Three Longhorn wrestlers advance to districts with state meet on line

    Three Chase County wrestlers advanced to the next level in the post-season, after placing in the top four at Saturday’s C4-A subdistricts.
    Jaret Peterson, Cayden White and Kenyan Biesecker will be on the mat this Saturday in Valentine for the C4 district meet, hoping for a top four placing to get to state.
    Peterson, a freshman at 220 lbs., had the best subdistrict showing for the Longhorns in second place. He’ll enter districts with a 32-8 record.
    Cayden White, a junior wrestling at 113 lbs., captured third place on Saturday and will be seeded at districts with a 22-13 record.
    Fourth place finisher Kenyan Biesecker, a senior, was back in action at 138 lbs. after recovering from an injury. He’ll take a 22-14 record to Valentine.
    Coach Matt Vlasin said two other Longhorns, Brice Vitosh and Cody Duffy, were close to advancing, but lost in the heartbreak rounds, ending their seasons.
    Vlasin said his team got off to a rocky start, losing all but one of their first rounds.
    Peterson was the only opening round winner, with a quick 33-second pin of O’Neill’s Noah Shabram.
    “We came out really flat as a team,” Vlasin said.
    But, overall, he said his team improved a lot by the second round with more than half the team, eventually getting into the heartbreak rounds.
    After Peterson’s quick opening pin, he faced 6’3” Tristen Ruzicka of Ravenna. Vlasin described that semi-final match as Peterson’s best this year.
    “We were outsized quite a bit,” Vlasin said. But that didn’t intimidate Peterson, who “wore him out.”
    Vlasin isn’t sure if Ruzicka has gone at full three periods this season, but Peterson took him there, holding an eight to nine point lead before pinning Ruzicka at the 5:58 mark, just two seconds left in the match.
    That sent him into the finals where he met Mitchell’s Nathan Coley a third time this season. Coley, 27-1, beat Peterson with a pin.
    An opening round bye and a 2-1 showing got White to the third place medal. After losing by pin in the semi-finals, White  won a pin and then a major decision over his next two opponents.
    Biesecker had to fight back after being pinned by Arcadia/Loup City’s Logan Gregory in the first round. Biesecker won his next two by pin, only to again face Gregory in the consolation finals, losing by technical fall.
    Vlasin said scheduling a subdistrict tournament this year due to COVID-19 concerns had a “different feel to it.” It marked one of the few 8-man brackets they’ve seen this season, but said it ran smoothly.
    Nine Longhorn wrestlers made the snowy trip to Mitchell Saturday.
    Vlasin said they opted to leave an hour earlier than planned, and was glad they did as the forecast of an inch of snow was several inches off.
    It was a snow-packed trip all the way to Lewellen, but they drove out of it after Oshkosh, he said.
District meet at Valentine
    The top four in each weight class from the C4-A sub will join the top four from the C4-B sub in Valentine Saturday for the C4 district meet.
    Vlasin expects Peterson to be either the No. 3 or 4 seed, with Biesecker earning No. 4 or 5. White should be in the top six, he said.
    “All of our wrestlers will have to win a couple tough matches to get to state,” Vlasin said, “but it’s doable.”
    Wrestling starts at 10 a.m. MT. The top four in each weight class advances to the state tournament in Omaha.
    In a new state tourney format, the classes have been paired up to wrestle in separate two-day tournaments.
    Classes A and D are wrestling Feb. 17-18 while Classes B and C will compete Feb. 19-20.

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