Pierce High Wrestling
Girls Finish Second in Columbus
by Maggie Painter
On Thursday, January 9, the Lady Jay wrestlers traveled to Central Community College in Columbus, to compete in the Norm Manstedt tournament. Here the Lady Jays earned a total of 110.5 team points, which secured them second place overall in the tournament.
Assistant Coach, Les Painter, stated this about the tournament, “I’m proud of the girls' effort. I feel like they wrestled well, and now we know what we need to fix in practice.”
Senior Makinzie Parsons, wrestling at 185, received first place. She first pinned Stormy Hamptom from Millard South. She then went on to pin Ashlynn Rath of Battle Creek in the second round, and Zeena Villanueva of Bancroft-Rosalie/Lyons-Decatur (BRLD) in the third. She advanced to the championship match by pinning Gina Alba of Schuyler. Parsons pinned Zeena Villanueva of BRLD once again, securing first place.
Placing second at 126 pounds was Angeline Skrdla. She won by fall over Jordan Aschoff of Norfolk Catholic and Isabella Manning of Wisner-Pilger. She then won by a 12-8 decision over Taleah Thomas of Amherst, but fell to Regan Rosseter in the championship match.
Callie Arnold, wrestling at 120, pinned Linnea Clemen of Ord in the first round. Second round she pinned Hannah Jearue of Omaha Burke. She then fell to Marissa Anderson of Columbus in the third round. Arnold went on to win her last two matches. She won by fall over NyAsia Jones of Millard South, and then won in an ultimate tie breaker over Kaitlyn Jeffrey of Platteview. This earned her a fifth place finish.
Isabelle Skrdla (138), also placing fifth, and lost to Jessi Hasenkamp of Wahoo in her first match, pinned Laila Cuevas of Norfolk in her second, and then fell to Reagan Gallaway of Amherst in her third. Skrdla, like Arnold, won her last two matches. She won by fall over both Emma Harb of Northwest and Yvette Vargas of Millard South.
Maggie Painter, wrestling at 132, won her first match of the day by fall over Emilee Olson of Northeast. She also won by fall over Rahlonda Britt of Omaha Burke. In round three she was pinned by Emma Richards of Valentine. Painter then wrestled Alicia Gubalke of Omaha Westside, winning by fall. Her last match she won in sudden victory - 1 over Sage McCallum of Grand Island. With that win she attained fifth place.
At 235, Mariah Eckert obtained a sixth place finish. In her first match, Quinlyn Kennel of Norfolk Catholic won by decision over Eckert 12-7. Eckert then fell to Precious DeCora of Winnebago. In her third match of the day she pinned Jazmin Acosta of Schuyler, but she then got pinned by Madelynne Jakubowski of O’Neill for her fourth and final match.
Wrestling at 152, Katelyn Gubbels placed sixth. In her first match she fell to Maria Lindo-Morente of Grand Island. She then fell to Angela Velasquez of Schuyler. She went on to pin Maliyah Melroy of Minden in her third match, and Bailey Kuehl of Arcadia/Loup City in her fourth. Gubbels then fell to Ashaya Steele of Crete in her final match of the day.
Mia Sackville (100) placed seventh. She fell to Riley Hohn of Weeping Water, Sandra Gutierrez of Grand Island, and Arya Erickson of Stanton her first three matches. Sackville then went on to pin Maggie Brandt of Aurora to clench her seventh place finish.
Also placing seventh, wrestling at 107, was Hadleigh Collison. Collison started out the day by pinning Jesmy Trujilo of Omaha Burke. She then fell to Hasely Salgado of Schuyler and Jasmine Morales of Grand Island in her second and third matches. She finished by beating Emily Hull of Scribner-Snyder by fall.
At the 145 weight class, Haylee Miller placed ninth. Miller lost her first match to Carlee Page of Bellevue East by fall, and her second match pinned Haylee Serres of Norfolk Catholic. Miller then fell to Avani Wilkie of Winnebago. Her fourth match she won by decision over Kayla Bobeldyke of Norfolk 13-7. Miller’s last match she won by tech fall over Trinity Petty of Minden.
Hayle DeBoer (114) placed eleventh. DeBoer first fell to Haley Hack of Platteview. She then won by fall over Alaina Nelson of Platteview. DeBoer fell to Aubrie Pehrson of Yutan her third match and Katie Elder her fourth. In DeBoer’s final match of the day she pinned Sophia Mahlberg of Bellevue East.
