Longhorn wrestlers headed to Garden County Saturday

    Chase County’s wrestlers will travel to Saturday’s Garden County Invitational after a three-week holiday break.
    Coach Matt Vlasin said the way the holidays fell this year allowed them to get in some good practice time. He feels his team is ready to get back in action.
    All wrestlers are able to add two pounds to their weight division as of Dec. 25, which they can utilize the rest of the season.
    First rounds of wrestling will start at 9 a.m. Saturday.
    Vlasin noted this will be the first year for the varsity to travel to this meet. Chase County has sent JV wrestlers to this tournament in the past, while varsity went to the Ogallala tournament.
    With lower numbers and Ogallala switching its format to a dual tournament, the entire team will now compete at Garden County.
    He expects to have nine Longhorns at Saturday’s tourney.
    Despite several teams cancelling, it will be a large meeting. Other teams expected as of early this week include Crawford, Morrill, Scottsbluff JV, Hemingford, Kimball, Bayard, Minatare, Mitchell, Perkins County, Sioux County, Hyannis, Sutherland, Hay Springs, Dundy County-Stratton, Wauneta-Palisade, Hitchcock County, Banner County, Paxton and Leyton.
     Meet officials will be running three mats until the finals to keep things moving. There will be a girls’ bracket if there are enough participating.
    First through fourth place medals will be awarded, and plaques to the first and second place teams. An outstanding wrestler will also be chosen.
    No fans will be allowed into the meet Saturday due to restrictions, Vlasin said.
Perkins meet off schedule
    The Longhorns were scheduled to compete at Tuesday’s JV meet hosted by Perkins County in Grant.
    Coach Vlasin said they’ve withdrawn from that meet due to the rescheduled triangular next week on Friday, Jan. 15, which falls in the middle of a back-to-back trio of meets.
    Next week will feature the SPVA Conference meet on Jan. 14 in Hershey, the triangular Jan. 15 with Wauneta-Palisade and Leyton and Chase County’s Invitational on Jan. 16.