Bucking odds with a depleted roster, the Boone Central/Newman Grove wrestling team brought home eight individual medals and an upper-half team finish from Saturday’s Mid-State Conference championships at Norfolk Catholic High School.
The Cardinals garnered fourth place in the team standings – just three points behind third-place Wayne – led by individual runners-up Cody Shanno (126 pounds) and Isaac Sullivan (285). O’Neill (220) claimed the team title, with Battle Creek (187) second.
Along with Shanno and Sullivan, Steven Arreguin (113), Joel Meyer (120) and Ethan Wilke (170) earned third-place medals and Nolan Wondercheck (106), Sam Stopak (132) and Jacob Krings (220) placed fourth.
BC/NG Coach Dale Bonge gave a thumbs-up to the effort of his banged-up squad.
“O’Neill and Battle Creek were the prohibitive favorites coming into the conference meet. Our young men did a great job of challenging for the #3 team spot – just missing it by three points,” Bonge said. “A pretty good showing considering we were without the services of two of our seniors – Jackson Meyer and Scott Joe – who were healing up some dings they got last week.”
The veteran coach also noted individual competitors had important turnaround efforts in their quest for medals.
“Our two runners-up – Cody and Isaac – both had huge wins to propel them into the finals,” he commented. “One week ago, Isaac was beaten 14-2 by his O’Neill semi-final opponent. This time, with the score knotted 4-4, Isaac rolled the guy with a half-nelson and pinned him. Earlier in the round, Cody avenged an earlier loss by pinning the #2-rated wrestler in Class C.
“Ethan wasted little time turning the tables on the Hartington C.C. guy who had pinned him two weeks ago by scoring a quick takedown and pinning him in just :37 seconds. Steven was even quicker, pinning his man in :22 seconds, and Joel posted a solid 7-2 win to earn his bronze.
“Nolan, Sam and Jacob were solid while placing fourth. Just missing out on a medal was Andrew Rasmussen, who came up just short (7-9) of knocking off a guy with a much better record than he has.”
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