Kimball wrestlers capture second place at Banner County Tournament

The Kimball High Wrestling Team had two wrestlers crowned champions and had 7 wrestlers place as the Longhorns finished runner-up in the team standings of the 14 team Banner County Tournament this past Saturday. It was a great showing for the Kimball team made up of a lot of new faces to the program that coaches Wade Brashear and Bob Culek are trying to build.

Sedgwick County, Colorado won the team title with 165 points with Kimball runner-up with 89. Behind the top two were Lingle 79.5, Holyoke 79, Sutherland 79, Bayard 59, Morrill 44, Garden County 42, Hyannis 30, Hemingford 23.5, Crawford 21, Creek Valley 14, Minatare 4, Banner County 2.

Coach Brashear commenting on the tournament said “As a team we wrestled very well, however, this is an early season tournament and the competition level will only increase. We came into the tournament with the least amount of mat experience of all the teams. Being that, we only had a triangular and no first week tournament. In fact, it was the first set of matches for Damien Rutledge and Eric Escajeda. We had other wrestlers with only one or two matches prior. It is a good start for our season, but this event can help us identify and work on positions and techniques that we are weak at. Our conditioning level must continue to improve as it should, the entire season”. Brashear singled out Kimball’s two champions, Rowdy Keller at 113 and Colt Lewis at 138, along with placers Anthony Scott 4th at 106, Garrett Ryan 2nd at 120, Ruger Lewis 3rd at 145, Javier Figueroa 4th at 170, and Damien Rutledge 4th at 220.

Individual match by match results for the Kimball wrestlers are as follows. At 106 Anthony Scott lost by pin to Raja of Holyoke in 1:47, won by pin over Coss of Garden County in 4:59, won by pin over McGowan of Banner County in 1:09, lost by pin to Muller of Sedgwick County in 2:41, and lost by pin to Weber of Hemingford in 1:56.

At 113 Rowdy Keller won 9-0 over Muller of Sedgwick County and won by pin over Kaufman of Lingle in 3:09.

At 120 Garrett Ryan won by pin over Kuehn of Sedgwick in :42 seconds, won by pin over Ditch of Sutherland in 2:32, lost 5-2 to Mann of Sedgwick, and won by pin over Lay of Lingle in :50 seconds.

At 126 Logan Stahla won 10-4 over Legarreta of Sedgwick, lost by pin to Lopez of Holyoke in :32,Lost by pin in 3:34 to Collea of Lingle,won 10-5 over Ross of Minatare, and won 8-4 over Abernathy of Lingle.

At 132 Justin Mohr lost by pin to Hageman of Lingle in 5:13, won in sudden victory 9-7 over Anaya of Sedgwick County, lost by pin in 4:36 to Sutphen of Hyannis, won 5-2 over Jones of Bayard, and lost by pin in 3:00 over Fleecs of Sutherland.

At 138 colt Lewis won by pin in :28 over Standley of Minatare, won by pin in 1:10 over Wunder of Lingle, won by pin in 1:02 over Fleecs of Sutherland, and won 11-0 over Jespersen of Hemingford.

At 145 Ruger Lewis won by pin in 1:13 over Cinocco of Minatare, lost by pin in 1:17 to Barnes of Lingle, won by pin in :28 over Burton of Lingle, won by pin in 1:58 over Burton of Lingle, and won 10-8 over Grimes of Hyannis.

At 170 Javier Figueroa won by pin in :55 over Miles of Holyoke, lost by pin in 1:23 to Blake of Sutherland, lost 17-2 to Fraire of Sedgwick County, and lost 6-0 to Applegate of Bayard.

At 220 Damien Rutledge received a bye, won by pin in 1:11 over Raja of Holyoke, won 5-1 over Hunter of Bayard, lost 11-8 to Rowe of Hyannis, and lost 5-3 in sudden victory to Alcorn of Crawford.

At 285 Eric Escajeda received a bye, lost by pin in 1:02 to Forbes of Crawford, lost by pin in :34 to Dick of Sutherland, lost by pin in 2:00 to Wurm of Bayard, and lost by pin in 1:24 to Sullivan of Holyoke.

Kimball will be in action Saturday at the Sidney/Bridgeport Tournament being held in Sidney with Wrestlers to report at 7:30 a.m.