THE BULL
Winter sports, as I sort of shared last week can at times be nothing more than a rat race, especially in December. After week one of the winter season, as I head into my 16th winter season covering Clay County schools, it’s safe to say that while things change, kids change, and teams change, the start of the busiest time of the school year for us here at the Clay County News was pretty typical.
We ended week one with a wrestling team champion in the Sutton Mustangs, winning the Giltner/Harvard Invite this past Saturday, and we ended the first week with three basketball teams that are a perfect 2-0.
Sutton’s wrestling team was strong, having nine total medalists in Harvard, four of which were weight class champions, so kudos to the coaches and wrestlers for working their tails off to start the season off on a high note.
Sutton’s four champions included Korey Poppe, Landon Scheidemann, Connor Hinrichs, and Aaron Sanchez. Other medalists included Billy Meyer and Griffin Bergen as runner-up medalists, while Javin Jordan and Brody Schelkopf placed fourth in Harvard.
Sutton’s girls proved to be a buzzsaw last week, outscoring their two opponents, Superior and Freeman by a combined 138-52, an average of 69-26, as the Fillies clobbered Superior 74-12, while taking down Freeman 64-40. If you want to see a fast moving, highly defended girls game, you’ll want to check out the Fillies this year.
Sandy Creek’s girls moved to 2-0 as well with a 42-20 win over Wood River and a 49-25 win over David City. I have a feeling that when the Fillies and Cougars match up in January these two teams will put on a talented show for all of us, as both Sutton and Sandy Creek look to be tough!
The Cougar boys basketball team, fresh off the football field just a few weeks ago, throttled both Wood River and David City and averaged 62.5 points per game doing so, beating the Eagles 69-42, and then dominating the Scouts 56-11.
The Sandy Creek wrestling program, fielding both girls and boys teams again this year had a strong start to their seasons with the girls battling in a pair of meets at Centennial and at Doane University. A big shout out to Cougar freshman Collins Hubl for winning her 130-pound weight class at Doane, defeating young ladies from Millard West, Crete, and Newman Grove/St. Edward to gain gold.
The Cougar guys mat season began at their traditional season opening meet in Harvard and cashed in for a sixth place in the field of 12 teams and had four medalists including, Josh Spray, Brockett Reed, Embry Frazier, and Jackson Gerdes.
And while the Sutton boys basketball team took a tough one on the chin, anytime you take on a finetuned machine like Freeman, the second-ranked team in Class C-2, you’re going to be dealing with a fundamentally strong and tough team.
The Giltner/Harvard boys and girls started their first year of co-oping together, and while both fell in games at Franklin, we’re hopeful to see a few wins come the way of the G/H squads.
Finally, the G/H wrestling team hosted the season-opening meet and came away with a pair of medalists Saturday, including Brextyn Kobza and Kyron VanHerwyn, who both closed out the day Saturday as fourth place medalists on their home mats.
