Several quality basketball teams took to the floor Monday in Clearwater at the Cyclone Holiday Tournament.
Clearwater/Orchard cruised to a 69-39 triumph over Chambers/Wheeler Central in the boys championship contest. “It feels great,” spoke OC senior Ryan Wilhelm on keeping the tournament title with the host squad. “We’ve been really working hard in practice. We’ve had a winning mentality and that’s been helping us get these wins.” It was all OC from the get go, as the Cyclones opened the game on a 19-4 run. “We talk about starting off strong in practice and before games,” Wilhelm stated. “We need to keep going down hill all game and keep the momentum.” The offense continued to hum in the second, as OC built its lead to 34-13 heading into the break. Six different Cyclones found the bottom of the net in the first half. The defense was dominant all game, forcing 26 Renegades’ turnovers and scoring 32 points off those take aways. “We got after it right away on the defensive end and that turned into some turnovers,” noted OC mentor Jim Schutt. “When you press it’s not always that you are getting steals every time, you’re forcing quick shots and getting them out of their rhythm. Our defense leads into our offense. We don’t want to rely on our half-court offense, you have to sneak in those easy baskets and we’re doing that right now.” OC (6-2) also dominated the rebound battle, 36-18, and scored 15 second-chance points. “We played aggressive and aggressive playing helped us get the rebounds,” Wilhelm mentioned. “Jake (Long) and Blake (Hoke) helped us on the boards and everyone else was crashing too.” Four different players scored in double figures for the Cyclones, led by Wilhelm’s double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Hoke recorded 17 points, six boards, two assists and four steals, Chris Kester tallied 12 points, four rebounds, four assists and three take aways, Long accounted for 12 points, eight rebounds and three steals and Gage Clifton added 9 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals. “I like how we’re spreading the wealth and everyone is taking a part in the scoring,” Schutt said. “We’re not relying on one guy to do all of it. We got three, four or five guys who can really shoot it and light it up. That’s what we like.” CWC (2-8) was led by Sam Jesse’s 16 points. Justice Metschke tallied 9 points and Jackson Waldo pitched in 7 points. In the girls title tilt, Elkhorn Valley fell to CWC, 56-41. “With their experience we really needed to settle down on offense,” commented CWC coach Laurel O’Malley. “Last time we played them, we were a little bit rushed and we knew defense was going to be the main thing tonight as well.” The Lady Renegades got off to a hot start, taking a 19-10 lead after the first quarter, thanks to 11 points by Morgan Ramsey. “We haven’t started well all year,” O’Malley remarked. “December is always a month where you try to work through those things. Getting into this part of the season, we need to start working and being able to maintain that at the beginning. We really started well scoring wise and defensively.” A 10-6 run by the Lady Falcons to end the half cut the deficit 7. EV continued to chip away at the lead and drew to within three after an Olivia Nall free throw. CWC (7-3) was able to pull away and ended the contest on a 22-10 run to hand the Big Green their first loss of the season. “They (EV) were going to have their runs,” O’Malley said. “They’re a great team, well coached, have great players and they were going to score. If we could with stand that, and come out in the fourth quarter and still be strong with our defense, I thought we had a chance to win the game.” EV (8-1) was led by Amber Miller’s 16 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals. Nall and Sierra Rystrom each scored 9 points for the Lady Falcons. Taylor Peter led the Lady Renegades with 16 points. Ramsey accounted for 15 points and Michelle Koenig accumulated 11 points. The Ewing girls opened the day with a 65-47 win over Clearwater/Orchard in the consolation game. “It was good and I thought we were good at certain periods of the game,” commented Ewing coach Jackson Medina. “There were spurts that I thought were really good and that’s how it is in a holiday tournament because you haven’t been in a gym working on things. When we do things the right way, share the ball and play good defense, we’re good. When we don’t do those things, we’re pretty average.” After Katie Stearns' layup knotted the game at 2, the Lady Tigers went on a 16-3 run to open up the contest. “We have a lot of weapons and I thought it was important we got off to a fast start ,” Medina added. “We took control of the game, and when they would make their spurt, we would answer and build upon that lead.” The Lady Cyclones battled back and cut the deficit to 5 thanks to a Julia Thiele 3-pointer, but Ewing (6-2) responded with an 11-3 run to end the half and put the contest out of reach. “OC is a really improved team,” Medina continued. “Right now they’re in a unique situation with coach (Scott) Leisy not here, but I give those girls credit. They play hard. There were times where they could’ve cashed in, but they cut it back to 5 (points) at times. I give credit to OC for that.” Three Lady Tigers scored in double figures, paced by Brenna Wagner’s 19 points. Jaidyn Schindler contributed 11 points, Sidney Stallbaum collected 10 points and Ashley Koenig added 9 points. Stearns led OC (2-6) with 19 points. Thiele recorded 12 points and Maryssa Long pitched in 7 points. The Elkhorn Valley boys team got back in the win column with a 73-48 victory over Ewing. “It felt good to hit some shots and we played better in the second half,” noted EV junior Bryson Anderson. “We were a little rough in the first half, but all in all it was a decent effort.” After