Cloud County Wrestling Opens Season in Park City at Friends Falcon Open
A 29-team, all-day meet would officially kick off the 2023-24 season for the Cloud County Community College wrestling team with 14 wrestlers taking part in the Friends University Falcon Open hosted at Hartman Arena in Park City, Kansas on Saturday, November 4th.
As a team, Cloud County would produce 25 total wins including seven by fall and seven by technical fall. The 29 teams in attendance at the tournament would include a mix of NCAA Division II, III, NAIA, and NJCAA institutions with 268 wrestlers competing throughout the day.
Highlighting the day for CCCC would be Concordia native and freshman Daniel Vines who would make his T-Bird debut at 133 pounds and come out in a big way as a 17-1 technical fall in his collegiate debut over Domingo Davilla of Schreiner University would be followed up by a fall over Gavin Shoush of Central Methodist at the 2:26 mark of the first period. Dropping what would become his only defeat of the day to Logan Lopez (unattached - Grandview University) in an 8-3 decision, Vines would bounce back with a fall over Beau Murphy (unattached - Cowley) at the 2:29 mark and finish Davilla at the very final moments of the first period for his second win over the Schreiner University wrestler. A win over Lukas Hainlne of Friends University by an 11-6 decision would put Vines in the third-place match where both he and Aidan O'Dell of Cowley would be unable to wrestle due to hitting their six-match daily limit.
A strong outing would also come from Dylan Ancheta at 157 pounds as the number-four ranked wrestler in the NJCAA would overcome a 10-8 decision loss in his opening match to Josey Jernegan of the University of Saint Mary by earning a 16-0 technical fall over Braydon Forehand of Hastings College and 12-2 major decision over unattached wrestler Bryce Kegley of Newman University. Another technical fall for Ancheta would come over Coy DeBoer of Northwestern College and be followed by his third technical fall of the day with a 19-4 win over Aaron Aragon of Schreiner before finishing with a 4-2 decision over Nick Carlson of Pratt. Having hit his six-match limit for the day, Ancheta would be unable to wrestle against Gavin Smith of Doane University for a chance to wrestle in the third-place match.
Other strong outings on the mat for Cloud County on Saturday would include a three-win performance from Easton Boone at 165 pounds as the Valley Center, Kansas native would earn a second-period fall over Kai Simmons (unattached - Pratt) in his first match before dropping a 4-1 decision to Brody Hoversten of Northwestern College. Earning a medical forfeit victory in his next match to advance, Boone would go on to take a 6-4 decision over Dayton Fraser of York University before falling 12-6 to Dax Gentes of the University of Central Missouri.
Returning wrestlers Erik Darling (174 pounds) and Gavin Nutting (285 pounds) would also pick up multiple wins in their season debuts as Darling would get a 21-2 technical fall over Dominic Cisneros of Benedictine College and defeat Ethan Frank (Wayland Baptist) by injury default as part of a 2-2 day while Nutting would win four of his first five matches including two first period falls (Brad Christensen - Hastings College, 1:26 and Terrell Adkins - unattached Cloud County, 1:57) along with a technical fall over Logan Ash of Northwestern College (16-0) and medical forfeit over Henry Jones of Hastings College before dropping what would be his final match of the day to Rio Gomez of Newman University.
What's Next?
The first of two consecutive out-of-state trips will take Cloud County up north to Grimes, Iowa, and the Ignite Sports Complex to take part in the Grand View University Open. The meet, which is hosted by the reigning NAIA National Champion Grand View Vikings is expected to feature over 40 schools from the NCAA, NAIA, and NJCAA including schools coming from as far away as California and Montana to compete in the event.