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Dual On Friday
The Northwest College wrestling team opened its season at the Cowboy Open in Laramie over the weekend, finishing third out of the 20 teams in its division. Three Trappers placed in a medal round.
The Cowboy Open featured two divisions: elite — mostly made up Division I schools — and amateur, where schools the size of Northwest compete.
As a team, Northwest finished with 81 points, just a half-point shy of Air Force. Nebraska- Kearney led the division with 111.5 points. After this first competition of the season, Northwest is ranked 22nd nationally.
Medalists for NWC included freshman Garret Wood, redshirt sophomore Matthew Widdicombe and sophomore Herber Shepherd.
Shepherd claimed first place at 184 pounds. In the first round, he beat Willy Caudill of Chadron State by major decision, 10-0. In the second round and the quarterfinals, Shepherd won by technical fall. He claimed the semifinal and final matches by decision — defeating Taylor Bergquist of Western State Colorado University for the title.
Widdicombe — a Powell native wrestling at 174 pounds — similarly won his way to the championship round and placed second. His wins included a pin in the first round, a 6-0 decision in the second round, a technical fall of 16-0 in the quarter finals and a decision of 6-3 in the semi-finals. Widdicombe’s only loss came by an 11-6 decision in the championship, against Randy Meneweather lI of Air Force.
Wood, at 149 pounds, placed fourth. His wins included four by pins and two by decision. The first pin came in the first round, against Ky Webb of Western Wyoming College. Wood followed that with another pin in the second round, against Issac Rider of Colorado Mesa University. Then, in the quarterfinals, he lost by a 7-2 decision to Casey Dobson of Great Falls, Montana. This loss put him against Jake Kurhals of Air Force in the consolation bracket. Wood pinned Kurzhals, then won his next two matches to reach the third/ fourth place bout and earn a rematch with Dobson. Dobson again prevailed by a 17-6 major decision.
Also making an appearance at the Cowboy Open was Chance Karst.
A 2016 Powell High School graduate, Karst signed with Chadron. Karst wrestled unattached and had an overall record of three wins, two losses and one bye; unattached wrestlers are wrestlers who compete at a meet on their own and not as an official member of their team.
Other teams competing in the amateur class were: Colorado School of Mines, Western State Colorado University, Western Wyoming College, University of Wyoming, Colorado Mesa University, Great Falls Montana, Otero Junior College, Northwest Kansas Technical College, Northeastern Junior College, Chadron State, Air Force, Adams State, Montana State-Northern, Northern Colorado, Colby Community College, Utah Valley University and Utah State University.
The NWC wrestling team will compete in a dual against Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs at 7 p.m. Friday. It will include some rematches from last weekend.