Wrestlers Fourth at Central City Invite
The Ord High School Wrestling Team finished fourth in the nine-team field at the
Central City Invitational this past Saturday. The team recorded their highest point total
of the season scoring 89 points and finishing just ahead of fifth place Holdrege (87). "I
was very pleased with the way our kids performed in this meet", Coach Derry Trampe
stated. "This is historically a strong meet and I felt like our kids wrestled at higher level
than we have all season. It is nice to see the improvement from week to week and
hopefully we can continue that trend through the state meet." Central City won the meet
with 185.5 points while Aurora was second with 164.5 and Grand Island Northwest was
third with 152 points. Rounding out the team scoring were Logan View (46), St. Paul
(44), Oakland-Craig (29), and Hastings St. Cecilia (0).
The Chanticleers brought home medals from five of the eight weight classes
they were entered in. Johnny Ference led the team with a first place finish at 170
pounds. "Johnny is wrestling very well right now and really wrestles smart matches",
Trampe said. "He has a plan before he gets on the mat and he was able to do exactly
what he wanted to on Saturday. I am really proud of the way he competes and how good
he has become." Finishing second for the team were Geoff Foth at 138, Devin Cronk
at 220 and Clayton Lange at 285. "Geoff lost a close match in the finals to a very good
wrestler", Trampe stated. "However, those are the matches he needs to win to move to
another level. Both Devin and Clayton wrestled well on the day and ran into some pretty
stiff competition in the finals. Clayton suffered his first loss of the season to a defending
state champion and I know he was upset. However, if he uses it as a learning experience,
it should help him out as we get into the district and state tournaments. Devin has gotten
much better since the start of the season and needs to continue to wrestle with confidence
in his ability." Dusty Staab finished 3rd at 152 to complete the list of medal winners for
the team. "I felt like Dusty had a solid day", Trampe said. "He got off to a rocky start
but bounced back with three straight wins to finish third. He is starting to get a lot of
things working for him on the mat and that is good to see." Both Cole Svoboda at 160
and Jason Felton at 182 went 1 and 2 on the day and recorded a win to help the team
finish in fourth. "We always tell our guys that what moves you up in the team standings
is how many points you get from your people who do not place and both of these guys
picked up 3 points apiece because of their wins and the bonus points they scored",
Trampe said. "We had a lot of bonus points on the day and that is what we will need to
do if we are going to continue to be successful this season."
The Chants will be back in action again this weekend as they travel to Gibbon
to compete in the annual Bill Foster Invitational. The meet will feature both varsity and
junior varsity wrestling and begins at 10:00 am. Teams scheduled to compete include:
Boone Central, Elgin Public/Pope John, Elwood, Franklin, Gibbon, Harvard, Kearney
Catholic, Ord, Ravenna, Southern Valley, Thayer Central, and Wood River. On Tuesday
the 17th the Chants will host Ainsworth in their final dual meet of the season. The dual
with the Bulldogs will begin at 6:30 pm and will also be parent night.
Individual results from the meet are as follows: 138—Geoff Foth (2nd) pinned
Hayden Logston (H) 1:20, dec. Conor Strong (A) 10-8, was dec. by Eric Knight (CC) 4-
3; 152—Dusty Staab (3rd) was dec. by Logan Geiger (A) 9-4, dec. Quintin Mrkvicka (SP)
4-2, pinned Jamison Baird (LV) 3:47, pinned Tyler Shriner (GINW) 2:42; 160—Cole
Svoboda was pinned by Jake Brown (CC) 3:51, pinned Jesse Meyer (LV) 4:19, was dec.
by Jay Brass (SP) 8-1; 170—Johnny Ference (3rd) pinned Zach Dammann (GINW) :55,
dec. Marcus Todd (A) 4-2; 182—Jason Felton was pinned by Austin Pistulka (H) :21,
pinned Jake Padnos (SP) 1:45, was pinned by Eli Bricker (A) 2:39; 195—Taylor Miller
was pinned by Dylan Krosschell GINW) :54, was pinned by Jacob Urban (CC) 3:52;
220—Devin Cronk (2nd) pinned Luke Padnos (SP) :21, pinned Logan Paup (CC) 1:11,
was pinned by Ehren Schwarz (A) 1:16; 285—Clayton Lange (2nd) pinned Evan French
(LV) :46, was pinned by Garret Johns (A) 2:44.
