Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
He's outta here. Laivyn Morgan of Kimball Wrestling Club, left, with her arm raised, enjoys the outcome of her Pre-K 41 division match against Landen Laudenbach of Mitchell a whole lot more than Landen does during last weekend's Nebraska USA State Wrestling Tournament in Grand Island. Laivyn finished sixth in her division.
Yet another big weekend of youth wrestling wrapped up Sunday afternoon, March 17.
The Nebraska USA State Tournament was held in Grand Island with nearly 200 teams in the state competing for titles. Kimball Wrestling Club, the Banner County MatCats and the Tri-State Grapplers all had wrestlers who qualified during the District 1 tournament March 2 in Scottsbluff.
KWC took 11 wrestlers, including Able Kuhns, Laivyn Morgan, Christian Soto-Young, Britton Culek, Kaysn Snyder, Logan Paxton, Trey Cook, Cameron McGinnis, Wyatt Cook, Hunter Lonsdale and Trey Schindler.
Gabriel Teeple from Banner County made the trip to Grand Island, as well as Jax, Kyle and Makenna Thurin from the Tri-State Grapplers. Sierra Drake from Kimball (Sidney Red Raiders Wrestling) also attended the state tournament. Drake finished second in the Girls 6th-8th 109 division.
Makenna Thurin of the Tri-State Grapplers brought home the champion title in the Girls 3rd-5th 82 division. In the first round, Makenna won by fall over Cassandra Bernshausen of Minden. Thurin's second round win was by fall over Kaylee Serevrin of Fremont.
(For her performance, Makenna is this week's Clean Harbors Athlete of the Week. See Page B6.)
Also for the Grapplers, Kyle wrestled in the 9th-12th 175 division, placed fourth and scored 20 team points. In the 1st-2nd 59 division, Jax scored six team points.
Kimball finished the tournament in 82nd place with 41 team points. There were 200 teams and 1,866 wrestlers.
"We were pleased with the tournament starting on time and not finishing too late both days," said Rob Sanders, executive director of NEUSA Wrestling. "But the most impressive part was that so many people made it despite the weather. The stories we heard and the obstacles that people overcame were incredible to say the least."
Results for Kimball are as follows:
Pre-K 40-41 division, Able Kuhns placed eighth and scored one team point.
Pre-K 41 division, Laivyn Morgan placed sixth and scored six team points.
1st-2nd 53 division, Britton Culek placed sixth and scored 15 team points and Christian Soto-Young scored eight team points.
3rd-4th 75 division, Cameron McGinnis scored one team point.
7th-8th division, Trey Schindler placed eighth and scored 10 team points.
Meanwhile, Cable Botha of the Tri-State Grapplers wrestled for the D1 team during the State Dual Tournament this past weekend in Grand Island
"A team made up of youth from District 1 wrestlers in western Nebraska finished second in the toughest division of our state dual tournament," Sander said. "The division was 1st through 6th graders."