Cloud County Wrestling Team's Home Opening Duals Spoiled by #11 Labette, #10 Northwest Kansas Tech
Kicking off the first of three straight Wednesday home dual dates with a double-dual against a pair of nationally-ranked opponents, the Cloud County Community College wrestling team was defeated 32-13 by number 11 Labette Community College before dropping a 45-6 decision to 10th ranked Northwest Kansas Technical College inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium on January 17th.
The dual losses drop Cloud County to 3-7 overall this season in dual action while Labette splits their duals on Wednesday after opening the day with a 30-22 defeat to the Mavericks of Northwest Tech, the Cardinals are now 10-5 in their dual season while Northwest Tech goes 2-0 to improve to 4-3 overall in duals this season.
Against Labette:
Falling into a quick hole after the Cardinals earned a first-period fall and a 13-5 major decision in the opening two weight classes (125 pounds and 133 pounds), Cloud County saw their deficit grow to 16 after having the first of two open weights in the dual at 141 pounds. The 16-0 deficit in the match grew to a match-high 20 following the 149-pound match as Tarik Adkins fell behind 5-0 after one period of action before giving up four additional points in the second period to fall behind 9-0 with a riding time point being awarded at the end of the match as part of a 10-0 major decision win for Eric Streeter. In the 157-pound match for CCCC, the T-Birds turned to sophomore and returning national qualifier Dylan Ancheta to take on sixth-ranked Davion King with Ancheta scoring a first-period takedown as part of a 3-1 lead going into the second. In the ensuing two minute period, Ancheta chose bottom position after seeing King defer his choice to the third and managed to earn a reversal before allowing another escape with the lead extending to 5-2 for Ancheta heading into the third. With King choosing top position with his choice, Ancheta once again created a reversal to finish off the scoring in the match to earn a 7-2 upset for his ninth victory of the season.
A tightly contested 165-pound match saw Cloud County send out sophomore Erik Darling to take on Matthew Smith of Labette with a takedown by Smith followed by a Darling escape setting up a 3-1 score heading into the second. Darling added a second-period escape to get within a point at 3-2 after choosing bottom position to start the period before seeing Smith choose neutral position to start the third to try and keep Darling from a potential match-tying escape opportunity. An aggressive style of action late by Darling ultimately forced a stall warning on Smith but was not enough with riding time being over a minute in favor of the Labette wrestler to pick up one additional point as part of a 4-2 win. One final match before seeing both teams give up an open weight in two of the final three weight classes, Cloud County's Wyatt Powell wasted little time getting out to a big lead as a takedown was followed by a four-point near fall with back points to go up 7-0 before forcing a stall warning on LCC's Chad Herbert. Herbert chose neutral position with his choice to start the second period and gave up another takedown by Powell followed by a reversal for what amounted to Herbert's only points of the match with Powell adding a third-period takedown and riding time point for a 14-2 major decision win.
Labette was open at 184 pounds to give up a forfeit win to Macallistair Chambers of Cloud County followed by the T-Birds being open at 197 pounds to give the Cardinals six points of their own to offset the open weight classes and send things to the final match of the dual at 285 pounds with CCCC's Gavin Nutting taking on Gabe Kant. Taking leads of 3-1 after one period of action and 4-1 heading into the third, Nutting saw Kant chose bottom position to begin the third and scored a quick escape to cut the deficit to 4-2 but still needed points to try and win the match. Unfortunately for Nutting, a takedown in the final minute by Kant flipped the score in favor of the Cardinals at 5-4 as Nutting was unable to earn a match-tying escape to drop the match 5-4.
Against NW KS Tech:
The only six points for the T-Birds scored in the dual came at 125 pounds where the Mavericks were open to allow Brady Foster to pick up a forfeit win while CCCC was open at 141 pounds and 197 pounds to give up 12 points to NW KS Tech. Of the seven contested matches in the dual, five were bonus point victories for NWKT as only Daniel Vines (133 pounds) and Ancheta (157 pounds) were able to limit the Mavericks to decision victories by scores of 8-3. The loss for Vines came after scoring a first-period takedown as John Kenney managed to score the final eight points of the match while Ancheta was faced with the task of taking on 10th-ranked Job Lee who gave up just two escapes and a stalling penalty point as part of his victory. The Mavericks added a 21-4 technical fall victory at 149 pounds, 23-7 technical fall at 174 pounds, and 17-2 technical fall at 184 pounds to go along with first-period falls at 165 pounds and 285 pounds to suffer their largest defeat to Northwest Tech in seven career dual meetings.
What's Next?
The originally scheduled Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference opening double-dual for Cloud County on the road at Pratt that was scheduled for Tuesday, January 9th will now take place on Monday, January 22nd with action starting at 4 PM from the Dennis Lesh Sports Arena in Pratt. Joining the T-Birds and Beavers for the double dual will be Neosho County Community College with CCCC taking on NCCC at 4 PM in the first dual of the day before ending the night with the third and final dual against second-ranked and host Pratt at 7 PM.