Championship wrestling wrapup

SATURDAY -- The Powell Panthers crowned three state champions, but were denied their third consecutive state title by a single point. Douglas, trailing by 21 points in the team score with four matches remaining, responded with three wins by fall and an overtime victory to prevent the Panthers' three-peat.

Auston Carter scored a third-period takedown, then staved off multiple desperation shots over the final 25 seconds to capture his fourth state title with a 3-2 win at 145 pounds. Colt Nix dominated action at 130 pounds, winning by technical fall 19-4 when he scored the final takedown with one second left to get bonus points for the Panthers. Randy Andrews had a major decision victory, 8-0 at 140 pounds.

Jessee Craig, Trent Gillett, Jimmy Seckman, Cole Kary and Monte Nickles finish as 2010 state runners-up at their respective weight classes.

Out in Des Moines, Trapper head coach Jim Zeigler has crowned his latest national champion as heavyweight Landon Harris improved upon last year's runner-up finish and avenged his only junior college loss of the season with a 5-0 shutout in the 285-pound finals. As a team, the Trappers finished in a fourth-place tie with St. Louis-Meramec in the final national standings.

Complete coverage of both the Wyoming 3A and the NJCAA wrestling championship will appear in Tuesday's issue of The Powell Tribune.

Earlier updates follow below...
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SATURDAY UPDATE #3 -- Powell still leads by 11.5 points at Casper as they head to the championship round. The Panthers will have eight wrestlers this session, current second-place Douglas has seven. There will be five matches featuring head-to-head pairings between the two contending schools.

In the medal round, it was a clean sweep of third place finishes for Powell. Robert Friday won a 3-1 decision to place third at 112. Olie Olson won the all-Powell battle at 125 over teammate Zach Thiel. Waylon Bays was a 10-4 winner in the third-place match at 145 and Joe Lujan wrapped up a 4-2 win to place third at 215.

Fasten your seatbelts, here comes the fun part.
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SATURDAY UPDATE #2--They're getting ready to begin the championship round in Des Moines and the Northwest College Trappers have one wrestler in pursuit of a national title. Landon Harris gets to face off against the only JUCO wrestler to defeat him this seaosn, Roger McCovey of North Idaho. Should Harris avenge the one-point loss he suffered in the Apodaca Duals, he'll also wear the crown of national champion.

Elsewhere, the Trappers have been victims of close losses today. Mak Jones is your third-place finisher at 197. Jones lost a 4-3 decision in the semifinals before rebounding with a pair of 5-2 victories to earn a spot as NWC's second-highest finisher.

Next up are McCade Ford and Saul Guerrero, both returning All-Americans this season. Ford's stellar run through the tournament was stopped via fall in the semis. Guerrero fought back through the consolation bracket, dropped a 7-3 decision in the consolation semifinals before winning by fall to wrap up a fifth-place season.

Jesse Hillhouse lost in overtime 5-4 in the semifinals, then suffered a pair of decision losses to finish up in sixth place. Nick Petersen went 1-1 on the day, falling 6-3 early before recovering to win 9-7 to secure seventh place. Jarrett Baker was eighth after his day started with a 6-4 overtime loss and then a 4-3 loss in the seventh-place match.

As a team, the Trappers have slid to fourth in the standings. The top five scholarship teams are Iowa Central 107, North Idaho 99, Labette 95.5, Northwest College 92.5 and St. Louis-Meramec 92.5. The top five teams have opened more than a 30-point gap on sixth-place.
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SATURDAY UPDATE #1 -- My apologies to folks who have been checking in hoping for results from consolation matches. The powers that be have evidently been slacking on updating online brackets. There's still no word out of Des Moines yet today, but I can finally offer some update on how things go in Casper, where they are getting ready to start the medal rounds.

The Panthers managed to build on their overnight advantage and currently hold an 11.5-point advantage over Douglas in what has become a two-team race that won't be decided until probably the last match of the day.