falling behind 4-2, the Falcons went on a 16-3 run to claim an 18-7 advantage early in the second. Braedyn Ollendick had 8 points during the run. Ewing responded with a 15-5 thanks to two triples by Xavier Hobbs. An Anderson trifecta gave EV (5-4) a 4-point advantage heading into the break. A big second-half run allowed the Falcons to pull away and break their three-game losing skid. EV outscored the Tigers, 47-26, in the second half. “Coach (Derric Werner) told us at half to play with good energy and hustle,” Anderson recalled. “We wanted to win. We’ve been on a losing streak lately and we were hungry for the win.” The Falcons turned 24 Ewing (0-8) turnovers into 24 points, including 17 points off turnovers in the fourth quarter. “You have to get the easy points on the transition,” Anderson continued. “It’s good to get those easy points.” Ollendick led all scorers with 19 points, to go along with his seven rebounds, five assists and three steals. Brandon Evans collected 15 points and six take aways, Anderson tallied 13 points, three assists and three steals, Derek Hahne notched 11 points, five boards, three assists and four steals and Carter Rautenberg netted 9 points. Joseph Wright recorded a double-double for the Tigers with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Connor Napier accumulated 8 points, five boards, three assists and two steals, Wyatt Wagner and Ryan Brummels each had 7 points, while Hobbs and Dalton Rotherham each scored 6 points. CWC travels to Spalding Academy Friday at 6 p.m. “Our schedule is tough and being able to get both of theses wins (over EV and Ewing) after coming off of 10 days without playing is huge,” O’Malley remarked. “The girls’ confidence is going to be great going into the January schedule, with some of the teams we have to play. These are two teams we face all the time in our conference. It’s a huge confidence builder.” Ewing travels to Wausa to participate in the Wausa Post Holiday Tournament Friday. “When you get into January, it’s a lot of games in a short period of time,” Medina spoke. “You find out if you got the muster to be one of the best teams or just an average team. Our girls really want to get to the top and we’re going to work really hard to get there.” Elkhorn Valley heads to Atkinson to face West Holt Saturday at 3:30 p.m. OC hosts North Central and West Holt Thursday and Friday, respectively, at Orchard. “A big thing was (this tournament) the ball went in the basket,” Schutt concluded. “That’s going to help us and we’re going to feel real comfortable offensively that we can score on anyone. We got a lot of weapons out there. We got guys inside and outside. We’re pretty well rounded.” The Neligh-Oakdale teams dropped two games in the Shootout on the Elkhorn Holiday Tournament in Wisner on Monday.
Wisner-Pilger downed the Lady Warriors 45-31 and the N-O boys were edged out by Battle Creek in a thriller, 41-39. The girls spotted the Lady Gators 5 points before putting up some points of their own. Trinity Kurpgeweit went 1-2 at the line to start the scoring for Neligh-Oakdale, followed by a bucket from Haley Kerkman, and free throws from Brooke Frey and Paige Furstenau. W-P went on another run before Frey hit a trey to end the first quarter down by seven, 16-9. After a 5-0 Gator run to start the second, jumpers by Kerkman and Kurpgeweit cut the deficit to eight. A Claire Whitesel three and Frey free throw finished the scoring to trail 25-17 at halftime. Coming out of the locker room, Furstenau and Kurpgeweit each drained a shot to cut the lead to six. An 8-0 run by W-P took the wind out of their sails and they eventually ended the third down by 14. Both teams scored just 7 points each in the final quarter. Kurpgeweit and Furstenau led the team with 9 apiece, followed by Frey with 5 and Kerkman and Whitesel had 4 each. "One thing I've seen improvement out of is our rebounding," Coach Christy Knutson said. "We've always been a good shooting team and today we kind of struggled with that. We didn't have have a very good percentage from 2-point range. We were just forcing the ball up. It's the little things that are killing us right now. I think the break hurt us. Once we get back into our gym, get back into our routine, things will start to fall into place." The Warriors started out even with Battle Creek trading the first few buckets for a 7-7 score, but the Braves finished out the quarter on a 6-0 run to lead, 13-7. The N-O boys got out to a hot start in the second with a Cole Belitz steal for a layup and then a drive for two and a trey by Austin Rice, cutting the margin to just one. Their offense fizzled out after that and the Warriors were down 19-14 at the break. The third quarter was an offensive explosion with back-to-back buckets by Rice, a jumper by Isiac Kurpgeweit, a trey by Belitz, two more shots by Rice, two layups by Belitz and a three by Hunter Charf with just a few seconds left. The Warriors took a 34-27 lead heading into the final quarter. A layup by Belitz and a Charf trey weren't enough to keep Battle Creek at bay. With a score of 39-all and just 20.8 left in the game, the Braves added a bucket to take a 2-point lead. A missed shot by the Warriors forced them to foul. The Braves inbounded the ball with 1.4 seconds left to end the game. "We had a solid defensive effort that put us in a position to win the ball game, but had too many turnovers which hindered our success," Coach Ethan Larsen said. Rice led the Warriors with 15 points, followed by Belitz with 13, Charf with 6 and Kurpgeweit with 5. Neligh-Oakdale will finish the week with back-to-back games at home, hosting Plainview on Friday and Stuart on Saturday. A hot start propelled the Elgin Public/Pope John girls hoops team to a 61-37 victory over Emerson-Hubbard Saturday in the opening round of the Madison Holiday Tournament.
