Longhorns sending five to state wrestling

    After only sending one wrestler to the state championships last year, the Chase County wrestling team will be sending five to this week’s state tournament.
    Returning to Omaha will be junior Jaret Peterson, last year’s third place medalist at 220 lbs. After an early season loss to No. 1 Cal Wells of Broken Bow, Peterson, who went into districts ranked second, got revenge with a 3-2 ultimate tie breaker win over Wells in the district finals match.
    Coach Matt Vlasin said both wrestlers changed up their strategy since their December match, with Wells taking more shots and Peterson being a little more defensive.
    Peterson also had wins over Mitchell’s Jackson Jenkins, who he saw at the SPVA meet last week, and Loomis/Bertrand’s Clay Meyer, who Peterson wrestled in December at Southern Valley.
    Peterson has won several matches by decision over the last weeks, including his semifinal win over Meyer, which Vlasin feels has helped prepare Peterson for this point of the season.
    Chase County’s other district championship went to sophomore Luis Co at 138 pounds.
    Vlasin said Co, ranked eighth, had a good district tournament and will do well at state if he continues to perform at that level.
    Co won his first two matches by pin, then took an 11-6 win over Ian Hughes of Amherst in the semifinals. Vlasin said Co handled himself well in the match, especially after Hughes took Co off the mat and into spectators along the wall.
    Once in the finals Co needed extra time to take a win over Kyler Vincent of Gordon-Rushvile after Co was called for stalling as time expired.
    Sophomores Thomas Reeves, 182 lbs., and Zach Tarin, 285 lbs., finished second.
    Reeves won his first match by pin, then faced Curtis Rittgarn of Gordon-Rushville.
    Reeves, ranked fifth, got his second win in a week over Rittgarn by a 4-2 score.
    Vlasin said Reeves wrestled Rittgarn better than last week and he was glad Reeves moved right on to the championship match rather than having to battle back through the tough bracket.
    Despite a 2-9 loss in the championship, Vlasin said Reeves wrestled better than the score shows against Class C No. 1 Conner Wells of Broken Bow.
    Tarin only got back on the mat last week after a month long injury. With coaches encouraging him to wrestle at 285 lbs. rather than move down a weight, Tarin avenged last week’s loss to Mitchell’s Jeremiah Coley in extra time, then went the distance with Class C’s No. 1 heavyweight, Bridger Rice of Ord. Tarin finished second with a 1-3 loss.
    Tarin came in focused and ready to go, Vlasin said, adding, out of all his wrestlers, he most excited for Tarin to go to state.
    Westyn Mendenhall will also be making the trip to Omaha.
    Another sophomore, Mendenhall opened the tournament with a pin, then lost to Broken Bow’s Braylan Rynearson 7-9.
    Mendenhall bounced back with a win, then was in a tough spot in the heartbreaker round. Caught in a bad spot against Kale Taubenheim of Amherst, Mendenhall got a reversal and pin to secure his trip to state.
    Rynearson was waiting in the third place match and, in a very similar match to their meeting earlier in the day according to Vlasin, Mendenhall finished fourth with a 9-11 loss.
    Senior Dawson Mollendor’s high school career ended in the heartbreak round.
    Mollendor got a pin in the first round, then battled to a 0-4 loss in the second round. Keeping his season alive with back-to-back pins, Mollendor suffered a 2-4 loss in sudden victory to Kreyton Rockefeller in the heartbreak round.
    Malachi Christensen, 126 lbs., and Jonathan Sosa, 132 lbs., went 1-2. Tyler O’Neil, 152 lbs., and Cooper Dillan, 160 lbs., went 0-2.
State schedule
    Class C will have its first matches in Omaha starting at 3 p.m. CT Thursday, then continue with the afternoon and evening sessions Friday.
    All classes will be on the mat starting at 9 a.m. CT Saturday morning. Championship matches will begin at 3 p.m. CT.
District C4, Feb. 10-11, 2023
Team Scores—1. Broken Bow, 226.0; 2. Valentine, 152.0; 3. Gordon-Rushville, 134.5; 4. Ord, 134.0; 5. CCS, 116.0; 6. Mitchell, 105.0; 7. Amherst, 103.0; 8. Gibbon, 63.0; 9. Kearney Catholic, 62.0; 10. Hershey, 59.0; 11. West Holt, 56.0; 12. Loomis/Bertrand, 52.0; 13. Morrill, 38.0; 14. Wood River, 36.0; 15. Red Cloud/Blue Hill, 21.0; 16. Centura, 10.0
Individual results
126—Malachi Christensen (17-15) lost by decision to Keltin Vanarsdall (Hershey), dec 8-3; won by fall over Dalton Zipf (Centura), fall 1:24; lost by fall to Trevor Schroeder (Amherst), fall 3:28.
132—Jonathan Sosa (19-8) won by fall over Jake Shipman (Red Cloud/Blue Hill), fall 1:29; lost by major decision to Uzziah Voss (Mitchell), MD 9-0; lost by fall to Zach Roach (Amherst), fall 4:16.
138—Luis Co (34-9) won by fall over Tyler Lashley (Morrill), fall 1:46; won by fall over Alex Wagner (Wood River), fall 0:56; won by decision over Ian Hughes (Amherst), dec 11-5; 1st Place Match - won in sudden victory over Kyler Vincent (Gordon-Rushville), SV-1 6-4.
145—Westyn Mendenhall (34-15) won by fall over Riggin Hutchison (Hershey), fall 0:35; lost by decision to Braylan Rynearson (Broken Bow), dec 9-7; won by fall over Brek Wiese (Wood River), fall 1:52; won by fall over Sage Krebs (Gordon-Rushville), fall 1:39; won by fall over Kale Taubenheim (Amherst), fall 2:24; 3rd Place Match - lost by decision to Braylan Rynearson (Broken Bow), dec 11-9.
152—Tyler O’Neil (20-20) lost by major decision to Christian Wick (Amherst), MD 14-2; lost by decision to Rogelio Hernandez (Gibbon), dec 8-4.
160—Cooper Dillan (14-13) lost by fall to Jase Blattner (Kearney Catholic), fall 2:49; lost by sudden victory to Jesus Hernandez (Gibbon), SV-1 13-8.
170—Dawson Mollendor (23-19) won by fall over Wyatt Seeman (Red Cloud/Blue Hill), fall 0:51; lost by decision to Jack Myers (Broken Bow), dec 4-0;  won by fall over Ryan Hawkins (West Holt), fall 0:38; won by fall over Darby Runge (Kearney Catholic), fall 2:33; lost by sudden victory to Kreyton Rockefeller (Gibbon), SV-1 4-2.
182—Thomas Reeves (37-9) won by fall over Grant Osborne (West Holt), fall 4:29; won by decision over Curtis Rittgarn (Gordon-Rushville), dec 4-2; 1st Place Match - lost by decision to Connor Wells (Broken Bow), dec 9-2.
195—Jesus Medina (11-19) lost by fall to Cael Peters (Mitchell), fall 1:21; lost by fall to Aiden Middleswart (Gibbon), fall 2:23.
220—Jaret Peterson (39-1) won by fall over Jackson Jenkins (Mitchell), fall 1:59; won by decision over Clay Meyer (Loomis/Bertrand), dec 8-1; 1st Place Match - won in the ultimate tie breaker over Cal Wells (Broken Bow), UTB 3-2.
285—Zach Tarin (11-4) won by fall over Caden Swanson (Loomis/Bertrand), fall 3:54; won in tie breaker over Jeremiah Coley (Mitchell), TB-1 2-1; 1st Place Match - lost by decision to Bridger Rice (Ord), dec 3-1.