C1 @ Malcolm

Top 5 Team Prediction:
#6 Archbishop Bergan (5)
Fillmore Central (7)
Tri County (6)
Wood River (4)
Bishop Neumann (4)

Other Teams Competing:
Cross County/Osceola
Fort Calhoun
HTRS
Hartington Cedar
Lincoln Lutheran
Malcolm
Norfolk Catholic
Ponca
Syracuse
Winnebago
Yutan

One of the stories heading into this district is who will emerge with the team title. Bergan is the only ranked team in the field, but they might be better built for the state tournament. With returning state champion Caden Arps back in the lineup, they may still be able to make a run at a district title. Key weights for Bergan will be 113, 160 and 170.

Tri County and Fillmore Central appear to have the depth to compete with Bergan’s top end points. These two teams just saw each other this past weekened with Tri County finishing about 20 points ahead of Fillmore Central. In early January, Fillmore Central edged Bishop Neumann at their home invite and also finished ahead of team contender Yutan. Wood River is coming off of an impressive showing at their conference tournament. They haven’t seen many of these teams throughout they year so that makes them a bit unpredictable. If they can push a few of their borderline guys through to Omaha they could end up winning the district. Syracuse has six predicted qualifiers, but will need some of their other wrestlers to step up to provide team points in order to crack the top five.

After looking through all of the C districts this one is by far the most unpredictable in not just the team race, but from an individual perspective as well. Some weights are fairly deep, while others might see wrestlers bump up a weight to try and capture the third or fourth spot. Not a better individual weight in this district than 106 lbs. Four freshman that entered the season ranked are still right in the mix when it comes to C106. There are 23 total ranked wrestlers in the district.

UPDATE: Expect Yutan, Syracuse and Cross County/Osceola to also push for a top-five finish. This is the only district without a state dual team and it appears as if the top half of teams are going to be fairly close in points. 24 ranked wrestlers now in C1.

Updated Class C Rankings

Please send any suggestions, updates or corrections to dru.kastler@gmail.com, KastlerDA on Twitter, or simply comment on this post. We will update these predictions the week of districts to include the next few weeks of competition. Records were pulled from Trackwrestling and may not be 100% accurate, but for the most part should be current as of 1/26.

106:
Great weight to kick things off with for the C1 District Tournament. It features four of the state’s best freshman. The four below wrestlers were ranked 2-5 in the preseason and they are still in that vicinity right now with very realistic chances of bringing home hardware from Omaha. Olberding, Waddington and Ohnoutka all have head to head wins over Brandt. Olberding has common opponent criteria over Ohnoutka. No direct matchups or differentiating criteria between Olberding and Waddington so unless that changes the better record will get the top seed at districts. The top four seem pretty clear this point, but Colton Kirby has built a solid season and should not be overlooked. He has a major decision win over fellow contender Meyer.

UPDATE: Kirby has been up at 113 so we’ll move him there. No meetings with the top guys the last few weeks so no changes in the top four.

1. #2 Ely Olberding (Fort Calhoun) 37-3
2. #3 Riley Waddington (Wood River) 40-2
3. #5 Aaron Ohnoutka (Bishop Neumann) 39-3
4. #6 Barret Brandt (Syracuse) 29-14

Travis Meyer (Fillmore Central) 28-19

113:
Another weight led by freshmen. Schademann and Olberding both have narrow wins over returning state medalist Bridgmon. There isn’t much that separates the top three guys here. The fourth spot should be a unique battle of it’s own. Tyler Allen from Bergan has two wins over Liermam. Returning qualifier Robles has made the late drop to 113, but appears to be in a battle for his varsity spot. For the time being we’ll stick with Robles for the fourth spot, based on the fact that he’s made the trip to Omaha once before.

Update: Looks like Kirby has been testing the waters at 113 the past few weeks, perhaps gunning for the fourth spot at this weight. He won the GICC Invite on Saturday. Robles is 10-1 in his last 11 matches.

