Low numbers, but wrestlers working hard

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    Numbers are down from last year, but that hasn’t lessened the work the Longhorn wrestlers are putting in this season.
    Head Coach Matt Vlasin has a roster of 10 wrestlers this season, compared to 16 on the roster opening week in 2018.
    The Longhorns open their 2019-20 season today (Thursday) when they travel to a triangular in Oshkosh where they’ll face teams from Garden County and Bridgeport.
    The triangular has a 5:30 p.m. start time.
    Vlasin said he hasn’t heard much about Garden County’s numbers, but Bridgeport is expected to be tough again this season.
    On Friday, the team will be at a new meet on the schedule, the Elwood Invitational, followed by the Broken Bow Invitational on Saturday.
    Elwood replaces the Friday wrestling tourney at Chadron in January. That was changed to a team dual tournament this year, Vlasin said, so they opted out of that portion but will still attend the one-day Chadron Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 25.
    Start time at Elwood on Friday is 12 noon MT, while the Broken Bow tourney gets underway at 8:30 a.m. MT.
    Losing five seniors to graduation this spring put a dent in the team, but the squad’s sole senior this year, Trevor Peterson, is a returning third-place state tournament wrestler at 170 lbs.
    Vlasin said Peterson is looking to move to the 182 lb. class this season, but will probably wrestle up one class at 195 lbs. this week at the opener.
    “We’ll see how his weight drops and where he feels comfortable at,” Vlasin said.

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