Your future, our focus
Trappers Then Have ‘OK’ Tournament Saturday
Northwest College wrestling coach Jim Zeigler believes hard work and consistency can help level out the Trappers unsteady season.
With a plateful of competition over the weekend, Zeigler’s wrestlers delivered those things at a rate of hit-and- miss.
On Friday, NWC was in Great Falls, Mont., for the University of Great Falls Duals. The Trappers began their day with a dual against Indiana Tech, and managed just three victories in a 31-15 loss.
“We just made mistakes,” Zeigler said of the defeat. “There were a few matches we should have won, and when I say ‘should have won,’ I mean matches where our kid was either leading late or had an opportunity to win late and they didn’t execute.”
A couple of NWC bright spots continue to be sophomore wrestlers Jeff McCormick (149 pounds) and Jon Wixom (197). McCormick earned a pin over IT’s Thomas Garty in 2:35, and Wixom collected a fall in 2:29 over LJ Grayson. NWC’s only other win of the dual came via an overtime victory for Gabriel Escobedo (SV-1, 3-1) at 285 pounds.
“That was a tough way to start the day,” Zeigler said. “But later in the day, I had gotten on the kids prior to the next match and they responded.”
The Trappers rebounded in a big way, knocking off Minot State behind seven victories.
Freshmen Robert Gomez (125) and Matthew Schmidt (133) got NWC going with back-to-back 9-0 major decisions, and after a Trapper forfeit at 141, Jeff McCormick continued his strong day with a pin of Zachary Cummings in 2:07.
Former Powell High School wrestler and freshman Matthew Widdicomb then pinned Jacob Knudsvig at 157 before another pin by sophomore Kaelen Loveless at 165. Wixon earned a 13-0 major decision to finish out the NWC scoring.
Two of Minot’s three wins were forfeits.
“I thought we wrestled much better ... we wrestled tougher against Minot State,” said Zeigler, whose team is now 2-2 in duals this season. “I thought we would carry some of that momentum over into Saturday.”
NWC stayed in Great Falls on Saturday for the Battle of the Rockies tournament. The Trappers’ day was again highlighted by McCormick, who reached the semifinals of the championship bracket in his division before falling 4-2 to Travis Himmelman of Boise State University. McCormick ended up recovering in the consolation bracket to take third place.
“Jeff wrestled really well, and again, that’s a match he could’ve won,” Zeigler said. “He wrestled really well, and it wasn’t a case of the Boise State kid just being better than Jeff ... that match could’ve gone either way.”
Wixom was unable to build on his success from a day prior due to an illness, and was forced to sit out of the tournament. NWC’s best finisher after McCormick was Schmidt, who finished 4-2 on the day, including a fifth-place victory (6-2 decision) over Minot’s Chris Warf.
“I thought [Schmidt] wrestled extremely well and really built himself some confidence and momentum out there,” Zeigler said. “And Jeff and Jon really wrestled well, Robert Gomez had several good quality matches. Things are slowly coming together, but all of the guys need to work harder in the wrestling room, in the gym and out on the wrestling mat if we’re going to get better as a team.”