1. #6 Alex Schademann (Fillmore Central) 44-6
2. #8 Lance Olberding (Fort Calhoun) 36-4
3. Spencer Bridgmon (Syracuse) 24-11
4. Antonio Robles (Winnebago) 29-17

Colton Kirby (Cross County/Osceola) 32-15
Tyler Allen (Archbishop Bergan) 12-12
Cade Lierman (Bishop Neumann) 25-18

120:
State champ Caden Arps has officially made it to 120 and is back from injury. Returning state finalist Dylan Ancheta looks like a solid bet to make the finals opposite of Arps. Arps and Fushia have head to head wins over Wells. Wells and Arlt have split matches. Fushia has picked up two wins over Arlt, but has been out of the lineup the past two weekends while teammate Trowbridge has been at 120. Trowbridge has a win over returning qualifier Goebel so we’ll give the nod a the third spot to whoever occupiers the weight for Fillmore Central. Syracuse wrestlers a very tough Class B heavy schedule so Goebel cannot be overlooked even with a losing record. Urlacher was also a qualifier last year. It won’t be a huge surprise to see one or more of these guys move up to 126 in an attempt to qualify for the state tournament.

UPDATE: Fushia looks to have won the starting spot here for Fillmore Central. Wells won the most recent meeting against Arlt which makes them 2-2 against each other this season.

1. #1 Caden Arps (Archbishop Bergan) 17-1
2. #4 Dylan Ancheta (Wood River) 23-0
3. Dillon Fushia (Fillmore Central) 21-7
4. Jace Goebel (Syracuse) 21-20

Trev Arlt (Yutan) 38-11
Grant Wells (Lincoln Lutheran) 32-12
Josh Urlacher (Bishop Neumann) 18-26

126:
This one is one of the more open weights in all of the Class C districts. Returning qualifier Anderson will be the heavy favorite. Smith from Syracuse has a common opponent over Talton of Norfolk Catholic. Assuming it’s Fushia at 120 for Fillmore Central, look for Trowbridge to potentially qualify here. Trowbridge has been as low as 113 so he might be a bit undersized at this weight, but he has a head to head win of Martinez. Again, it wouldn’t be surprising to see some of the 120 guys up here for districts as the 2-4 spots seem relatively wide open at this point.

UPDATE: Talton hasn’t wrestled for Norfolk Catholic since the 23rd so his status is worth keeping an eye on.

1. Dalton Anderson (Ponca) 29-4
2. Jacob Smith (Syracuse) 18-14
3. Kanyon Talton (Norfolk Catholic) 19-6
4. Aidan Trowbridge (Fillmore Central) 28-10

Zaid Martinez (Tri County) 23-17
Adam Ohnoutka (Bishop Neumann) 24-23

132:
Returning medalist Thompson is up three weights from a year ago. Janke has a common opponent over Reedy. Kult from Yutan was down at this weight earlier in the season, but has been wrestling at 145 in recent weeks so we’ll keep him up there. For now we’ll give the nod to Lautenschlager, who is one of the few remaining winning records at this weight.

UPDATE: Recent weight drop by Henkel from Yutan to 132 where he not only gets out of a crowded 138 weight, but also puts his name in the ring for a district title and also makes the top four pretty clear.

1. Carson Thompson (Wood River) 37-11
2. Cal Janke (Archbishop Bergan) 31-9
3. Sean Henkel (Yutan) 31-9
4. Caden Reedy (Tri County) 34-16

Max Lautenschlager (Bishop Neumann) 21-16
Noah Monroe (Fillmore Central) 24-22

138:
Hard to bet against sophomore Cameron Graham here as he is unbeaten on the season and has wins over Henkel and Olander. Garrison and Fairbanks have head to head wins over Hinrichs. Olander has a head to win over Henkel and has split with returning qualifier Hochstein. Several quality wrestlers here capable of making the trip. Due to the depth at this weight expect some movement from some of these guys to either 132 if their descent plans allow it, or to 145 where the fourth spot seems pretty open right now.

UPDATE: Henkel did notch a few win over Fairbanks, but dropped to 132. There’s really not much that separates 3-7 at this weight regardless as Olander beat Henkel and has split with Hochstein. Fairbanks beat Hinrichs 8-4. Should be fun to watch this one play out.

