Nebraska state wrestling tournament Day 1

Millard South, Skutt, Broken Bow and Aquinas lead with semifinals on deck

By Nathan Charles 

The 2023 Nebraska state wrestling tournament kicked off Thursday at the CHI Health Center in Omaha. 

Twenty-six boys took to the mat as defending or former state champions, including two back-to-back gold medalists and a three-time winner looking to become the 36th four-time winner in state history. 

In the team race, Millard South is looking for its fifth straight team championship in Class A while Aquinas Catholic, the Class C champ a year ago, looks to be a strong contender to repeat as a Class D team. 

First-round and quarterfinal matchups were completed on Thursday. Friday includes first and second-round consolations during the day then semifinals and third-round consolations in the evening. The medal round begins with third and fifth-place matches on Saturday morning. The finals are Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m.

In the girls tournament, 10 of last year’s champs are back to try to make it two in a row. South Sioux City, the reigning team champion, has two returning champs and seven total girls on the bracket.

Between the boys and girls tournaments, there are 25 unbeaten wrestlers headed to Omaha.

Class A

It’s early, but Millard South already has a commanding lead on the rest of the field thanks to nine wrestlers into the semifinals. The Patriots have a representative at all 14 weight classes - 11 of those won their first-round matchups.

Two returning champs, Miles Anderson at 126 pounds and Joel Adams at 145, are two of the nine in the semis. Anderson won by two pinfalls while Adams pinned his first-round opponent then won by 11-3 major decision in the quarterfinals.

Millard South has put up 97.5 team points so far and leads a top five that has Norfolk in second (60 points), Lincoln East in third (57.5), Papillion-La Vista in fourth (47) and Columbus in fifth (43).

Norfolk has four in the semifinals but went 4-7 in the quarterfinals. East is poised to pass Norfolk and challenge for the runner-up trophy with six in the semifinals after going 6-2 in the quarters. Papio has four in the semifinals while Columbus also has four.

The Class A tournament had seven returning champs, six of whom are still in line to wrestle on Saturday night. Tyler Durden, a 43-6 senior from Papillion-La Vista who won gold last year at 106, had to survive a 1-0 match in the first round but then suffered a second-period pin to Lincoln East sophomore Scottie Meier.

Durden escaped 11 seconds into the third period against Henry Kriegler of Papio South then was reversed 34 seconds into the middle period against Meier and pinned 16 seconds later.

Adams and Omaha North’s Tyson Terry are the only two unbeaten Class A wrestlers that remain.

Team Standings: Millard South 97.5, 2. Norfolk 62, 3. Lincoln East 57.5, 4. Papillion-La Vista 47, 5 Columbus, 43, 6. Lincoln Southwest 38, 7. Grand Island 35.5, 8. Kearney 30, 9. Bellevue West 27.5, 10. Creighton Prep, Millard West 27.

Class B

Skutt Catholic ran Class B for nearly two straight decades, winning all but one title from 1998-2008. But for the last three years, there’s been a different champ every season – something that hasn’t happened since 1992. Well, three years is a long time to wait when you’re a SkyHawk wrestler.

After Thursday’s first round, Skutt is back sitting on top of the team standings. The SkyHawks have 12 state qualifiers, eight that won in the first round and six of those who moved on to Friday’s semifinal round. Normally deep on returning medalists, Skutt has just two on the roster who are back in Omaha that have claimed state hardware. But both of those, 132-pound senior Drew Cooper and 170-pound sophomore Cade Ziola, are into the semis.

The SkyHawks’ lead, however, is tenuous. Bennington is just 11.5 points back in second. Waverly is third and 16 points behind. Blair is 20 points back in fourth. Bennington was 4-4 in the quarterfinals, Waverly went 4-5 and Blair has five in the semis following a 5-1 quarterfinal showing.

Class B returned six former champions, five reigning and Ely Olberding of Fort Calhoun who won a title in 2020 as a freshman. The most notable of those is Bennington senior Kael Lauridsen seeking four gold medals. He was perfect on day one with two first-period pins.

Lauridsen has three teammates who also won championships last winter. Connor Ritonya, a 132-pound senior, lost his chance for another when he suffered an injury in the first round and took a medical forfeit in the quarters. Kyler Lauridsen pinned two foes at 138. Fellow senior AJ Parrish won by pin then 7-3 decision.

Olberding won 10-0 and 9-3. Two other former champs, Hastings’ senior Landon Weidner, and Cozad’s Isaac White, are also into the semifinals.

Braiden Kort of Hastings, a senior who has lost three straight state title matches, is still on the road to redemption after a pin and a 15-4 major decision.

Team Standings: 1. Skutt Catholic 67, 2. Bennington 55.5, 3. Waverly 51, 4. Blair 47, 5. Cozad 36.5, 6. Hastings 30, 7. Scottsbluff 29.5, 8. Beatrice 26, 9. O’Neill 24, 10. South Sioux City 23.

Class C

Broken Bow won back-to-back dual titles in 2018 and 2018, and the Indians have had five gold medalists in the past six state tournaments. But a team state championship has been elusive. Through the first day, Broken Bow is in position to finally deliver that elusive trophy. The Indians are in first with 58 team points, leading Fillmore Central by 11, Battle Creek by 19 and Bishop Neumann by 20.

