WTC Wrestling Tournament

David Gifford waited out the first round of last week’s Western Trails Conference tournament with a bye. His first face to face match at 220 came in the second turn, and he dropped Banner County teammate T.J. Grubbs in 11 seconds.

A lunch break followed. Over five hours of round robin wrestling, he had worked less than a minute.

“It’s a nice, light day,” he joked.

In the afternoon, however, he pinned three competitors in succession to capture the WTC title.

“That was a good way to end the first half of the season,” reported Wildcats head coach Bill Gifford.

The 220 pounder is now 17-3 on the season. He opened the third round by pinning Hemingford’s Moses Ash 1:44 into the match. In the next round he secured Zaine Gallegos of Bayard in the second period after a tough duel. The final—another pin—was over Mitchell’s Spencer Rein.

Two Kimball wrestlers earned a shot in their respective crowns.

Rowdy Keller’s day at 106 began auspiciously, as he pinned C.J. Sidrow. Two of the Longhorns sophomore’s five losses on the year had come against his Morrill nemesis.

“That felt good,” Keller said.

He returned to the mat in round three after a bye to face another familiar foe, Mitchell’s Elysha Foster. Keller gained the advantage early and pinned in before one minute elapsed.

He fell to another Tigers competitor, Drew Gilliland, in the next round. His final match, a 12-5 decision over Hemignford’s Cooper Weber gave Keller second place on the day and a 15-6 mark on the season.

“There’s a lot more wrestling ahead,” Keller said, “but I’m on the right track.”

Meanwhile Jonathon Withrow slotted into 138 for the first time, after wrestling at 145 since the opening meet. He responded by dispatching Alex Knouse from Morrill with relative ease.

“I just did what I know how to do,” he explained.

Withrow earned an 18-5 major decision over Tanner Whitton of Mitchell to enter the 138 championship bracket, where he pinned Bridgeport’s Wesley Christensen at 1:04.

In the finale, however, he yielded to Casey Glassgow of Gordon-Rushville.

“Jon’s capable of winning the championship,” Kimball head coach Wade Brashear said. Withrow’s tentative approach to his rival may have cost him.

Still, the Longhorns emerged from the WTC with two silvers.

“I think those two should be qualifiers,” Brashear pointed out. “We should be taking guys to state this year—I’m counting on it.”

Withrow’s record improved to 18-3.

Mostly due to illness, Kimball sent only two other wrestlers to Bridgeport for the event. At 132, Justin Mohr opened with a loss by technical fall to Bayard’s Brandon Bowers. But he rebounded with a strong effort—almost taking down Kyle Mousseau (Gordon-Rushville) in the first period then applying persistence the second to earn the pin after a physical match.

“That first period wiped me,” Mohr acknowledged. “But I had that kid beat from the start.

He fell in the final two rounds, however. Mohr is 10-13 on the year.

Tristan Carruthers rode out an up and down day to take fourth place at 160.

After an electrifying first round win—“I hit the bulldog hard and put him on the mat,” he reported—Carruthers found himself in trouble against Gordon-Rushville’s Tristan Tuma.

He lost by tech fall to Tuma and by pin to Allen Denton from Bayard before gathering himself to shock Morrill’s Jackson Carpenter with a quick move and pin 30 seconds into the match.

The final round was a back and forth affair. Eventually Travis Willhoite of Bayard came out on top in an 11-5 decision. Carruthers heads into the break with an 8-15 mark.

“I thought we wrestled really well,” Brashear said, summing up the day. “We’re moving along nicely.”

Banner County’s day ended on a high note. Gifford earned the 220 championship and three others emerged victorious in their final encounters.

Young Garrett Grubbs entered the WTC with a 3-10 record. He ended it with a hard fought 11-10 decision over Mitchell’s Garrett Tinsley to take the 126 bronze—a first round pin of Lucas Jones from Bayard launching him toward the eventual third place finish.

Noah Huber suffered through a disappointing tournament, falling in four consecutive

matches until pinning Bayard’s Conrad Kildow late in the finale.

“I was really happy with that,” coach Gifford said of his 145 pounder’s second win on the year.

Although transfer rules prevented Gared Krakow from contributing to team points, the Wildcats’ 195 pound wrestler also placed, taking home the bronze—although his day started off badly, Tanner Willey toppling him at 1:48.

“He’s a lot stronger than I am,” Krakow said of the Bayard star. “But I did better than the last time I wrestled him.”

But Krakow shook off the loss and captured his next two matches, one by pin and the other a 5-1 decision over Bayard’s Rocky Trevino. After dropping one more round, he bounced back to stop Hemingford’s Asa Carlson in a match that was over almost before it began.

Krakow is now 11-9.

T.J. Grubbs was blanked on the day, though he showed tremendous promise in his encounter with Hemingford’s Ash.

Both wrestlers spent much of the six minute span on the mat, looking for leverage or struggling to hold a bridge long enough to escape. Eventually Ash won by decision.

“Its probably one of the longest matches I’ve wrestled,” Grubbs observed. “I just wasn’t able to roll him.”

Coach Gifford was pleased with Banner County’s results overall.

“We still have things that frustrate me, but we’re improving,” he said. “This gave us a barometer.”