Wildcat wrestlers win two of four at Crawford

Wildcat wrestlers competed well in the Crawford Invitational, a round robin tournament, on Friday, Dec. 4 with freshman Trenten Eskew and senior Garrett Grubbs finishing second in their weight brackets.

Eskew, wrestling at 106 pounds, began his day with a win over Austin Anderson of Hay Springs before losing his match to Trevor Nelson of Crawford at 5:23.

Banner County senior Garrett Grubbs won his first match by fall against Andres Canales of Gering in 3:59, followed by a 10-8 decision over Hay Springs mat-man Jake Johnson and won against Josh Cinocco of Minatare by fall in 2:34.

Grubbs, the sole returning wrestler for the Wildcats, then fell to Shane Child of Gordon-Rushville in the First Place Match in 1:59.

Banner County sophomore Simon Hendricks, wrestling at 138 pounds, fell to Gavin Kersley of Hemingford and then lost by decision to: Slayde Denton of Gordon-Rushville 7-5, Coy Wolken of Hay Springs 10-3, and Jebb Ginkens of Sioux County 8-6.

Joshua Boston, a 145-pound junior from Banner County, lost by fall to each of his opponents, Austin Garcia of Gering, Caleb Hilliker of Gordon-Rushville, Marc Aguilar of Gering and Cole Kramer of Garden County.

Coach Bill Gifford said he will use some of the situations at meets to establish work during practices, but overall most of his team’s efforts will be used working on the simple things that will give the wrestlers the best chance of success.

“Each of our wrestlers has really shown the desire to learn and try to get better each day. If they can keep that attitude and increase their level of training as their knowledge increases, I think they will find the success they are looking for. I was really pleased with the way the kids performed. The effort was definitely there, and our conditioning wasn’t too bad for the first meet. We obviously made mistakes, but they can be corrected and we can move on,” coach Bill Gifford said. “Our more inexperienced athletes got a good taste of high school wrestling, and improved greatly in each match. Even with the losses and the steep learning curve, I felt they really were able to recognize some things we had worked on, and corrected some things from match to match. Garrett had a good tournament, and accomplished some goals he had set for himself. It was nice to see him compete so well in his losses to a good Gordon-Rushville wrestler. We just have to keep working on the fundamentals and move forward.”