OMAHA — There seemed to be a quiet sense of confidence in Sutton wrestling coach Ron Gerber’s voice when we spoke Tuesday morning for the Rewind.
His Mustangs were coming off a dominating district performance, had qualified eight wrestlers for the Class D state tournament and, it seemed, he was pretty excited for next week’s dual tournament. He gushed about the team’s he thought had a chance to contend for the runner-up spot behind six-time champion Amherst.
“We just want to wrestle well,” he said. “I think Burwell, Creighton, Winside and Elkhorn Valley will all be tough in the team race.”
And, so here we sit after the end of the first day and guess what? Gerber’s Mustangs have 35 points. Just 1.5 points behind Elkhorn Valley for second and tied with Plainview for third with Amherst leading the team race with 57 points. Sutton put top-ranked Ignacio Garcia (106), Chandler Stone (132) and Garrett Clark (285) through to the semifinals.
The Mustangs performance in Class D ended a day that was pretty standard fare, it appears, in the team races. Defending champions Millard South lead in A, juggernaut Omaha Skutt in B and the two-team race Class C has taken shape with David City and Valentine.
Tomorrow’s semifinals will begin at 5:30 in the evening at Century Link Center Omaha after a day of consolation matches that will begin at 9:30 with Classes B and C. The Sutton three join 46 other Striv school wrestlers in semifinal matches.
Rivera (34-5) will be in an all-Striv semifinal with Hemingford’s Cooper Weber (42-8) in one of the D106 semifinals. Stone has drawn unbeaten Cameron Riggs of North Platte St. Pat’s, while Clark – a Doane football recruit – who is out for the first time in his high school career will wrestle Zaine Gallegos (41-1) of Bayard.
Class C Dream Match
Evan Waddington of Wood River and Max Hughes of Syracuse kept the dream of an all-Striv final at 113 pounds in Class C. Waddington is an unbeaten freshman and Hughes, a sophomore, is a returning state champ having won Class B at 106 pounds last year.
Waddington advanced to 53-0 — that’s not a typo — with a pair of falls at 3:58 over Braden Zennel of Kearney Catholic in the first round and then at 5:03 of Wilber-Clatonia’s Kadin Davis in the quarterfinals. Hughes, now 45-3, was even more impressive. He took less than two minutes to dispatch of Elias Lorenzo of O’Neill (:42) and Spencer Gaffney of Broken Bow (:41).
Waddington draws Jordan Kelber (34-4) of Valentine in one semifinal, while Hughes will wrestle Talon Mues of Arlington (42-4) in the other semifinal match.
Still Perfect
Besides Waddington, three other Striv wrestlers remain perfect in Class C.
Wyatt Phillips of David City advanced to 27-0 with a first round fall of Tanner Staab (GICC) and a quarterfinal tech fall win over Dylan Hartline of Fort Calhoun. He’ll face another Striv wrestler in tomorrow’s semifinals in Wyatt Allen (51-3) of Wood River.
At 138, Jeremiah Dickinson of Central City moved to 51-0 with a 7-3 win over Tristan Simons of Battle Creek and an 8-3 win over Drew Gilliand of Mitchell in the quarterfinals. Dickinson, who is a two-time medal winner, will face Nolan Helgoth of David City Aquinas in the semifinals.
St. Paul senior David Gross, a champion at 160 pounds last year, moved to 46-0 at 170 pounds with a first round 7-0 win over Gavin Trompke of Ord and a quarterfinal 8-3 decision over Justin Hall of Raymond Central. Gross will face Battle Creek’s Drew Lanam (42-2) on Friday.
In Class D, Iowa State recruit Zemua Baptista of Friend will try for his fourth consecutive final at 160 pounds. The Class D 145 and 152 pound champion the past two years, moved to 42-0 with a pair of falls. He Braydon Mlady of West Holt in the quarterfinals in 3:02 and took just 1:53 to defeat Darren Liebhart of Mullen. Baptisa will face Garrett Fries of Southwest in the semifinals.