The Panthers have acquitted themselves nicely in the consolation rounds. Five grapplers navigated the back side of the brackets and will compete for third-place honors. Robert Friday (112) scored a couple wins by fall and a major decision in consolation action to reach the third-place match. At 125, Olie Olson and Zach Thiel had hoped to meet in the championship match. They'll have to settle for duking it out for third-place honors. Waylon Bays bounced back from a loss at 145 to register a pair of wins by fall and will also go after third place tonight. The Panthers' final third-place hopeful, Joe Lujan, rebounded from a loss in the semifinals to win by fall and score maximum points for the Panthers while reaching the consolation finals.

I'll be heading over the Casper-Northwest College basketball games soon, but I'll continue to check in and post updates as circumstances allow. With luck, I'll be back at the keyboard just as the championship finals begin.
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FRIDAY NIGHT -- We'll start in Des Moines, where Northwest College head wrestling coach Jim Zeigler will be bringing home seven All-Americans from this year's national championships. The Trappers took eight wrestlers to Iowa and seven of them have reached the final eight of their divisions and will be wrestling on Saturday.

Four of those grapplers - Jesse Hillhouse (125), McCade Ford (141), Mak Jones (197) and Landon Harris (285) - will wrestle in the semifinals tomorrow morning. Harris needed less than a minute, pinning his quarterfinal foe in 59 seconds to advance with his second win by fall of the tournament. Ford was nearly as impressive, adding to his second-round win by fall by posting his second major decision victory of the tournament, 14-4 in the quarterfinals. Ford is wrestling extremely well for the Trappers. Hillhouse and Jones each had to grind out their spots in the semifinals. Hillhouse took a 4-2 decision while Jones followed late in the day with a 3-1 win.

On the backside of the bracket, Briston Brenton's dream of becoming an All-American came up one win shy as he dropped a 9-5 decision to narrowly miss a Saturday assignment. Saul Guerrero lost an 8-4 quarterfinal decision, but bounced back with a win by fall to secure his second season on the All-America roster. Nick Petersen took Iowa Central's chances of a national title defense down a peg by eliminating the IC wrestler at 174 with a first-period win by fall to reach the final eight. Jarrett Baker, at 184, joined Hillhouse as freshmen All-Americans this season by edging his foe 4-3 to wrap up his first day of action in the national tournament.

As a team, the Trappers are currently second in the nation with 72.5 points, 11.5 points behind surprise Harper. West Central regional champion Labette is third at 69 with Iowa Central fourth with 65 points. St. Louis-Meramec is fifth at 60 points. This is a tight field, so it is still anyone's game.

It is still anyone's game in Casper as well, but your Powell Panthers carry a 216-213 lead over Douglas into the overnight of the 3A state championships. After a disappointing quarterfinal round, the Panthers bounced back with an 8-3 performance in the semifinals, meaning eight Panthers will be wrestling for state titles tomorrow.

Auston Carter scored a 20-9 major decision against his Douglas foe. He needs a victory over Wheatland's Tyler Smart on Saturday to join the elite ranks of four-time Wyoming state champions. Jessee Craig also captured a pivotal win against a Douglas opponent and will head for the 119-pound championship match after a 10-7 decision.

If it wasn't for Carter's drive for history, Trent Gillett's pillaging of the 135-pound division would be the talk of the 3A tournament. Gillett finally had to work past the midpoint of the first period, but still made it look easy as he registered a win by fall at the 1:18 mark. Monte Nickles (189) also grabbed a win by fall, needing just 61 seconds to secure a place in Saturday's finals. Cole Kary (160) also scored a win by fall to reach the championships.

Your other finalists on Saturday include Colt Nix (13-11 semifinal winner at 130), Randy Andrews (13-5 winner at 140) and Jimmy Seckman (5-3 winner at 152). There are five head-to-head matchups between Powell and Douglas wrestlers slated for Saturday's championship round as the two schools are nearly 90 points clear of third-place Worland.

