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Trappers Return To Mat Dec. 4 In Great Falls
A winning attitude overshadowed a pair of dual losses for the Northwest College wrestling team on Friday.
The Trappers dropped duals to Southern Oregon (27-21) and Great Falls (28-17), but NWC head coach Jim Zeigler said they didn’t back away from the challenge.
“Some of the losses that we took were to older, more experienced kids and there is no shame in that,” he said. “Our kids really seemed to fight and battle. Not just for show, but they were really not intimidated by those guys. They were battling, trying to beat them. And I like that.”
Northwest went 4-6 head-to-head against Great Falls and 3-7 against Southern Oregon.
John-David Henderson (149 pounds) was the only Trapper to win during both duals. The sophomore won by a 6-2 decision against Southern Oregon and by a 4-3 decision against Great Falls.
The pair of narrow wins impressed Zeigler, who said Henderson took on one of the better wrestlers from each team.
“They were tough, close matches and they wrestled well. So I like how he was challenged and responded,” Zeigler said. “Things were really challenging for him and he really manned up to that and met the challenge head on. I saw a different tone to his wrestling.”
Andrew VonRein (165 pounds) went 1-1 with a pin over Southern Oregon’s C.J. McKinnis and a 6-3 loss to Great Falls’ Khalood Rashid.
Justin Polkowske (157 pounds) also went 1-1 with a 6-4 win against Great Falls and a 15-2 major-decision loss to Southern Oregon.
Even in the 13-point loss, Zeigler said Polkowske was the better wrestler.
“Polkowske really out-wrestled the guy,” Zeigler said. “(But) he made a mistake that cost him six points. It’s just one of those things that you can’t recover from.
“I really liked (Polkowske’s) fire, he and VonRein. Those two young freshmen are showing real progress,” Zeigler said. “They’re really starting to turn a corner and there are flashes of them that I can see them being good in January.”
The performance of the two Trapper freshmen sent Zeigler into the extended break feeling good about the potential of his team.
“When a kid gets it, they get it,” Zeigler said. “They’re both really smart kids, and that’s what I like. They’re disciplined academically and it makes the teaching process easier. They want to learn and they want to execute and they want to do it right. They know they don’t have the answers and they trust you.”
Redshirt sophomore Matthew Schmidt (133 pounds) won by pin against Southern Oregon, but lost a 4-1 decision to Great Falls’ Clinton Garvin.
Freshman Riley Loveless (141 pounds) won by a 15-0 technical fall against Travis Vermulm of Great Falls and lost a 6-4 overtime decision to Southern Oregon’s Trevor Hancock.
Tevin Nuttall won the only match he wrestled on Friday. The 174-pound freshman won by pin against Jacob Wharton of Great Falls at 6:15.
A scheduled trip to Spokane, Washington, for the Spokane Open was scrapped for a variety of reasons including health and the team’s academics.
“No. 1 is for academic reasons,” Zeigler said. “We were missing Friday and I didn’t want to miss Monday as well. I wanted them to get study hall Sunday night and get a good day of school Monday.”
With a two-week layoff between competition, Zeigler also wanted to use this time to get — and remain — healthy while the team trained for the final stretch before the holiday break.
“We’re pretty healthy right now, and those things (open tournaments) are pretty brutal,” Zeigler said. “Traveling that far and doing that, I’m putting guys at risk and I didn’t want to do that at this time.”
The Trappers will return to Powell from their Thanksgiving break Sunday evening, and resume practice on Monday.
“We’re going to do some two-a-days this week. We’ll go twice on Monday and twice on Wednesday, Zeigler said. “It’s just hitting a new gear in those last couple of weeks before we hit Christmas break — dialing up the intensity level.”
Northwest competes in Great Falls again on Dec. 4-5. The Trappers will dual against a to-be-determined opponent on Dec. 4, and compete in the Top of the Rockies tournament on Dec. 5.
Zeigler said the team is preparing for the weekend of Dec. 11-12, when it will dual three familiar foes — North Idaho, Southwest Oregon and Clackamas.
Sophomore Eduardo Penha (133 pounds) did not wrestle in Great Falls due to illness.