Kimball wrestlers ready for District

The Kimball High wrestling team closed out the regular season this past week and head to District this weekend in Valentine. The Longhorns had two tournaments this past week, including hosting the 2017 SPVA Tournament on Jan. 31, and then participating in the Chimney Rock Invite at Bayard on Feb. 2.

Bridgeport won the team championship at the SPVA Tourney with 168.5 points with Chase County runner-up with 133. Behind the top two came Sutherland with 87, North Platte St. Pats 80, Hershey 77, Kimball 39.5 and Perkins County 33.

Coach Wade Brashear was a bit short handed due to some illness on his squad, but still there were some highlights. Brashear commented, “We wrestled without our 120 and 285 pounders due to illness. Jaden Mohr at 132 wrestled on of his better tournaments and ended with a third place finish. Jordan Cluff at 106 also finished third and had one of his best matches of the year, falling 12-11 to an undefeated, and top-ranked, senior, Ryan Patrick of Sutherland. Overall we wrestled decent, but will need to wrestle better this weekend at District.”

Cluff, at 106 lost twice by decision and won by fall in :55 second to go 1-2 on the day. Garrett Pedersen at 126 ended up 2-3 in his weight division, and wound up fourth. Mohr, at 132, earned his third place with a record of 3-2 including two wins by fall. Isaak Glanz at 170 went 1-3 to finish fourth. Stephen Bateman at 182 was 1-3 to finish fourth.

The Chimney Rock Invitational was a small make-up tournament to help replace competition team points that schools missed because of weather cancellations, according to coach Brashear.

“Again, we were without our 120 and 285 pounders due to illness. In addition, Jordan Cluff at 106 was only able to wrestle JV opponents because of no entries from other schools at the varsity level. Jordan went 2-0 in those matches. Pedersen wrestled a solid tournament at 126 going 3-1 on the day for second place. Stephen Bateman at 195 wound up first with his 1-1 record, winning first place by criteria. Jaden Mohr at 138 was 0-2, as was Isaak Glanz at 170.”

The C-4 District being held at Valentine this Friday and Saturday will prove once again to be one of the toughest districts in the state, according to coach Brashear.

“Our goal is to practice our best this week and wrestle our best matches here at the end,” said Brashear.