A host of Panthers remain on the consolation side of things as well. I'll try to provide a rundown of how things shape up on that side of the bracket first thing in the morning. Rest well Powell, Saturday is going to be a very pivotal day of action on the wrestling mats.
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UPDATE #3 -- The two-horse race that many speculated the 3A state title race might turn into at the state wrestling championships is off and running. Right now, Panther fans, our horse isn't in front. Douglas holds a slim 124-120 lead in the team standings after the championship quarterfinals. It's a long way back to third place.

Eleven Panther grapplers remain alive on the championship side of the bracket, but Powell's three-peat hopes definitely took a hit by going 11-8 in the quarterfinals. One of those not affected was Trent Gillett, who continues to make very short work of the opposition. Gillett was one of six Panthers to win by fall in the first period, needing just 43 seconds to have his arm raised in victory. That means his time in Casper thus far has amounted to 1:16 of work to reach the semifinals.

Auston Carter's four-time championship dreams stayed alive as well. He needed just 1:08 to pin his opponent and advance within two victories of a prep career title sweep. Olie Olson, Randy Andrews, Jimmy Seckman and Monte Nickles also finished business before the first period clock expired. Also advancing to the championship semifinals are Jessee Craig, Zach Thiel, Colt Nix, Cole Kary and Joe Lujan. The possibility of an all-Powell championship match at 125 between Olson and Thiel is on the table.

Semifinal matches at 119 (Craig) and 145 (Carter) carry significant weight for the Panthers' title hopes as they feature the round's only head-to-head meeting of Powell and Douglas grapplers. Like Powell, Douglas also has 11 wrestlers still on the championship side of the bracket. As close as the team chase is, every match involving either school has state title implications. For the record, no other 3A school is carrying more than seven wrestlers on the championship side at this stage.

Team standings (top three): 1. Douglas 124, 2. Powell 120, 3. Worland 76.5.
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UPDATE #2 -- With no team scores from the NJCAA national championships and another 90 minutes until the evening session begins out in Iowa, yours truly decided to get a little creative. Of the 27 schools with wrestlers in the championship quarterfinals, only four -- defending national champion Iowa Central (7), Labette County (7), Nassau (6) and St. Louis-Meramec (6) -- have more wrestlers remaining on the championship side of the bracket than NWC. The Trappers are joined by North Idaho and Southwest Oregon with five wrestlers in the quarterfinals. All in all, Northwest College is off to a solid start toward another top 10 finish.
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UPDATE #1 -- All eight Northwest College wrestlers remain alive after four rounds of action today. Returning All-Americans Saul Guerrero (133), McCade Ford (141) and Landon Harris (285) are joined by sophomore Mak Jones (197) and freshman Jesse Hillhouse (125) in the championship quarterfinals. Guerrero, Ford and Harris have all picked up extra team points for the Trappers by recording wins by fall. Ford also had a 19-6 major decision in his opener. Brison Brenton (157), Nick Petersen (174) and Jarrett Baker (184) each won their opening matches before falling in round two. Each has since survived their first consolation match with Petersen advancing on a medical forfeit and Brenton and Baker both rolling to major decision wins. No word on team scores and it looks like updates from Des Moines will be sporadic, but we'll check in as events allow.

They're through the first round in Casper and the Powell Panthers' quest for a three-peat is off to a dashing start. Powell is in the lead, three points clear of second-place Douglas, after going 18-4 in opening-round matches.

Considering two of those four losses came in matches where two Powell wrestlers were forced to open state competition against each other, that's not looking too shabby at all. Charles Wittick, Drew Feller, Mike Mundy and Kurt Bullinger were the unfortunate four relegated early to the consolation bracket.

Auston Carter's quest for a fourth state championship got off to a positive start. Carter needed just 52 seconds to end his first-round match by fall. While that's an impressive start, it doesn't even begin to qualify for fastest pin of the tournament honors among Powell grapplers. That title currently goes to Cole Kary, who took just 24 seconds in dispatching Torrington's Isaac Brown. Honorable mention nods go to Trent Gillett (won by fall in 0:34) and Monte Nickles (0:35).

Team standings (top three): 1. Powell 52, 2. Douglas 49, 3. Worland 37.

More information after the quarterfinals.