Longhorns Wrestle At Full Strength For First Time

Kimball finally wrestled at full strength Thursday night in Ogallala: seven against 12.

Four Longhorns won their matches and the small squad fell just shy of an improbable team victory. But as fate would have it, the home side was open at 126, forcing both Tatum Morgan and Justin Mohr to step up one weight level.

Paired against experienced, heavier wrestlers they were dispatched quickly.

Down two matches, head coach Wade Brashear sent 145-pounder Jonathon Withrow onto the mat against Ogallala’s Chris Gallegos with some advice.

“Coach said I had to stop their momentum,” Withrow reported.

He responded, jumping out to a 5-0 lead after the first two minutes then pinning his man early in the second. Javi Figueroa followed, securing an ungainly yet rapid win by pin over Danner Johnson.

It was the Kimball sophomore’s first match.

“I just went out there with intensity,” Figueroa said. “I shot and just put a half on him.”

Garrett Ryan also appeared in red and white for the first time this season, facing the Indians’ Avery Unrein. The Kimball 113-pounder attacked from the start, wrestling with speed and relentless frenzy.

“I knew he’d have an advantage because it was my first match,” he acknowledged. “I just pulled my signature move”—something like a chicken wing—“and it worked out.”

Ryan pinned Unrein before the first period expired.

“I knew they were both good wrestlers,” Brashear said of Ryan and Figueroa. Although sidelined until Thursday night, he had observed their talents in practice.

“They both could be state qualifiers,” he added.

Rowdy Keller parried with Jason Bush for a minute before trapping his shoulder against the mat and extending his record to 8-2 heading into the Sidney tournament. But Tristan Carruthers surrendered a 2-1 advantage in the second period against Jared Washa. The 160-pound Ogallala grappler took the lead with a near fall in the second and gained control of the match.

Carruthers held on until early in the third, when officials granted his opponent a 17-2 major decision.

Still, it was a positive night for Kimball.

“I thought we wrestled well,” Brashear said. Open matches and the need to bump Mohr and Morgan up in weight hurt in team points.

“If we stayed in weight, we would be strong,” he concluded.