Peterson repeats state wrestling championship berth

    Jaret Peterson is the Chase County wrestling squad’s lone qualifier for this year’s state meet. The sophomore also qualified last year.
    Despite being the top seed, Peterson drew a first round match. CCS Head Coach Matt Vlasin said Peterson likes to get his first match in right off the bat, so he was ready to go.
    Peterson pinned his first three opponents in the first period and won by fall as time ran down in the second period of the championship match.
    Peterson looked good all weekend, Vlasin said, adding that if he goes into state wrestling like he did last weekend he’ll pull off some upsets.
    Vlasin said he likes Peterson’s first round matchup with Milford’s Ethat Buchli (34-15), the fourth place finisher in the C2 district.
    Peterson will be on the mat Thursday morning in Omaha, as Classes B and C have the first session.
    Three Longhorn freshmen advanced to the heartbreak round.
    Vlasin said Trevin Moreno had a beautiful draw at 113 lbs.
    Moreno got a first-round bye and faced Aiden Piel (37-9) of Red Cloud/Blue Hill in his first round match where he was pinned in the second period.
    Moreno picked up a quick pin in his consolation match and advanced to face Hershey’s Kade Thompson (30-9) with a trip to state on the line. Moreno was quickly pinned in the match.
    Westyn Mendenhall won by tech fall in his first match .
    Mendenhall made it into the second period against Amherst’s Caleb Bivainis (27-13) in his next match. Mendenhall trailed 0-7 before being pinned.
    Vlasin said Bivainis was a very physical wrestler and Mendenhall maybe wasn’t ready.
    It was the only match where he looked like a freshman, Vlasin added.
    Mendenhall stayed alive with back-to-back pins, but lost a 10-3 decision to Tucker Banister (27-11) in the consolation semis. Mendenhall only trailed 2-4 with 35 seconds left in the match and Vlasin said it was a good, close match.
    Luis Co faced a field of 14 at 138 pounds. Co won his first match by pin, but lost to Valentine’s Cody Miller (34-12) in the quarterfinals by a 9-5 decision.
    Co added two wins by pin, including one over Arcadia/Loup City’s Kaden Reeves (21-18).
    Co’s heartbreak round match went the distance. Vlasin said Ord’s Hayden Kluthe (32-6) was a tall lanky kid who finishes matches well. Co trailed 0-1 after a second period escape by Kluthe. With a minute left, Kluthe got a takedown to seal Co’s 0-3 loss.
    Senior Brice Vitosh won his first 160 lb. match of the tournament by technical fall. Vitosh lost his quarterfinal match to O’Neill’s Levi Drueke (37-7) and his consolation match to Ord’s Trent McCain (21-20) by pin.
    Vlasin said he felt bad for Vitosh, who had control of his match against McCain, but got too high and was pinned.
    With an opening round loss at 170 lbs., Cooper Dillan won his consolation match by pin before falling late in the second round of his match against Gibbon’s Kreyton Rockefeller (31-12).
    Thomas Reeves won his opening round match and was competing well in his quarterfinal match before being caught in a cradle and pinned. Reeves won his first consolation match by pin, but saw his season end with a loss to Ord’s Sam Boettcher (25-22).
    Cayden White was unable to repeat his state berth from last year and went 0-2 at 120 lbs.
    Malachi Christensen had a tough bracket, according to Vlasin, finished 0-2 even though he didn’t wrestle badly.
    Tyler O’Neil went 0-2 in a 145 lb. bracket that didn’t have a bad wrestler in it, Vlasin said.
    Freshman Zach Tarin lost two matches by decision at 195 lbs. Vlasin said Tarin wrestled well, but looked a little hesitant in both matches.
    Senior Cody Duffy finished 0-2 at 152 lbs.

Team Scores—1. Valentine, 188.5; 2. O’Neill, 168.5; 3. Ord, 131.0; 4. Amherst, 116.0; 5. Gordon-Rushville, 113.0; 6. Red Cloud/Blue Hill, 98.0; 7. Mitchell, 79.0; 8. Kearney Catholic, 74.5; 9. Wood River, 70.0; 10. Chase County, 64.5; 11. Gibbon, 57.0; 12. Centura, 48.0; 13. Arcadia/Loup City, 47.0; 13. Hershey, 47.0; 15. West Holt, 37.0; 16. Loomis/Bertrand, 9.5
Individual Results
113—Trevin Moreno (14-22) lost by fall to  Aiden Piel (Red Cloud/Blue Hill), fall 2:23; won by fall over Elliot Baker (Ord), fall 0:48; lost by fall to Kaden Thompson (Hershey), fall 0:21.
120—Cayden White (24-15) lost by fall to Clay Rasmussen (Kearney Catholic), fall 4:58; lost by fall to Jace Rawles (Gordon-Rushville), fall 1:24.
126—Malachi Christensen (15-23)  lost by fall to Kyler Vincent (Gordon-Rushville), fall 0:38; lost by fall to Ruben Hernandez (Gibbon), fall 2:41.
132—Westyn Mendenhall (33-20) won by tech fall over Nate Tillman (Wood River), TF-1.5 5:52 (15-0); lost by fall to Caleb Bivainis (Amherst), fall 3:05; won by fall over Zachary Weis (Kearney Catholic), fall 0:59; won by fall over Ty Greenland (Arcadia/Loup City), fall 2:01; lost by decision to Tucker Banister (Gordon-Rushville), dec 10-3.
138—Luis Co (27-17) won by fall over Kruz Jelinek (West Holt), fall 1:29; lost by decision to Cody Miller (Valentine), dec 9-5; won by fall over Landon Philbrick (Gibbon), fall 2:41; won by fall over Kaden Reeves (Arcadia/Loup City), fall 2:49; lost by decision to Hayden Kluthe (Ord), dec 3-0.
145—Tyler O’Neil (5-20) lost by tech fall to Quentyn Frank (Amherst), TF-1.5 2:28 (15-0); lost by fall to Beau Child (Gordon-Rushville), fall 0:38.
152—Cody Duffy (21-25) lost by fall to Quentin Morris (Centura), fall 0:37; lost by fall to Devon Engledow (Mitchell), fall 3:59.
160—Brice Vitosh (27-22) won by tech fall over Klayton Niles (Red Cloud/Blue Hill), TF-1.5 4:37 (15-0); lost by fall to Levi Drueke (O’Neill), fall 1:15; lost by fall to Trent McCain (Ord), fall 0:48.
170—Cooper Dillan (4-7) lost by fall to Ben McGee (Amherst), fall 1:53; won by fall over Walker Peter (O’Neill), fall 3:17; lost by fall to Kreyton Rockefeller (Gibbon), fall 1:54.
182—Thomas Reeves (28-17) won by fall over Ripkin Gallaway (Amherst), fall 4:17; lost by fall to Tagg Buechle (Valentine), fall 1:31; won by tech fall over Alec Lounsbury (Red Cloud/Blue Hill), TF-1.5 3:11 (16-0); lost by fall to Sam Boettcher (Ord), fall 2:42.
195—Zach Tarin (28-19) lost by decision to Clayton Elliott (Valentine), dec 3-1; lost by decision to Colton Archibald (Gordon-Rushville), dec 7-5.
220—Jaret Peterson (42-4) won by fall over Noah Shabram (O’Neill), fall 1:24; won by fall over Jackson Jenkins (Mitchell), fall 1:03; won by fall over Lee Major (Valentine), fall 1:08; 1st Place Match - won by fall over Trey Warner (Ord), fall 3:54.