Wrestling at 165 in the JV division was Candace Clausen. Clausen placed second, losing her only match of the day to Thea Wahl of Adams Central by fall.
Also wrestling JV was Kira Vavra at 185. Vavra placed third, winning by fall over Alexis Perez of Grand Island in her first round, but losing her second match by fall to Gwen Vinson of Millard South. She then pinned Taylea Spears of BRLD and Cheyenne Vahl of Minden in her next third and fourth matches. Vavra lost her fifth and final match, by fall, to Bridget Murdoch of Weeping Water.
The Lady Jay Wrestlers will be back in action on Saturday, January 15, wrestling at Grand Island Northwest’s tournament.
Pierce Takes on the Norm Manstedt Individual
by Brock Bolling
Last Friday and Saturday, January 7 and 8, the boys wrestling team took on the Norm Manstedt Individual Tournament at Central Community College in Columbus and came away from this two-day tournament with a 3rd place finish in a tournament that included 22 teams from all around the state. Friday started with pool play and the top two in each pool qualified for the meet on Saturday.
Starting at 106, Zakary Abler went 1-2.
At 113, Elijah Streff went 0-2.
Moving up to 132, senior Brock Bolling went 5-0 finishing first by beating Gavin Dozler of Boone Central in an ultimate tie-breaker 3-2.
Peyton Kruntorad, wrestling at 138, went 0-3.
At 145, Jayden Coulter finished 1st with a 6-0 record and a pin over Westin Sherlock of Lincoln East in the finals. Coulter, a junior, said, “As a team, we performed well at such a tough meet especially coming off of our break. Individually, I feel like I performed well because I didn’t give up in my finals match.”
Up to 152, Blake Bolling went 5-1 and finished 2nd behind Ashton Lurz of Valentine in an 8-4 decision.
At 160, Parker Sackville went 2-2, while Michael Kruntorad finished 2nd going 7-1 and falling to Archbishop Bergan’s Cal Janke in a 15-2 major decision.
Wrestling at 170, Matthew Christensen finished 1st going 5-0 defeating Dawson Schram of Tekamah-Herman by a pin.
At 195, Zavien Buol went 0-3.
Moving up to 220, Nicholas Erikson finished 6th going 4-3 and losing 8-5 to Kase Thompson of Battle Creek in his final match.
Lastly, at 285, Dawson Raabe went 2-2.
Head coach Tyler Legate remarked, “I was very proud of how the guys wrestled Friday and Saturday, they wrestled tough throughout the entire tournament. I believe that we found out a lot about ourselves and what we can accomplish moving forward. I look forward to getting back to work on Monday.”
Pierce's next action will be on Thursday for parents' night and a dual against Plainview. Wrestling begins at 7 p.m.
Pierce JV compete at Winside
by Ren Gleason
The Pierce JV Wrestling team went down to Winside Saturday, January 8, and as a team, they placed 10th out of 15 teams with four wrestlers placing.
Medalist for the Bluejays included sophomore Zakary Abler (106), Blayze Meyer (152), Parker Sackville (160) and Zavien Buol (195).
At 106, Abler placed 3rd, winning in a 5-4 decision over Ian Kling of Millard North in his final match.
Meyer, at 152, placed 5th and finished 0-4 on the day.
Sackville (160) finished in 4th place for the Jays.
Buol, wrestling at 195, placed 6th, falling in five rounds.
Also at 106 was Corbin Pfiel went 3-2 losing by a 10-2 major decision to Ian Kling of Millard North.
Eli Streff, at 120, went 2-2, falling in his final round to Matthew Ferris of Pender.
At 132, Bo Bockelman finished 1-2, falling in his final round to Mac Magwire of Winside.
Also at 132, Peyton Kruntorad ended 1-2, falling to Ladanian Free of Winnebago in his final round.
Seth Nelson (138) went 2-2, falling to Braeden Harris of Millard North in his final round of the day.
Wrestling at 160, Camden Jansen finished 0-2, falling to Jace Smith of Millard North in his final round.
Also at 160, Anthony Castillo went 1-2, falling in his final round to Kale Korth of Hartington Cedar Catholic.
Finishing also at 1-2 was Clayton Carlson (182), falling to Ponca’s Kemper Carlson.
Shayde Semm finished 1-2 as well, falling in his final round to Caleb Cockburn of Tri County Northeast.
At 285 Dawson Raabe went 1-2, falling to Mason Planer of Battle Creek.
Pierce will host a dual on Thursday, January 13, against Plainview, starting at 7 p.m.