The best news for Broken Bow is six wrestlers in the semifinals thanks to a 6-2 performance in the quarters. There are 11 Indians in the tournament; three failed to win in the first round.

Fillmore Central only has seven in Omaha but four of those are in the semis. Battle Creek qualified 11 and went 3-2 in the quarterfinals. Neumann also has just seven, but like Fillmore Central, put seven into Friday night with a perfect 4-0 performance in the quarterfinals.

There are five in Class C who are back to defend a title while Kaleb Baker of St. Paul is looking to return to the top of the podium after doing that in 2021 but finishing sixth a year ago. He’s still alive along with four of the other five. Heavyweight Quade Peterson of St. Paul won by pin in 30 seconds but then suffered a 5-4 decision in the quarters to 41-7 Elijah Hintz of Battle Creek. Peterson led 4-1 going into the third period but Hintz scored one on an escape, cut the difference to one on a stalling point then scored a takedown in the final 30 seconds.

Ashton Dane of Gordon-Rushville, Robbie Fisher from Crofton/Bloomfield and Ryan Gabriel of Ord are one win away from defending their titles.

Team Standings: 1. Broken Bow 58, 2. Fillmore Central 47, 3. Battle Creek 39, 4. Neumann 38, 5. Boone Central 33, 6. Pierce 31.5, 7. Wilber-Clatonia 28, 8. Central City 27, 9. Valentine 26, 10. Crofton/Bloomfield 24.

Class D

Aquinas Catholic has five team state titles in its history, two of which came back-to-back in 2001-2002. The Monarchs look poised to reign again and win two in a row for the second time in school history after giving themselves some breathing room from the rest of the field.

The Monarchs have six for Friday night’s semifinal round and went 6-2 in the quarterfinal round. There are 10 members of the roster in Omaha but just three that have won a state medal. Aquinas has 64.5 team points and leads the standings over Mullen in second (39), Elkhorn Valley in third (36.5), Shelby-Rising City in fourth (36) and Howells-Dodge rounding out the top five (26). Mullen has four in the semifinals and went 4-1 in the quarters. Elkhorn Valley also has four set for Friday night, Shelby-Rising City has three and Howells-Dodge.

Class D had five returning champions to begin the day and four that are still in line to win another. Braxton Hammond of Southern Valley, Creel Weber of Hemmingford, Eli Paxton of Mullen and Tanner Frahm of Plainview all won titles last winter. Neligh-Oakdale’s Aiden Kuester was fourth a year ago but has a 2021 state championship on his mantle.

Weber lost his shot at back-to-back when he lost in the quarterfinals. The Hemmingford senior led 10-5 in the first round then completed a pin midway through the second period. In the next round, Elgin Public/Pope John senior Carter Beckman scored an escape with 38 seconds left in the match for a two-point lead then scored a takedown with 16 seconds remaining to secure the upset.

Kuester is the only unbeaten Class D wrestler at 42-0.

Team Standings: 1. Aquinas Catholic 64.5, 2. Mullen 39, 3. Elkhorn Valley 36.5, 4. Shelby-Rising City 36, 5. Howells-Dodge 26, 6. Anselmo-Merna/Neligh-Oakdale/Sutherland 25, 9. Plainview 24, 10. Kimball/Pleasanton/Thayer Central/Wisner-Pilger 22.

Girls

More than any class of boys, the girls return the most reigning champions with 10 from eight different schools. South Sioux City, the first team champ in girls state history, has two gold medalists back and seven total wrestlers in the tournament. Westside returns its own duo of former champs and five total qualifiers.

Those two sit atop the team standings. South Sioux finished day one with a slim 50-47 margin on Westside for the first position. Grand Island is nine back with 41, Papillion-La Vista has 33 and Millard South rounds out the top five with 30.

Six of the seven South Sioux girls won in the first round while four more won in the quarters and are alive for the semifinals. However, if the Cardinals are going to maintain their lead, they’ll need each of those six plus the one still alive in the consolation round, to keep picking up wins. All five of Westside’s girls went 2-0 and will be on the mats for semifinal Friday night. One of those was a head-to-head match against South Sioux in which reigning 114-pound champion Zoey Barber defeated reigning 132-pound champ Selena Zamora 3-2 in the 135-pound tournament. Zamora won 2-0 after the first period but Barber tied it in the third and was awarded a stalling point for the win with nine seconds remaining.

Grand Island was 3-3 in the quarterfinals, Papio was 3-0 in the quarters and has three others on the backside and Millard South had a tough 2-4 quarterfinal round.

Nine of the 10 champs from last year still have the potential to win another. The Barber/Zamora match eliminated the possibility for 10 out of 10. The other eight are all on different brackets.

Team Standings: 1. South Sioux City 50, 2. Westside 47, 3. Grand Island 41, 4. Papillion-La Vista 33, 5. Millard South 30, 6. Scribner-Snyder/Yutan 26, 8. Chadron 25, 9. Boone Central 23, 10. Amherst/Battle Creek/Conestoga/Crofton-Bloomfield/McCook 22.