The Sutton Mustangs, fresh off of a runner-up finish at the season-opening Harvard Invitational, Dec. 2, entered into what could possibly be one of the toughest regular-season meets of the 2023-24 season.
The Wood River Invitational boasts the names of some traditionally rich wrestling programs, with the likes of Aquinas Catholic, O’Neill, Valentine, and Amherst, and the action proved to be tough for the Mustangs, especially without two of their leaders, Korey Poppe and Landon Scheidemann, who missed the tournament for the national finals rodeo in Las Vegas.
Nonetheless, Sutton tallied 37 team points, but would fall short of having a medalist in Wood River, while placing 14th in the 18-team meet.
Scoring leaders for Sutton proved to be a pair of freshmen, as Griffin Bergen, who won two of four matches earned seven team points in the 175-pound weight class, while Kade Jones, wrestling in the 285-pound class, also tallied seven points, while winning two of four matches as well. Bergen holds a 5-4 record after the second meet of the year while Jones also ran his record to 5-4.
Freshman Connor Hinrichs added five team points to the Mustangs final tally in the 126-pound weight class, winning two of four matches to take his season record to 6-3 overall, while junior Billy Marshall scored four points, winning one of three matches to even his season record at 4-4.
Javin Jordan, wrestling in the 157-pound weight class won one of three matches to add three team points to the final score, as his season record moved to 3-5 overall. Lane Shore (120), and Ayden Banta (215) fell short of wins on the varsity side of the meet, with Shore’s record falling to 2-3 with a pair of losses, while Banta fell to 2-4, also with two losses at Wood River.
On the junior varsity side of the meet, Shawn Westmoreland won two of five matches to place fourth overall and score 11 points in the 132-pound class, Brody Schelkopf won one of four matches to place fourth in the 175-pound junior varsity weight class, Brian Liberato, in the 190-pound JV class was 1-3 to place fourth in the class, Aaron Sanchez was 3-2 overall in the 285-pound JV weight class and placed fourth, while Canon Peterson fell short of a win in the 215-pound JV weight class.
TEAM SCORES- St. Paul 210.5, Aquinas Catholic 192, O’Neill 157, Doniphan-Trumbull 116.5, Gothenburg 112, Valentine 112, Amherst 105.5, Kearney Catholic 101.5, Hershey 92, Gibbon 74, Wood River 65, Shelton 44, Superior 41.5, Sutton 37, Ord 32, Grand Island Central Catholic 7, Kenesaw 7, Hastings St. Cecilia 3.
Sutton heads into action this Saturday, Dec. 16, at Johnson County Central High School for action that gets underway at 9:30 a.m., before heading home to host the Sutton Duals tournament, Tuesday, Dec. 19, beginning at 2:30 p.m. The Mustangs will then have a long break, before returning to action Jan. 5, at the Wilber-Clatonia Duals.
