Four On The Floor

District Wrestling was held for the Kimball Longhorn Wrestling team on Friday (Feb 11) and Saturday (Feb 12). When the weekend concluded, four wrestlers punching their way to the State Wrestling Tournament in Omaha Feb 17-19.

Matthew Johnson was a district runner-up at 106.

Cody Brinkman was a 4th place finisher at 120.

James McGinnis was a 3rd place finisher at 132.

Trey Schindler was a district runner-up at 152.

Justin Klosterman's season ended on Friday night as he was eliminated from the tournament. He finished his first season of wrestling with a 3-21 record.

"That record is in no way shows how far he has progressed in his wrestling throughout the season.

Kimball was 7th in the team points with 65 points and 10 points out of 4th place. Kimball was as high as 3rd in the team points during the weekend. The teams that finished above Kimball had as many 10 to 14 wrestlers in the tournament scoring points for their teams.

Sutherland was the district champions with 225 points. Sutherland is the pick to win the Class D state title this year.

"We had a great weekend of wrestling," Longhorns coach Cory McManigal said. "We finally had everyone back in the room after battling illness, injuries or both at one time. We had an excellent week of practice, and everyone was dialed in all week. We qualified 4 out of the 5 district entries.

"A lot of coaches commented on how well we performed, and I think we opened a lot of eyes this weekend to what we are capable of. I was also informed by Mr. (Ken) Smith that this is the most state qualifiers that Kimball has had since 2008 or 2009.

"Cody Brinkman had to win a big match right out of the gate to ensure his qualification against a Morrill wrestler that we wrestled 5 times this year. He got a big pin that set the tone for the weekend. After the dust cleared on Saturday for him, he was able to place 4th to qualify himself for state as a freshman.

"On Saturday morning, Matthew Johnson got the day started with a big pin in the semifinals over a Bayard wrestler that had beat him earlier in the year to punch his ticket to state and to get into the finals. He finished the day as a district runner-up.

"James McGinnis wrestled really well against a Sutherland wrestler who is rated 2nd in the state right now but came up short in the semifinals. He then pinned his opponent from Hitchcock County to punch his ticket to state. He then beat a wrestler from Hay Springs that had previously beat him twice in wild 14-12 match to place 3rd.

"Trey Schindler kept the pin party going with a pin in the semifinals against the 3rd rated wrestler in class D from Mullen to make the finals. He then had a tough hard-fought match in the finals against the No. 1 rated wrestler from Sutherland to finish in 2nd place."

The State Wrestling Tournament starts on Thursday.

106 pounder Matthew Johnson will get his tournament started against 23-10 Colter Sinn of Thayer Central.

120 pounder Cody Brinkman will get his tournament started against 28-2 Jacoby Mann of Winside.

At 132 pounds James McGinnis will face 43-6 Brenner McLaughlin of Thayer Central.

At 152 poundsl Trey Schindler will face 35-11 Tylor Kment from Stanton.

For the Kimball fans who can't make it down to Omaha, you can see results on trackwrestling by clicking the 2020 NSAA state wrestling link.

You can also purchase streaming of every wrestling match through the NSAA website (nsaahome.org)