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Bison pin Chase County in battle of walking wounded
The high school wrestling meet between McCook and Chase County Thursday,Jan. 28, perhaps could have been held at the doctor's office instead of the McCook High School gym.
Both teams have been hit with injuries as the season winds toward its completion. There were only four matches contested in the 14 weight classes. The host Bison won three of those four bouts along with seven forfeit victories to claim a 60-15 decision over the Longhorns.
McCook was missing several regulars, and head coach Nick Umscheid shuffled his lineup due to the injuries and Chase County open weights.
"It was kind of an uneventful dual," Coach Umscheid said. "It was kind of dual of numbers -- whoever had the most kids at the right certain weights came out the victor.
"The team score, we weren't too worried about. We told the guys to go out there -- those guys that did have matches -- to just worry about their own personal matches and do the best that they can for that. The team score in a dual like this, you don't get too excited about; it was not like a normal dual feel. We were hoping just to go out and win as many matches as we could."
Chase County head coach Matt Vlasin echoed Umscheid's sentiments.
"We've only got 10 kids out total this year," Vlasin said. "So when you sustain injuries and a couple other situations and you lose half your team, that hurts you right off the bat. McCook's got a good quality team, and we knew that coming in. You tell the kids not to focus so much on the dual but more on individual matches. We had some close ones tonight but they just didn't fall our way."
Heavyweight battle
The pre-meet draw determined the dual would start at 189 pounds. After the teams split forfeit wins a 189 and 215, the first match contested was 285, with Ross Stewart of McCook facing Nathan Hinojosa. The Chase County wrestler gained an early third-period takedown to lead 8-4. Stewart scored an escape with 20 seconds left, but he could not take Hinojosa down. Stewart was awarded a penalty point at the final buzzer for Hinojosa's second stalling warning, but he still lost an 8-6 decision.
Hinojosa beat Stewart last Saturday at the Lexington Invitational, and Coach Umscheid thought his heavyweight would prevail in Thursday's rematch.
"We thought Ross was going to be able to come through and win that one," he said. "We didn't think Ross wrestled his best. We thought if he would have wrestled his best he could have came out with a win there. But it wasn't to be. The kid was pretty quick. Ross, he's a typical heavyweight, and quickness isn't the name of his game. If you get a guy who is quick and knows how to move, he gives Ross some trouble.
"We'll just go back to the drawing board and work on things that Ross needs to work on overall, so that he's wrestling his best and not making those mistakes come district time in two weeks."
Morgan misses school record
The team split forfeit wins at 103 and 112 pounds, giving Chase County a short-lived 15-12 lead. McCook senior standout Nate Morgan was up next at 119 pounds against Michaela Bell of Chase County. The Longhorns' female grappler also got in the McCook record book, as Morgan wanted the school record for fastest pin (eight seconds).
Nate got a quick takedown and had Bell on her back in the opening five seconds of the match. But the Chase County female grappler avoided the quick pin, although the McCook team and Bison fans thought Morgan had Bell pinned in under eight seconds.
"A lot of people think its the shoulders, but it's actually the shoulder blades," Umscheid said, in describing the criteria for a pin. "Supposedly both shoulder blades touching for a count of one. But every ref's count of one is different -- that's a judgment call. But that's the rule, I believe."
Morgan scored three quick near-falls and led 11-0 before he finally pinned Bell in one minute and four seconds.
"He's had a couple chances during the season for the record," Umscheid said. "It's a tough record to get. Eight seconds, you've got to have everything happen just right for you. Sometimes you have to have the right ref, the person has to land right. Nate was about as close as you can get to breaking the record tonight.
"You could tell he really wanted it. He wanted to make quick work of it. It looked like he had it for a second, but it just wasn't to be. That's not going to discourage him at all. That was just going to be an added bonus or some gravy on the type of season that he's having so far. He knows that he's going to have four quality matches (Friday), he's going to have a tough conference meet, and those matches are going to get him more ready, more prepared for districts and state than whatever happened tonight."
McCook won the only other matches contested Thursday, along with five more wins by forfeit. Jake Fahrenbruch scored a second-period escape, takedown and three-point near-fall over Michael May at 130 pounds before Fahrenbruch pinned May in 3:05. Keldon Osterman jumped up a weight to 145 and he had no trouble with a late first-period fall over Steven Way.
McCook Duals tune-up
Thursday's dual served as a Bison tune-up for Friday's McCook Duals. Coach Umscheid was happy with his team's effort but sad about his squad's injury situation.
"The kids that did have matches, they wrestled pretty well," he said. "They came out and got the job done, for the most part. They used this mat time tonight to get ready for (Friday's) matches. Hopefully everything works out for us tomorrow.
"(Friday) is going to be based more on individual performances rather than team scores, and that's the way we're going into it," Umscheid said. "We've still got guys injured and academically ineligible. We've just got to fight through that.
"This week it's kind of depressing being at home and not being able to put your best team out there, but we'll do our best. We'll fight through it, we'll live to fight another day. We know that there's brighter days hopefully ahead of us around the corner."
The McCook Duals open Friday at 3 p.m., with five rounds of dual meets featuring action on two mats at the Senior High gym. The Bison have a bye in the first round, then wrestle four consecutive duals.
North Platte, Alliance, Grand Island Northwest and Wray, Colo., will join McCook in the dual meet event.
Young Longhorns
Chase County's coach was pleased with his team's effort Thursday.
"We've got some young kids, and I've got some first-year seniors out," Vlasin said. "We're kind of a young team, but good heart and good fight in the kids, never giving up, so that's good to see. They wrestled well, but just came up a little short in a few spots."
Coach Vlasin planned to send several of his Chase County team members to compete at the Medicine Valley Invitational at Curtis Friday. The full Chase County team -- or what's left of it -- will compete at the North Platte St. Pat's Invite Saturday.
The Longhorns are building toward Class C-4 district competition at Hershey Feb. 12-13.
"We have an extremely tough district," Vlasin said. "I'm hoping some of my injured kids will be back, and I think a couple of them have really good shot at state. I'm hoping (to qualify) three or four, any more would be just great."
McCOOK 60, CHASE COUNTY 15
Thursday at Senior High gym
189 -- Nick Alberts (MC) won by forfeit.
215 -- Tyler Roenfeldt (CC) won by forfeit.
285 -- Nathan Hinojosa (CC) dec. Ross Stewart, 8-6.
103 -- Clayton Korus (MC) won by forfeit.
112 -- Keithan Cochran (CC) won by forfeit.
119 -- Nate Morgan (MC) pinned Michaela Bell, 1:04.
125 -- Jon Scott (MC) won by forfeit.
130 -- Jake Fahrenbruch (MC) pined Michael May, 3:05.
135 -- Kyle Groshong (MC) won by forfeit.
140 -- No match, both teams open.
145 -- Keldon Osterman (MC) pinned Steven Way, 1:48.
152 -- Skylar Kalinski (MC) won by forfeit.
160 -- Austin Swartz (MC) won by forfeit.
171 -- Jeff Phelps (MC) won by forfeit.