Cloud County Wrestling Team Wins 23-22 Thriller in Lone Home Dual of 2021-22 Season
An early deficit in their only home dual of the year would be overcome in the final two matches of the evening as the number 11-ranked Cloud County Community College wrestling team would avenge a December loss to number-23 ranked Northeastern Junior College with a 23-22 victory inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium in Concordia, Kansas on Wednesday, February 2nd.
A win in their seventh and final dual of the season leaves the T-Birds with a 3-4 record in duals this season with three of the four dual losses coming by a combined 11 points. Northeastern concludes their dual season with a 6-7 record this year after dropping their third dual in a row.
Exhibition duals that would take place prior to the start of the dual would see Tarik Adkins (157 pounds) and Quintin Beeson (285 pounds) take on Vince Beeson and Santiago Miranda III of Northeastern. Adkins would score an early takedown before giving up an escape and being taken down himself and would trail 7-2 to Vince Beeson after one period and eventually lose by fall in the second period in just his fifth match of the year. Quintin Beeson would fare better in his exhibition match by turning an early takedown against him into a reversal to get on the board and force a pair of stall calls to earn a third point despite trailing 5-3 heading to the second period. The Belleville, Kansas native would then choose the bottom position and work an escape before adding a takedown to get a 6-5 lead heading to the third before tacking on a second point due to stalling by Miranda III to win by decision 7-5.
Beginning the dual at 125 pounds, Cloud County would drop into a quick 5-0 hole as Braydon Mogle of NJC wasted no time earning a takedown of Bray Skinner and earning six near fall points in the first period while working riding time in his advantage. With the first choice, Mogle would choose the bottom position and score an additional five points with an escape, takedown, and two-point near fall before ending the match in the third with a takedown to earn a technical fall.
Things would go from bad to worse for the T-Birds as Sajen Kemling at 133 pounds would be taken down in the opening seconds and turned to his back by Layne Shepherd who would earn a 22-second fall as CCCC would find themselves in an 11-0 deficit heading into the 141-pound match. Sophomore Michael Barfuss would represent Cloud County at 141 pounds and be tasked with taking on number-nine ranked Deegan Palmer who defeated Barfuss 9-1 back in December. Looking to avoid a similar result, Barfuss would escape an early takedown and put together a high-scoring opening period to lead 9-4 before adding a reversal and stalling point in the second to go up 12-4. Looking to secure a major decision victory, Barfuss would take down Palmer and be in good shape until a reversal and four-point near fall would nearly turn into a fall. Managing to get off his back and eat up the rest of the time in the match, Barfuss would hold on and win by a score of 15-10 after a riding point was added to give the T-Birds their first win of the night.
Kase Givens would then work the home crowd into some momentum as a takedown would lead to a first-period fall with six seconds left in the opening three minutes of action as the dual would suddenly become an 11-9 score in favor of the Plainsmen. Jonny Crome kept the momentum in favor of CCCC with the 157-pound match by jumping out to an early 4-2 lead after one period and managing to grind out a 6-4 decision victory over Connor Davis as two escapes in the third would offset a takedown to give Cloud County their first dual lead of the night.
Wrestling up at 165 pounds would be Joel Ostrom as Cael Smith would take advantage of the lighter weighted sophomore to get a pair of takedowns with a total of six near-fall points to go up 10-3 heading to the second. Ostrom would work a pair of stall calls to earn a point and get back to 10-4 heading to the third, but Smith would get a takedown in the third and ensure enough riding time to secure a bonus point towards the team score with a 13-5 major decision victory.
Another tightly contested match at 174 pounds would see Brandon Rohr take on Tucker Naccarato and battle through a scoreless opening three minutes before reversing from bottom position to score a pair of points despite giving up an escape and two-point near fall prior to the reversal to trail 3-2. Needing to score in the third, Rohr would be dealt top position as Naccarato would choose bottom and earn a quick escape. With the score now 4-2 in favor of NJC's Naccarato, Rohr would manage a match-tying takedown, but it would be too late into the match as the riding time that had been built up allowed Naccarato to win 5-4.
Another major decision would go in the favor of Northeastern Junior College in the 184-pound match as Micah Sterling would trail 6-2 after one period and be unable to produce any offense against Zack Smith to lose 16-5 and see the Plainsmen go up 22-12 with two matches remaining. Top-ranked 197-pound wrestler Zach Ferris would be next up for the T-Birds as a minimum of a major decision would be needed to have any potential at a dual victory. The experienced Ferris would score a pair of takedowns in the opening period despite giving up two escapes and decide to take bottom decision after Kordell Culhane would defer to the third period. Deferring to the third would prove to be an unwise decision for Culhane as Ferris would quickly reverse things to claim control and put the freshman to his back and end things with 1:27 left in the second period to score the six team points and put CCCC in a 22-18 hole with the 285-pound match remaining.
The final match of the night that would prove to be the deciding match would feature Cloud County's Ibrahim Ameer and Northeastern's Nolan Bullethead as things would become chippy from the opening whistle. Ameer would work an early takedown before being called for an unsportsmanlike penalty point after having action leave the mat but pick up a penalty point of his own as Bullethead would get an escape before pushing Ameer off the mat. Another takedown by Ameer would put the freshman back out in front as Bullethead would work another escape but be called for a second unsportsmanlike penalty in the second period that would put him in a position where he could not afford a third unsportsmanlike that would result in disqualification. With Ameer on top following Bullethead's decision to choose bottom position, Ameer would nearly give up an escape before regaining control and putting his opponent to his back and finish things off at the 4:16 mark of the match to earn a match and dual victory despite having a team point deducted following the match for unsportsmanlike conduct.
The 23-22 victory was just the second in program history for CCCC over Northeastern Junior College as Wednesday's dual was just the fifth all-time between the two teams and first to take place in Concordia. The one-point victory was also the closest dual that the T-Birds have had in their five-year history.
What's Next?
Postseason wrestling gets underway for the T-Birds on Saturday, February 12th as Cloud County will head to the South-Central District Championship Championships which are scheduled to be held at the Colby Events Center in Colby, Kansas. The South-Central District is comprised of schools from Region VI and Region II with a total of 10 teams competing towards qualification to the 2022 NJCAA National Championship Tournament in March.