Your future, our focus
NWC Wrestlers Qualify Eight for National Championships
By RANDAL HOROBIK
Tribune Sports Editor
The Northwest College Trappers will be hoping eight is enough after qualifying that many wrestlers for the NJCAA national championship tournament later this month. Included in that number are newly-crowned regional champions Saul Guerrero (133 pounds), McCade Ford (141) and Landon Harris (285).
"I'm proud of our kids," said Trapper head coach Jim Zeigler. "We had eight guys ranked nationally going to the tournament and we held our seeds well. We won all the matches that you'd look at and think we should have won and we were able to win a couple where it maybe looked like the other guy should have had an advantage."
In all, six of the 10 members of Northwest College's lineup advanced to the championship matches. Out of that group, 2009 national runner-up Landon Harris had the smoothest sailing, pinning his way to the regional title.
"It was a pretty easy weekend for him," Zeigler said. "You have to go pretty far afield to find someone capable of pushing him and there just weren't any of those kids there."
For Ford and Guerrero, the Trappers' other regional champions, the road was only slightly more difficult. Guerrero outscored his opponents by a 23-7 margin on Saturday, including a 10-5 victory in the finals. Ford scored a decisive 4-0 win in the championship after advancing 12-3 out of the semifinals.
"Saul was in charge the whole way. He had a good tournament and he's on track for where we want him," said Zeigler. "Mc- Cade wrestled awesome. His dedication and focus really showed. In the finals, he had a solid victory and really left no question about who won."
Also reaching the finals on Saturday for Northwest College were Jesse Hillhouse (125), Nick Petersen (174) and Mak Jones (197). Of the three, Petersen's match presented Zeigler with a perplexing decision.
"Nick's a growing kid," said Zeigler. "He's 18 years old and he's been dealing with some knee issues this season. They're just sore, but in the first round one of them got pried on and twisted pretty good and we just didn't feel before the finals that he was capable of wrestling at his best in that match."
As a result, Zeigler opted to surrender the match via injury default. The decision may have cost the Trappers at least a share of the regional title.
"We knew that might be the case," Zeigler said of the decision. "As a coach though, that's one of those situations where you have to ask what's most important. Obviously, that's the national tournament. A regional title would have been nice, but we've got bigger things down the road."
Jones dropped a narrow 5-4 loss in his championship match. It was a contest Zeigler noted was "probably a few seconds" from going Jones' way.
"It was an unfortunate loss," said Zeigler, alluding to a late flurry that cost Jones the match. "It's just one of those things, and I know Mak will battle through it. He'll use it to his advantage preparing for the national tournament."
Hillhouse was a fall victim in his championship match for the Trappers.
Two other members of the Trappers' roster battled back from early losses to win the consolation side of the bracket and earn a spot at the national championships. Briston Brenton (157) scored a pair of wins by fall and then had a 6-3 win to finish in third place after suffering a loss by fall in the semifinals. Jarrett Baker (184) scored a 6-4 win to shake off an earlier one-point loss in the semifinals.
"Baker lost on a bit of a controversial call," Zeigler said. "It was good to see him bounce back and get the winning points in the closing seconds of his third-place match. Having eight kids in the top three is very good."
The Trappers also received points from Bobby Robins (149) and Zach Oppenheimer (165), despite neither earning a spot at the national championships. Robins lost early to a returning national champion, but answered with a 13-3= major decision victory before missing a spot at nationals with a 7-3 loss in the thirdplace match. Oppenheimer lost a pair of decisions before winning 8-3 in his match for fifth-place.
"Zach's never been at 100 percent after his knee surgery, but his fifth-place match was probably his best of the year," said Zeigler. "He beat a kid that he'd lost to twice this season. Bobby was just in a tough weight class here, but he might be our most improved wrestler this season."
Overall, the regional tournament quickly became a battle between No. 3 Labette and No. 4 Northwest. The two nationally-ranked powers quickly pulled away from a tournament field that included three other programs also ranked in the top 15.
"It was a long, difficult weekend," said Zeigler. "Labette's a very solid program, but we gave ourselves a chance to win. We were in the position we needed to be."
The eight members of the Trappers' national tournament roster will compete in Iowa City, Feb. 25-27, for the NJCAA championship.
Team scores: Labette 93.5, Northwest 91.5, Pratt 56, Neosho 52.5, Colby 51, Western Wyoming 33.