Bridgeport wins WTC

Bridgeport captured the 2016 Western Trails Conference Wrestling Championship hosted by Kimball this past week with Mitchell a distant runnerup in the team scoring. Bridgeport won the team title with 234 points with Mitchell scoring 148.5, followed in order by Bayard with 133, Gordon-Rushville 119, Hemingford 106, Morrill 67, and Kimball 36. Sidney and Banner County also participated in the tournament but are not WTC members.

Although the young Kimball team finished last in a strong field of WTC wrestlers, many of whom are state ranked, coach Wade Brashear said “I am happy with our growth. As a team we showed improvement and with such a young, inexperienced team, that is all we can ask for. Also, we had two of our wrestlers who did not participate, one who was injured, and one who did not make weight.” To the credit of coach Brashear and Activites Director Ken Smith, along with all of the volunteers who helped out, the tournament ran very smoothly.

Kimball had two placers on the day with Jordan Cluff at 106 and Cody Kirby at 220, both placing third in the medal group. Cluff wound up with a record of 2 and 2 winning his two matches by fall. Kirby was 3-2 on the day with 3 wins by fall.

Trevor Ryschon at 113 pounds had a good day with 3 wins, all by pin, and 2 losses. Jake Jenkins at 120 wound up 1-4. Toby McManigal at 152 was 0-4, and Eric Escajeda at 285 was 1-2.

Kimball also wrestled in the Garden County Tournament on Saturday and according to coach Brashear “We wrestled overall, some of our best matches of the season at Garden County. We had three placers with Trevor Ryschon, Cody Kirby, and Eric Escajeda all finishing in 4th place. Since we had no seedable wrestlers in the 16 man brackets, three 4th place finishes is a good accomplishment. We are getting better every week and we are excited about the future.”

At Garden County Jordan Cluff was 0-3 at 106 pounds. Garrett Pedersen was 2-2 at 106. Ryschon wound up 3-2 at 113. Jake Jenkins was 0-2 at 120. Toby McManigal 0-2 at 152. Cody Kirby 1-2 at 220. Eric Escajeda 3-2 at 285.

A scheduled match on the home mats with Lingle/Southeast for this evening (Jan. 14) was cancelled. Next match on the schedule now has Kimball at the Lingle Tournament on January 22.