Pierce High Boys Wrestling Team Gets Third at DistrictsÂ
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By Alanna McKeown
At district wrestling on Saturday, February 10, eight of the boys from the Pierce High team made it to state, including Draydin Gossman, Christian Nordby, Brenden Bolling, Corbin Pfeil, Elijah Streff, Jackson Fischer, Kaiden Fritz, and Boston Krueger.
“I thought the boys wrestled hard in all the matches. I told the guys that everyone had a chance to make it to Omaha,” head coach Tyler Legate says. “When you enter a tournament, you always have a chance to win the whole tournament.”
Finishing as a district champion at 150, Brenden Bolling won all his matches and qualified for state. For the championship round Bolling won against Kaleb Maaske of Louisville. Then in the quarterfinals, Bolling defeated Max Bruce from Crofton-Bloomfield by fall. In the semifinals, Bolling won against Tieran Cox from Syracuse, again by fall. Finally for the first place match Bolling defeated Jesse Kult of Yutan by decision, 5-0.
Second year state qualifier Brenden Bolling states, “Making state is exciting and all, but I have a bigger goal this week, I think I performed at the level I have been wanting to do all season, but I can still improve on some aspects this week, and be prepared for state.”
Corbin Pfeil, wrestling at 120, made it to state with his third place finish at districts. For the championship round Pfeil had a bye, and following that round Pfeil defeated Henry Holtmeier from Tri County by decision, 7-5. In the semifinals, Pfeil lost to Tristan Sisco from Syracuse by fall at 5:04. In the consolation semis, Brady Gulbranson from Crofton-Bloomfield got defeated by Pfeil by decision, 4-3. In the third place match Pfeil defeated Henry Holtmeier again by decision, 9-7.
Wrestling at 126, another state qualifier and third place medalist, Draydin Gossman won his championship round against Jager Barnes from Louisville by tech fall, 16-1. In the quarterfinals Cole Sphar from Tri County won by a 14-6 major decision over Gossman. In consolation round two, Gossman pinned Jace Hajny from Red Cloud/Blue Hill, and then in consolation round three, Gossman pinned Gage Brown from Thayer Central. The consolation semifinals saw Gossman beat Maddox Stubbendick from Syracuse by fall at 1:35. Gossman won the third place match by medical forfeit over Spahr.
At 175 Kaiden Fritz is going to state after his third place finish. In the championship round Fritz pinned Richard Hayes from Yutan. In the quarterfinals, Fritz was fell to Dylan Williams from Thayer Central. In the consolation round two, Fritz beat Michael Brant from Scotus Central Catholic by fall. Again in consolation round three, Fritz pinned Connor Lindeman from Palmyra. In the consolation semis Mason Semler from EMF was defeated by Fritz by decision, 8-2. Finally in the third match round Fritz defeated Nathan Werner from Elkhorn Valley by a 6-0 decision, sending Fritz to state.
The other third place medalist for Pierce was Boston Krueger (285). For quarterfinals Krueger defeated James Bonar from Thayer Central by decision, 1-0. In the semifinals, Riley Lavene from Central City beat Krueger by fall. In the consolation semis, Krueger beat David DeLeon by decision, 1-0. Finally, Krueger won the third place match against Bonar by decision, 3-0.
At 132, Elijah Streff made it to state with a fourth place finish. In the championship round, Streff beat Carter Sucha from Scotus Central Catholic by major decision, 12-3 and in the quarterfinals round, beat Carson McLaughlin from Thayer Central by decision, 3-2. In the semifinals, Streff lost to Carter Auten from Red Cloud/Blue Hill by decision, 7-2. For the consolation semis, Streff beat Jed Berggren from Cross County/Osceola by decision, 4-2. In the third place match, Streff fell to Parker Zikmund.
Jackson Fischer wrestled at 165 for districts and finished with a fourth place medal and a trip to state. He had a bye in the championship round. Then Fischer fell to Trevis Halsey from Elkhorn Valley in the quarterfinals. In consolation round two, Fischer defeated Sean Chase Jr. from Tri County by decision, 6-0. In consolation round three, Fischer pinned Hunter Svehla from EMF. Then following that, in the consolation semis, Fischer defeated Tyler Keiser from Yutan by decision, 3-1. Finally in the third place match Fischer was defeated by Cy Petersen from Syracuse by fall.
Pierce’s final wrestler who qualified for the state tournament was Christian Nordby who wrestled at 215. In the championship round Nordby had a bye, and then in the quarterfinals Nordby pinned Henry Ramaekers from Scotus Central Catholic. In the semifinals, Nordby fell to Cole Voorderstrasse from Thayer Central. In the consolation semis, Nordby pinned Trey Urban from Central City. In the third place match Nordby was defeated by Cael Washburn from Tri County by decision, 10-3.
Zakary Abler was wrestling for the 113 weight class and lost the championship round by fall to Colter Sinn from Thayer Central. For consolation round one, Abler had a bye and for consolation round two he lost to Cole Miller from Crofton-Bloomfield.
At 138, Cole DeBoer pinned Lucas Lewandowski from Tri County in the championship round. Then in the quarterfinals, DeBoer fell to Mason Remmers from Thayer Central. In the consolation round two, Kaden Lavene from Central City was defeated by DeBoer by decision, 7-5. In consolation round three, Parker Newman from Scotus Central Catholic defeated DeBoer by decision, 6-1.
Representing Pierce in the 144 weight class, Bryce Lindstom had a bye for the championship round. In quarterfinals Lindstrom got taken down by Maverick Hagemann of Elkhorn Valley by fall. In round two of the consolation, Lindstrom beat Zaeden Hughes from Cross County/Osceola by fall. In consolation round three, Lindstrom defeated Gage Rasser from Red Cloud/Blue Hill by decision, 11-5. Following that, in the consolation finals, Lindstrom was defeated by Max Egr from Yutan by decision, 10-8.
Wrestling at the 157 weight class was Peyton Kruntorad who won the championship round by pinning David Unruh from Palmyra. Then Kruntorad was pinned by Bryce Kunz from Central City in the quarterfinals. In consolation round two, Kruntorad was defeated by Tyler Sears from Syracuse by major decision, 8-0.
In the 190 weight class, Clayton Carlson won the championship round due to having a bye. In quarterfinals, Tyson Sanger from Crofton-Bloomfield defeated Carlson by fall. In the consolation round two, Carlson beat Jaxson Brandt from EMF by fall. Then in consolation round three, Carlson won over Izaiah Freeman from Palmyra by decision, 7-5. In the consolation semis, Carlson lost to Colbyn Peters from Central City by fall.
State wrestling will take place February 15-17 in Omaha.