1. #3 Cameron Graham (Cross County/Osceola) 51-0
2. #5 Drew Garrison (Tri County) 26-5
3. Seth Fairbanks (Bishop Neumann) 38-10
4. Aiden Hinrichs (Fillmore Central) 35-16

Alan Olander (Norfolk Catholic) 30-16
Kerby Hochstein (Hartington CC) 32-14
Nick Brodigan (Wood River) 25-17

145:
Returning medalist Smydra vaulted up the rankings based off of his win over returning finalist Scdoris a few weekends ago. He’ll be challenged in this district big time by Bryce Reed, who was leading Smydra at the Cross County Invite before being pinned in the second period. Look for those two to meet in the finals. Cole Reedy has only two losses to Class C opponents this season. It’s possible Kult goes back to 132, where he’d be a good bet to qualify. For now though it appears as if he could make it through here as well based on his win over Specht. Specht and state qualifier Nun have split this year.

UPDATE: Kult beat Specht 3-0 recently and won by fall over Nun. Only question is if we’ll get any traffic from 138 up here.

1. #4 Wyatt Smydra (Norfolk Catholic) 35-3
2. #8 Bryce Reed (Cross County/Osceola) 39-11
3. Cole Reedy (Tri County) 36-6
4. Isaac Kult (Yutan) 30-14

Conner Specht (Bishop Neumann) 22-22
Conner Nun (Fillmore Central) 26-24

152:
Zoucha has really ascended up the rankings as the season has progressed. His only loss to a Class C opponent this season is to 160 #2 Hinrichs of Sutton, who just made the drop to 152. Zoucha will enter the district tournament as the favorite. Nuttleman has been building momentum recently as well, knocking off D#2 Green from Nebraska Christian. Waltke dropped to 152 a few weeks ago and has yet to drop a match since. The top three here look pretty solid. The fourth spot is almost completely up for grabs.

UPDATE: Waltke finished ahead of Nuttleman a few weeks ago at Doniphan-Trumbull so we flipped them at 2/3. The fourth spot remains wide open. Conner Hochstein from Hartington looks like a solid bet now that we missed the first go around.

1. #1 Gavin Zoucha (Malcolm) 41-7
2. Bailey Waltke (Tri County) 37-7
3. Colton Nuttleman (Cross County/Osceola) 38-16
4. Conner Hochstein (Hartington Cedar) 20-13

Jesse Keiser (Yutan) 22-15

160:
Returning qualifier Hinrichs has been solid at this weight since dropping from 170. He has a 2-1 win over Vrana from Neumann. Vrana has a head to head win over Marschand. 2018 qualifier Mendez has head to head wins over both Graham and Bennett. Bennett and Graham did not wrestle this past weekend while both at the same tournament, but that could very well be an important district quarterfinal match.

UPDATE: Bennett avenged his loss to Mendez so they have split matches now. Hinrichs won another close match over Vrana. Graham is right there to capture a placing spot based on his win over a good Gonzalez from Minden. Vrana beat Mendez 10-7.

1. #8 Gavin Hinrichs (Fillmore Central) 39-10
2. Samuel Vrana (Bishop Neumann) 32-13
3. Francisco Mendez (Norfolk Catholic) 32-12
4. Hunter Bennett (Ponca) 27-7

Wyatt Graham (Cross County/Osceola) 36-17
Dylan Marchand (Archbishop Bergan) 23-11

170:
The big question here is if Brandt will be back in the lineup for Syracuse for the district tournament. With or without Brandt, this is one of the strongest weights in the district. Zoucha’s only Class C loss is to #1 Vodicka. He has a head to head win over Egr. Hoesing was a state qualifier last year at 182 and has competed well down at 170 this year. His only losses are to top five wrestlers from Class D. Hoesing has a head to head win over Egr of Yutan. Egr really turned heads with his major decision win over formerly ranked McIntyre. McIntyre rebounded from that loss with a conference title. Barnes of Fillmore Central has competed anywhere from 170 to 195 this year and wrestled at 170 and 182 this past weekend.

UPDATE: Brandt will be wrestling at the district tournament this weekend. Hoesing has been very impressive recently, notching a 16-6 win over B#4. Barnes from Fillmore Central appears set to wrestle at 182. Unfortunately one of these five wrestlers will be staying home unless we see any weight changes.

