Sports

After finishing second at the D-1 District wrestling meet Feb. 9, Harvard junior Dalton Hansen served up a little excitement at the 2019 Nebraska state wrestling championship, as the Cardinals lightweight 106 pound rallied to gain himself his first-ever state medal, winning five of seven matches in the process.

Hansen, following an opening round 5:58 pinfall win over Tristan White of Arapahoe, ran into his own Twin Valley Conference nemisis in Jesse Sauceda. The Bulldog junior would pin Hansen in 1:16, forcing the Harvard spark plug into the consolation bracket, where he caught fire.

Hansen opened with an impressive 33-second pin over Jacoby Mann of Winside, then pulled off his biggest win of his career in the third round of the consolation bracket, holding off Samuel Foster of Sutherland 4-2 in overtime.

Senior Lee Carlson and sophomore Joe Hinrichs would claim bronze at the 2019 Nebraska state wrestling championships this past weekend, helping the Mustangs finish in the top 15 of the Class C field.

Valentine, with a huge semifinal round Friday night in Omaha, distanced themselves from Broken Bow in the team race, outscoring the Indians 165-129, while Southern Nebraska Conference champion and the C-2 District championship team, David City, placed third with 120.5 team points.

Sutton would tally 42.5 team points to place 13th overall in the final standings.

CARLSON THIRD AT 126

Senior Lee Carlson, who recently gained his 150th career win, entered the 2019 state championship meet with lofty goals of becoming a state champion with his 44-0 record, after winning the C-2 District crown in Albion.

Four of the South Central Red Raider wrestlers would return from the nine-team Adams Central wrestling invite as medalists this past Friday, as Chase DeVries (130), Brayton Jarosik (145), Bailey Timmerman (170) and Jaekob Spitz (195) all claimed third place finishes when the dust settled on the meet.

The Red Raiders placed eighth as a team with 54 points. Fremont High outscored second place Nebraska City 196.5-150 for the team title.

DeVries’ run in the 130 pound class produced two wins in three matches, opening with a tough 7-3 loss to Adams Central’s Cameron Kort, before battling back strong in the consolation bracket, beating Alex Davenport of Waverly in 57 seconds and then capturing third with a tough 7-5 sudden victory in overtime over Treven Melroy of Holdrege. DeVries scored 10 points and improved to 30-10 on the year.

Mustangs take SNC

Wiseman hits for 21 as Sutton rolls past Centennial 62-47 for conference tournament title

BY TORY DUNCAN

Coming off a sweet revenge 71-60 win over the Milford Eagles in the semifinals of the Southern Nebraska Conference, the task at hand for the Sutton Mustangs wasn’t quite finished, as to reach the top of the hill in the conference tournament, Sutton would have to beat the 17-1 Centennial Broncos on their home floor Saturday night in Utica.

The Broncos, who already had claim to a home win over Sutton, a 53-45 win on Jan. 4, rolled into the championship finals with Sutton with a dominating 62-33 win over Wilber-Clatonia in the other semifinal bout Feb. 3.

The two teams, no strangers to each other, battled evenly in the first 16 minutes of play Saturday night in Utica, as the host Broncos held a narrow 24-22 halftime lead.

Eight total medalists would be led by Sutton senior Lee Carlson’s Southern Nebraska Conference individual title in the 126-pound class, as the Mustangs headed to Thayer Central High School for the 2019 SNC championships Saturday.

The Mustangs totaled 127 team points to gain a fourthplace finish as a team. David City ran away with the team title, outscoring the host Titans, 203-145.5, as the Scouts won their eighth straight SNC title in Hebron. Milford edged Sutton 130-127 for third place in the meet.

Lee Carlson’s pair of wins in Hebron led the senior to a 37-0 record, as Carlson, after a first round bye, beat a pair of strong challengers, outscoring David City’s Clayton Harris 8-2 in the semifinals, before gaining a 6-3 win over Thayer Central’s Keegan Casey for the weight class title.

Four other Mustangs would gain runner-up finishes for Sutton.

In the annual Clay County hardwood challenge between the Sandy Creek Cougars and Sutton Mustangs, the Mustangs would use an 11-point first half run and a 16-point second half edge to gain a 27-point, 66-39 win over the Cougars to improve to 15-1 on the year, while Sandy Creek fell to 2-12 with the loss.

Sutton held leads of 16-10 at the end of the first quarter and 34-23 at the half, before outscoring Sandy Creek 32-16 in the second half to gain the win.

Cade Wiseman and Jordan Davis paced Sutton’s offensive attack with 12 and 10 points, respectively, while Sandy Creek’s Wyatt Mach led all scorers with 21 points.

Sutton hit on 45.5 percent of their shots from the floor, making 25 of 55 shots, while Sandy Creek was 12-37 from the floor (32.4%).

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