Cloud County Wrestling Opens Season at Rochester Community & Technical College Yellow Jacket Open in Rochester, Minnesota
Making one of their longest trips of the year to officially kick off their season, the Cloud County Community College wrestling team would put two wrestlers in championship matches and be led by a 197-pound Championship by Ibrahim Ameer at the Rochester Community & Technical College Yellow Jacket Open at the Rochester Regional Sports Center in Rochester, Minnesota on Saturday, November 5th.
With wrestlers for the T-Birds competing in nine of a possible 10 weight classes, CCCC would have three wrestlers reach the semifinal round of their respective weight classes while racking up a total of 19 matches on the day against wrestlers from both two-year and four-year colleges as the NJCAA, NCAA Division II and NCAA Division III were all represented at the 16-team meet.
For Ameer, the sophomore and returning NJCAA National Qualifier would start his morning with a 12-5 decision over Jaydon Walls of St. Cloud State University before earning a first-period pin over Rives Hargis of Iowa Central. Facing Curtis Ruff II in his semifinal match, Ameer would put together a 14-3 major decision victory to move to the championship round where he would earn an 8-2 decision over Isaac Grams of St. Cloud State to go a perfect 4-0. Cloud County's other championship round qualifier would come in the 125-pound weight class with freshman Brady Foster putting together a 3-1 day in his collegiate debut by getting two decisions and a major decision to reach the finals. In his opening match against Matt Adamczyk of Harper Community College, Foster would grind out a 5-2 decision before having an easier time against Archer Heelan of St. Cloud State by earning a 13-2 major decision. Another close match in the semifinal round would lead to a 7-3 decision victory over Cael Weinzweig of Wisconsin-La Crosse to move to the championship match where Foster would run into Anthony Schickel of Triton College and drop a 16-1 technical fall.
Winning each of their first two matches of the day would be Collin Smith (133 pounds) and Jahmari Pleasant (285 pounds) with Smith earning a first-period fall over Aramis Rogel (Harper CC) and a 10-4 decision against Nik Petsinger of Rochester Community & Technical College while Pleasant had a first-period fall over Farouk Shaaban of Harper Community College and 13-5 major decision over Allyn Johnson of Triton College. For Smith, the freshman would then drop matches against Elon Rodriguez of Triton College and Braden Thom of Rochester Tech while pleasant would see a pair of falls to Max Balow (Augustana University) and Erik Garcia (Harper CC) end his day at 2-2. CCCC would also have Caden Crider earn two wins and finish 2-2 on the day as the Declo, Idaho native would earn a 10-2 major decision victory over Victor Perez Mesa of Wisconsin Eau-Claire and a 13-3 major decision over Zack Rogala.
Other wins for the T-Birds would come courtesy of Bray Skinner with a 16-0 technical fall in his opening 125-pound match against Ryan Goddard (Wisconsin Eau-Claire), Mo Hilbert with a 10-3 decision over Joseph Cruz (Iowa Central), Dylan Ancheta earning a sudden-victory win over YJ Evillard (Rochester Tech), Wyatt Powell with a win over Tommy Rogers (Cloud County), Rogers with a first period fall against Sam Weaver (Nebraska Wesleyan) and Gavin Nutting earning a first-period fall over Allyn Johnson (Triton College).
What's Next?
Another trip north for Cloud County will take the T-Birds to Des Moines, Iowa to compete in the Grand View University Open on Saturday, November 12th. Last season, CCCC opened their season at the Grand View Open and earned 30 wins across 12 wrestlers competing at the meet.