1. #2 Burton Brandt (Syracuse) 26-1
2. #3 Dylan Zoucha (Malcolm) 42-5
3. #6 Eric Hoesing (Hartington Cedar) 37-4
4. Caden Egr (Yutan) 37-7

Koa McIntyre (Archbishop Bergan) 33-6

182:
Maybe one of the more complicated weights to figure out. Kyle Sterup has emerged as one of the front runners at C182. He has a head to head win over English. Beeson has two head to head wins over Jessen on opening weekend. Villwok has beaten Jessen as well. Courter from Malcolm beat Villwok, but lost to Jessen. Courter also edged Barnes of Fillmore Central 10-8, for reference sake if Barnes is up at 182. Jessen beat Logue from Ponca 14-10 this past weekend. It looks like seven or more quality wrestlers could end up here.

UPDATE: Sterup continues his impressive season. Barnes is back to 182 and it appears Beeson has moved to 195.

1. #4 Kyle Sterup (Cross County/Osceola) 49-17
2. #6 Ethan Villwok (Archbishop Bergan) 25-5
3. Caleb Courter (Malcolm) 33-15
4. Thomas Barnes (Fillmore Central) 38-12

Eli English (Wood River) 29-11
Josh Jessen (Yutan) 31-14
Matt Logue (Ponca) 14-8

195:
Freshman Quran Cook has been a pinning machine as a freshman, notching 30 pins so far this year. He has a win over returning qualifier Siebolt by fall. Worthy beat Siebolt 6-4 recently as well. Another returning qualifier, Hurley of Wood River seems to round out this weight. Siebolt’s last tournament was at 220, so he may end up wrestling there. Ironically enough, Barnes down at 170 for Fillmore Central does have a win over Siebolt this year so maybe he’ll want to jump back up a few weights. It’s also very possible we’ll see a few of the guys from 182 here as well and maybe even Siebolt up at 220. Siebolt and teammate Hess flip flopped weights at Thayer Central Invite.

UPDATE: Beeson has been wrestling at 195 rather than 182 so we’ll lock him in here and see what happens for districts. He picked up a win over Cook so that should vault him up to the top seed.

1. #8 Brandon Beeson (Tri County) 34-7
2. Quran Cook (Yutan) 34-5
3. Aiden Worthy (HTRS) 14-2
4. Colin Hurley (Wood River) 34-16

220:
Returning D State Champ Cone solidified himself as the top wrestler at this district with a 10-0 win over likely second seed Matulka. Matulka has to be one of the more improved wrestlers in the state this season and is certainly a contender for a state medal. The question from here is who will challenge the top two? Wilcox beat Guerrero head to head. Lovejoy of Winnebago and Klabunde from Fort Calhoun both have a legitimate chance of qualifying out of this weight as well. Klabunde has a common opponent over Hess from Tri County. Should be interesting to see who ends up at the 3-4 spots here.

UPDATE: Still some questions as to who captures the 3/4 spots. Siebolt appears to be moving up with teammate Beeson at 195.

1. #2 Peyton Cone (Archbishop Bergan) 34-1
2. #5 Jon Matulka (Bishop Neumann) 34-5
3. Brandon Siebolt (Tri County) 25-5
4. Cole Klabunde (Fort Calhoun) 20-14

Isaac Wilcox (Norfolk Catholic) 24-14
Ulises Guerrero (Wood River) 28-13
Robbie Lovejoy (Winnebago) 21-8

285:
Simonson has beaten Nordmeyer head to head and has common opponent over Burr. Nordmeyer and Burr should be the 2nd and 3rd seeds and meet in a coin flip type of match in the semifinals. Asche of Fillmore Central has maybe been a little under the radar this year. He was out of their lineup this past weekend, but they do have a capable backup in Brant West. Darion Earth will look to get a qualifier for Winnebago for the third straight year at this weight.

UPDATE: The top four appear to be good bets. Hard to pick between Burr and Nordmeyer on that semifinal.

1. #6 Eli Simonson (Archbishop Bergan) 32-7
2. #8 Kale Nordmeyer (Malcolm) 34-14
3. Zach Burr (Syracuse) 26-10
4. Connor Asche (Fillmore Central) 26-9

Darion Earth (Winnebago) 34-17