Eagle Wrestlers Compete At Valentine

Jon Marvin of O'Neill struggles for  position at the Valentine Inivite last Saturday. Photo courtesy Mikayla Marvin.

Dion Nemec of O'Neill has his Shane Childs of Gordon/Rushville in an arm hold at last Saturday's Valentine Invite.

Spencer KNopp of O'Neill locks up with an oppenant at last Saturday's Valentine Invite.

Photo courtesy Mikayla Marvin.

The O'Neill Eagle wrestlers traveled to Valentine on Saturday for their varsity meet. The Eagles made off with seventh place with nine wrestlers competing.

1. Pierre 191.5

2. Philip 141.0

3. Valentine 131.5

4. Plattsmouth 127.0

5. Winner 100.0

6. Ord 90.0

7. O'Neill 86.5

8. Chadron 85.5

9. David City 82.5

10. Alliance 64.0

11. Ainsworth 39.5

12. Gordon/Rushville 35.0

13. McCook 30.0

14. Broken Bow 10.0

In the 120 lb. class Jon Marvin won his first match with a pin over Cameron Biggins 1:08. In the second match Marvin wrestled Trevor Bukaske of Valentine and lost by pin in 3:28. Marvin's next match put him against Spencer French who he pinned in 1:38 and then moved on to pin Kasey Taylor with a time of .30 Marvin's final opponent was Trevor Bukaske, he lost to Bukaske to take fourth.

In the 126 lb. class Dion Nemec won his first match against Shane Childs of Gordon/Rushville with a major decision of 17-8. Nemec lost his next match to Trace Strotheide of Chadron by decision 5-0. Nemec drew a bye for his next match and then won in decision 7-2 over Dustin Papa of David City. In his last match Nemec lost to Walker Johnson of Alliance 9-2 for fourth place.

In the 132 lb. class Blake Walters first drew a bye and then moved on to face Grady Carley of Phillip, who Walters pinned in .28 seconds. In the third match Walters lost in decision 7-5 to Sean Brice the eventual winner of the weight class. In his next match Walters beat DJ Weare of Alliance with a 12-0 major decision to take third.

In the 138 lb. class Cory Rowse beat Raedon Anderson with a major decision of 16-4. Rowse then faced Casey Glassgow and narrowly beat him 7-6. In the match for first Rowse lost to Caleb Stoltenburg of Pierre 19-3.

In the 145 lb. class Marcus McNichols drew a bye for his first match and then lost to Marcus Nelson of Valentine by a pin in .42 seconds. Marcus' next opponent was Tate Cullers of Chadron, who Marcus pinned in 1:33. McNichols lost his next match to Devin Prochuska of David City by pin in 1:31.

In the 152 lb. class Jesse Albarran lost his first match to Jeff Huesmann of Allinace by decision 13-7. Albarran drew a bye and then lost his next match to Triston Eklund of Valentine by pin in 2:39.

In the 170 lb. class David Fox drew a bye in his first round match and then lost to Brandon Shuler in a 3-2 decision. Fox drew another bye before facing Gage Smedra of Ord, who Fox beat 12-3. Fox lost his next match to Clint Ever Stoud by pin in 4:06.

In the 182 lb. class Spencer Knopp drew a bye in the first round and then beat Jake Fulton of Valentine in major decision 10-0. Spencer then faced Chance Kulston of Plattsmouth by decision 3-1. In his final match he faced Tate Novolny of Winner and lost in a close match 3-2 for second.

In the 285 lb. class Keith Sandall drew a bye in his first round and then faced Clayton Lange of Ord, who pinned Sandall in .29. In his next match Sandall beat Geoffrey DeVires by pinning him in .44. Sandall was then beaten when he was pinned by Octavio Gaytan of Plattsmouth.

The  Eagles wrestling team traveled to Valentine this past weekend for the Valentine Invitational.  The field featured 59 ranked wrestlers from Nebraska and South Dakota, with 10 of the 14 teams present being ranked in their respective states.  O'Neill entered the tournament far from healthy as a team. Still absent in the line-up were Thomas Schipporiet, Tate Laursen and Joe Gillham.  "The tournament was everything we thought it would be in terms of competition; tough as nails. I would speculate that there were kids left off the medal stand that will find their way to the podium when it comes to the state tournament. The field was that good.  We had some matches that we struggled in, making some uncharacteristic mistakes, but I thought in later matches we showed improvement.  We hope to get some guys back over the Christmas break which will help us compete better in the team races," commented Coach Corkle. 

Individually the Eagles were led by Spencer Knopp and Cory Rowse who finished in second. Spencer dropped a one point decision in the finals to the top rated wrestler at his weight in South Dakota. While Cory wrestled from the seventh seed in the bracket, knocking off the two seed and three seed to make the finals.  Blake Walters dropped his first match of the season to eventual champion and familiar foe in Sid Bice from Winner,.  the O'Neill wrestler finished third.  Walters could get another crack at Bice when the Eagles travel to Presho, SD, for the Mid-Dakota Monster after the first of the year. Dion Nemec worked his way up from the sixth seed in the bracket to finish in fourth. While Jon Marvin overcame an early loss to make his way to the medal stand. Unfortunately, Jon wasn't able to wrestle his consolation finals match as he had reached the five match limit, so he too had to settle for a fourth place finish.

(0) COMMENTS

Welcome to the discussion.