fillmore Central and Jesse Drahota of Ravenna all continue to impress and are right on the edge of being ranked.
182:
Lathan Duda has a week one win over #2 Peterson, two wins over #4 Stokebrand and a win over #6 Snipes. Cross County/Osceola’s Kyle Sterup has been steadily moving up the rankings as the season moves on as he remains unbeaten. #4 Stokebrand’s only losses are to D#1 Dawe and Duda. Sterup and Stokebrand could see each other this weekend at the Cross County Invite. At the Syracuse Invite Friday we could see #6 Snipes, #7 Knott and #8 Villwok along with contenders Evan Hand of Scotus and Brandon Beeson from Tri County. Oakland-Craig’s Jarron Metzler had a breakout tournament at the Manstedt notching wins over #5 Allen from David City and Hand. #8 Villwok was an absolute blast to watch at the Manstedt as well, nearly pinning A#2 DeAnda in the finals.
195:
#1 Gabriel remains unbeaten on the year. He has recent wins over B#3 and #4. Weather impacted Logan View’s schedule this weekend so a potential meeting between #1 Gabriel and #2 Booth didn’t materialize. #4 Escamilla looked tough at the Norm Manstedt Invite. Dropping matches to the top two wrestlers in Class A and an overtime loss to B#2 Bordovsky. At the Aquinas Invite, #6 Thonen of Conestoga got an OT win over #3 Schultz. Schultz won over #5 Alexander for 3rd. Alexander has a head to head win over #7 Cook. #8 Coley did not wrestle this last week.
220:
#1 Potts dropped his first match of the season to D#3 Gale. #3 Beaver won in OT over Gale the prior weekend and has common opponent over #4 Cone from Archbishop Bergan by way of his win over D#1 Throener. Beaver and Throener have split so it’s pretty evident that by score comparison’s things are pretty evenly matched at the top of C220. Cone outplaced #2 Moore at the Norm Manstedt over the weekend. #7(285) Scheer of St. Paul dropped to 220 and won the Burwell Invite on Friday and won by fall over #5 Johnson in the Central City finals on Saturday. #8 Matulka from Bishop Neumann continues his ascent up the weight with a win over #6 Cone. #7 Anderson suffered some setbacks this past weekend to ranked wrestlers from Class B.
285:
#1 Jerabek won by fall over D#1 Martin over the weekend to win at Amherst. #2 Hoevet suffered his first loss of the season in Central City. Bergan’s #3 Eli Simonson was runner-up at the Norm Manstedt. #4 Ingwersen and #8 Bumgarner have been out of the lineup. #7 Scheer is down to 220. #6 Nordmeyer finished 4th at his home invite, dropping matches to Class B wrestlers. Alex Miller from Logan View won over #5 Escobar this past weekend and has a win over rankings contender Schramm of Aquinas. Maybe one of the tougher weights to line everyone up at, especially when most of the top wrestlers have at least one puzzling loss on the season.