The Greenback Wrestling squad marched into Saturday’s Clearwater Invitational with one goal in mind: win the tournament. The boys wrestled great, although falling just short of their goal of a championship, leaving Clearwater with a team runner-up finish and beating two top ten 4A teams in the process. The team is making steps in the right direction as we had three finalists, three champions and nine placers on the day. Dylan Pelland, 106 lb. sophomore, began the day knowing that in order to win a championship, he would have to beat two undefeated, ranked wrestlers. The first was a tough freshman who was 20-0 on the year up to that point, the number five ranked wrestler in 4A, Zach Strait of Concordia. This semifinal matchup was very competitive with Pelland getting three critical near fall points to survive and advance to the finals for another marquee matchup on the day. Dylan’s championship match opponent, ranked number two in 4A, Arthur Jesse, a senior from Independence, also faced Dylan with an undefeated 18-0 record before the finals. Dylan wrestled an intelligent, well-managed match and came through in the clutch, winning the championship and exhilarating our crowd and his two finalist teammates about ready to take the mat in succession. Dylan is 14-0 on the year; 1st place Brayan Balderrama, 113 lb. sophomore, looked sharp all day. Brayan met his first test in the semifinals against 15-2 sophomore from Clearwater, Jake Thomas. Brayan dominated the matchup winning by a major decision, 11-0. In the final, Brayan met up with another Independence senior wrestler, Carl Jesse. Brayan wrestled aggressively and was on the attack from beginning to end in an impressive 8-2 victory, winning his first championship of the year in convincing fashion. Brayan is 17-8 on the year; 1st place Nick Lucas 120 lb. sophomore marched through to the championship match against tough league opponent, Austin Lustfield of Smoky Valley. Nick battled and scored when at the moment that he needed to in order to take and keep the lead in a 4-3 victory. Nick fed off of the momentum of his teammates as the Greenbacks claimed the championship in the first three weight classes in-a-row. Nick is 16-2 on the year; 1st place Gabe McAbee, 126 lb. senior, was up and down on the day, losing in disappointing fashion to Mulvane’s Josh Hoouser, but winning critical matches over regional opponents from Clearwater and Hugoton. Gabe found himself matched up in the consolation semifinals against Hershberger of Buhler, losing in the waning seconds 9-7. Gabe placed sixth on the day. Gabe is 13-12 on the year; 6th place Cody Hoy, 132 lb. senior, received a bye before losing his first match to regional opponent, Tyler Whitson of Buhler, 4-2. Cody marched through the consolation side of the bracket, winning three in-a-row to finish third with an impressive fall over El Dorado’s Mason Herman to end his day. Cody looks to take that momentum into Holton next Saturday. Cody is 14-10 on the year; 3rd place. Brandon Guerra, 138 lb. sophomore, won his first match of the day by fall before losing his next two to end his day. Hudson Swift, 145 lb. senior, won a close quarterfinal matchup against the 11-2 sophomore, Josh Long of Clearwater with a 3-2 decision. Hudson lost his semifinal matchup against returning State Champion, Colton Stalford of Caney Valley, 7-0. Hudson then lost in his consolation semifinal against Winfield’s Isaac Bailey, 4-0 before losing a rematch of his earlier quarterfinal 6-2 to end his day in 6th place. Hudson is 12-10 on the year; 6th place Logan Baird, 160 lb. sophomore, had one of his roughest days of the season. Losing two matches that he had in hand as time ran out. Logan learns quickly from his mistakes and this will make him that much more difficult to deal with from week-to-week. We have to eliminate trying certain moves that don’t fit the situation and we will spend a lot of time on match management to get him back in the championship matches in the tournaments to come. Logan will return to form after a week of preparation. Logan is 21-5 on the year; 4th place Ethan Sharp, 170 lb. senior, won his first match against a 12-4 freshman by a major decision, 12-3. Ethan lost his quarterfinal to Logan Linbloom of Buhler by fall, following that loss up with a win over Wampler of Smoky Valley. In a match that he was winning, Ethan got out of position, losing to Concordia’s Logan Higbee by fall to end his day. Ethan is experiencing highs and lows right now, but we will get him on track by the time the regional tournament comes to Pratt. Hayden Skaggs, 182 lb. sophomore, lost his first two matches on the day. Hayden has wrestled up a weight for us all year and he is getting valuable experience right now. His work ethic is going to get him far in the next few years. Camdon Sweet, 195 lb. junior, won a critical matchup in the consolation quarterfinals before losing to Mulvane’s Dylan Jorns by fall. Camdon went on to place sixth on the day and he has shown much improvement each time out. 6th place Jaime Garcia, 220 lb. senior, wrestled in his second tournament of the year and started off with a quick fall in the quarterfinals against El Dorado’s Matt Kenney. Jaime found himself in the semifinals against the 15-4 senior, Skylar Brand of Wellington. Jaime wrestled well, but lost in an 8-1 decision. Jaime’s next matchup came in the consolation semifinals against Buhler’s Jacob Weast. Jaime dominated the match with a 7-0 decision to put him in the consolation final. Jaime lost there to McElravy of Mulvane by fall. Jaime is learning quickly and will be a whole different wrestler by the time our regional tournament gets here in February. 4th place Seth Simmons, 285 lb. junior, lost in his first match of the day against the 18-3 Ethan Gustus of Caney Valley. Seth followed that up with an impressive fall over Wellington’s Jace Lowe. Seth looked to continue through the bracket, but made one bad decision against Rose Hill’s Brody Hingst and lost the takedown to end his day with a 4-2 loss. Seth is improving every minute he gets on the mat. Mat time is his friend right now and the more we get him out there, the better he will be now and in the future. The Greenbacks were mildly disappointed to not quite meet our goal of a championship, but we had a lot of successes to be proud of and we have some adjustments that can and will be made to get us where we need to be come season’s end. The Greenback Wrestlers will be in action once again this coming Saturday, January 24th at Holton High School in the Sadowski Invitational.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 03:33:16 +0000
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