Your future, our focus
Lights Post 23-12 Win
BY RANDAL HOROBIK
Tribune Sports Editor
The Northwest College Trappers won four matches, but were unable to pick up any bonus points along the way, falling 23-12 to Montana State University-Northern in the first dual action of the 2010-2011 wrestling season.
“Overall, it was a sloppy match for both teams, I thought,” said Trapper head coach Jim Zeigler afterward. “There’s a lot of room for improvement, but there were also some good points tonight.”
Many of those good things took place at the upper weights for Northwest. Trailing 17-3, the Trappers rallied to win three of the final four matches of the night to narrow the final gap to 11 points.
Keithen Cast began the parade with an 11-8 victory at 174 pounds. Despite leading the match from the first period on, Cast’s win never appeared completely assured until the final minute of the third period when the freshman scored a takedown to go up by four.
“That was a difficult match for Keithen,” Zeigler said. “He started a little slow, but he kept his head in it.”
Nick Petersen followed with a 7-3 win at 184 points, rallying from an early 2-0 deficit to control action in the second and third periods.
“Nick’s win came over a tough kid at 184. (Evan) Hinebauch is a two or three-time All-American. He was a national runner-up. He’s an experienced, tough kid. That was a good win for Nick.”
After Ben Price was the victim of a third-period fall at 197 for NWC, redshirt sophomore Sears Tiernan wrapped up the dual with a 4-3 win at 285 pounds.
“Sears wasn’t impressive, but he wrestled smart,” Zeigler said. “It was a quality win and it showed that you don’t have to be dominant, you just have to wrestle smart. The kid he beat was a former All-American.”
In the lighter weights, Jesse Hillhouse got the Trappers off to a good start at 133 pounds with a 9-3 victory in his first match of the year. Neither team was able to field a 125-pound wrestler.
“Jesse’s win at 133 looked good,” Zeigler acknowledged.
After that, Northern chained together four wins. Jake Budd was a 17-1 technical fall victim at 141. Bobby Robbins dropped a 6-2 decision at 149 after surrendering three points in the final two minutes. Clint Jacob was defeated by a 10-3 count at 157, but did a good job of staving off a pair of late takedown attempts in the final 30 seconds to prevent the score differential from reaching major decision status.
The night’s most damaging defeat may have come at 165 pounds. Zach Oppenheimer was engaged in a tight battle with Ethan Hinebauch. Oppenheimer had just been taken down at 4-3 when he appeared to lose consciousness briefly on the mat. After an extended period of care, Zeigler opted to take an injury default in the match.
“It was a no-brainer to pull him out,” Zeigler said. “I was out there and the trainer was right there with me and we agreed. I don’t know if he actually went out for a bit, but I didn’t like the way his eyes looked. There’s no point in taking chances.”
Oppenheimer was back on the mat Saturday when the Trappers competed at the University of Wyoming Cowboy Open.