Banner County opens junior high wrestling season with regional invitational

Banner County hosted area schools, including Bayard, Bridgeport, Burns/Pine, Crawford, Garden County, Hay Springs, Hemingford, Kimball, Leyton, Lingle-Ft. Laramie, Minatare, Morrill and Southeast (Yoder) for the Banner County Junior High wrestling invitational on Saturday, Oct. 27.

Chris McCloskey of Kimball earned first place in his bracket and added 18 points to the Kimball board with his three wins. First over Gabe Brooks, also of Kimball, by 13-3 major decision, then by major decision (15-7) over Caleb Little Wolf of Southeast and finally by fall over Daniel Bunton of Morrill in 35 seconds.

Kimball's Dominick McCloskey also placed first and scored 17.5 team points with a win by technical fall over Lance York of Southeast. In round two he received a bye and followed with a win by fall in 1:53 over Joey Olsen of Burns/Pine Bluffs.

James McGinnis took first and added 17 team points with a first round win by fall over Jonathan Fritzler of Hemingford in 42 seconds followed by a second round win by 8-1 decision over Kolby Houchin of Bayard and a third round win by 14-0 major decision over Clay James of Burns/Pine Bluffs.

Kimball's Trey Schindler placed second and earned 13 points with his performance.

He won by fall in two minutes against Slade Hopkins of Southeast in Yoder.

His round two win was by a 15-2 major decision over Lucas Anderson of Burns/Pine Bluffs.

In round three Schindler gave it up by a 10-0 major decision to Riley Holthus of Garden County.

Brandon Paxton placed second in his division and earned an additional 12 team points with his round one win by decision (3-2) over Zane Hinman of Hemingford. Paxton followed up with a round two win by fall over Brendyn Onstott of Banner County in 1:40 and a round three loss by fall in 58 seconds to Mathew Chapman of Southeast.

Kimball's Matthew Johnson took first place in the middle school 1 bracket and earned nine team points with a win by fall in 1:36 over Justin VanWinkle of Minatare in round two and another win by fall in 1:49 over Wyland Lobner of Garden County.

Gabe Brooks of Kimball earned third place in his bracket and added nine team points.

Brooks lost in the first round to Kimball Chris McClosky by by 13-3 major decision but came back in round two with a win by fall in 23 seconds over Daniel Bunton of Morrill and a round three loss to Caleb Little Wolf of Southeast by fall in 1:52.

Kimball's Kyle Fraser earned third place and scored nine team points with a round one loss by 4-0 decision to Remington Bremer of Lingle-Ft. Laramie and a round two win by fall in 32 seconds of Layne Clark of Burns/Pine Bluffs. His final round was a loss by 12-2 major decision to Gage Mintken of Hay Springs.

Uziel Flores of Kimball took third place in his bracket and added seven points to the Kimball board with a first round loss by fall in 1:00 to Bryce Humphrey of Burns/Pine Bluffs and a second round loss by 6-5 decision to Andres Gonzales of Morrill before coming back in the third round to win by 7-0 decision over Jack Baker of Southeast.

Kimball junior high wrestlers also had two place fourth and earn four points each with Braylon Miller and Santiago Paniagua at the meet.

Banner County wrestler Eddie McGowan earned third place and scored nine points for his team with a first round win by fall in 1:46 over Lingle-Ft. Laramie's Noah Fleener before two losses by fall.

Teammate Brendyn Onstott also placed third and added seven points for his team when he came back from round one and two losses to win by 5-4 decision over Zane Hinman of Hemingford.

Adam Knaub of Banner County earned fourth place and scored four team points, as did teammate Isaac Olsen.

Kimball hosted an invitational meet on Tuesday, Oct. 30, results were unavailable at the time of press.