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Five Earn All-American Honors
The Northwest College Trappers kept their streak of national top 10 finishes intact and claimed five All-American titles at the 2012 NJCAA national wrestling tournament at Rochester, Minn., over the weekend. Freshman Miles Nixon scored Northwest’s top finish by placing fourth at 184 pounds.
Nixon, a highly decorated high school wrestler out of Evanston, won five of his seven matches in the 184-pound bracket in Minnesota to advance all the way to the consolation finals for the Trappers before bowing out on a decision loss.
Sophomore Ben Price, whose tournament began by facing the No. 2 ranked wrestler in the nation at 197 pounds in the opening round, placed fifth. After a hard-fought 7-3 loss tobegin the tournament, Price picked his way through the elimination side of the bracket with five consecutive victories to achieve All-American status.
That streak ended when he again faced off against the No. 2 man in his weight class. Once again, Price dusted himself off after that defeat and picked up a win in the fifth-place match, capping a 6-2 weekend with All-American honors.
Also scoring a fifth-place finish was sophomore Jaksen Cotterell. Like Price, Cotterell, Northwest’s man on the mat at 157 pounds, was an early victim on the championship side of the bracket and had to battle back through a series of elimination matches to achieve All-American status. Cotterel avenged his first-round loss by scoring a major decision win on the consolation side of the bracket to place fifth.
Two more Trappers scored seventh-place finishes for Northwest. Sophomore Bernie Dupuy scored three of his four wins in Minnesota by fall and finished 4-2 for the weekend, good for seventh-place in the nation at 165 pounds. Freshman 149-pounder Nathaniel Garcia also won four out of six matches to place seventh overall.
Northwest narrowly missed out on a sixth All-American. Sophomore Justin Gardner lost an overtime decision in the All- American round to narrowly miss a spot in the medal rounds at 133 pounds.
Freshmen Colton Thornton (141) and Kamron Day (125) each went 2-2 at the national tournament. Defending national runner-up Keithen Cast (174) and freshman Sean Sullivan (285) each went 1-2 on the mat in Minnesota.
The Trappers were still returning home from the weekend event on Monday and Trapper head coach Jim Zeigler was unavailable for comment. A more complete rundown from the 2012 national wrestling championships will appear in Thursday’s edition of the Powell Tribune.
Team results (top 10): Labette 161.5, Iowa Central 145, Lincoln 111, Clackamas 97, Nassau 87.5, North Idaho 86, Northwest 79, Harper 58.5, Middlesex 52, Colby 51.5.