The Lady Wolfpack opened the game on a 41-12 run to take control of the momentum in the first half. Kayce Kalthoff led EPPJ with 19 points and five steals. Allyson Wemhoff recorded 12 points and seven take aways, Grace Rittscher accounted 10 points and five steals, Ally Selting had 8 points and five steals, while Lexi Bode and Kirsten Krebs each added 6 points. In the boys contest, EPPJ fell to E-H, 66-26. An early 50-23 hole was too much for the Wolfpack to overcome in the first half. Kyle Schumacher paced the team with 18 points. Conor Ramold collected 5 points and four assists, Colton Wright netted 3 points and Adam Dreger grabbed five rebounds. EPPJ (0-9) takes on Madison in the boys consolation contest Monday. The Lady Wolfpack (8-1) face Burwell in the girls title tilt Monday. Stellar offensive performances guided the clearwater/Orchard boys basketball team and the Elkhorn Valley girls hoops team to the finals of the Cyclone Holiday Tournament.
Despite an over week long hiatus for OC's boys team, the Cyclones showed no signs of rust in their 82-45 triumph over Elkhorn Valley. Leading 16-10 after the opening quarter, OC outscored the Falcons, 34-14, in the second quarter to pull away for the win. Senior Jacob Long had a monstrous game for the Cyclones. Long recorded a double-double with 27 points and 20 rebounds. Blake Hoke tallied 18 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals, Gage Clifton accounted for 17 points, five boards and three assists and Ryan Wilhelm had 16 points and eight rebounds. For the Falcons, Carter Rautenberg led the way with 12 points and seven rebounds. Derek Hahne added 15 points and six boards, Bryson Anderson scored 9 points and Julio Sierra pitched in 4 points, five rebounds and two assists. In the girls contest, EV remained unbeaten on the year with a 66-23 win over OC. Leading by 16-9 heading into the second, the Lady Falcons scored 50 of the final 64 points top seal the win. Katie Stearns led the Lady Cyclones with 13 points. Avery Cheatum added 4 points. Olivia Nall paced EV with 14 points, four boards and five steals. Amber Miller recorded 11 points, four rebounds, three assists and six steals, Sierra Rystrom and Kaylee Bacon each netted 9 points and Hannah Ollendick accounted for 8 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and four steals. The Lady Cyclones (2-6) face Ewing in the girls consolation game Monday at 10:30 a.m. Elkhorn Valley (4-4) plays Ewing in the boys third-place contest at noon. The Lady Falcons (8-0) take on CWC in the girls championship contest at 1:30 p.m. OC (5-2) ends the day with a p.m. matchup against CWC for the boys title. at 3 p.m. Ponca swept Neligh-Oakdale in the first round games of the Shootout on the Elkhorn Holiday Tournament in Wisner on Saturday afternoon.
The Indians rolled to a 50-21 victory in the girl's game and topped the N-O boys, 54-30. The Lady Warriors will play Wisner-Pilger at 10 a.m. Monday and the boys will follow at 1 p.m. against Battle Creek in their final tourney games. A feisty full-court press made things difficult for the Lady Warriors early on, as Ponca capitalized on several turnovers for easy buckets to lead 12-3 at the end of the first. The N-O girls got their offense clicking early in the second as Paige Furstenau swiped the ball from the Indians for a layup on the other end; Haley Kerkman hit two jumpers in the lane; Trinity Kurpgeweit drained a shot in the paint and Brooke Frey laid one in. Unfortunately, Ponca turned up their offense and added 18 of their own to lead 30-13 at the half. The turnover bug continued to plaque Neligh-Oakdale in the second half and they were only able to put up 8 more points in the game while the Indians added 20 to advance in the tournament. Furstenau led the N-O girls with 8 points, followed by Kerkman with 6 points and 9 rebounds, Kurpgeweit with 4 points and 7 rebounds and Frey with 3 points. Neligh-Oakdale's 37 turnovers were costly in the game and cold-shooting didn't help matters. "Our shots were off and we didn't get a lot of opportunities because of Ponca's pressure defense," Coach Christy Knutson said. "That was something that we really struggled with. But the girls came out a lot stronger than I thought because they've had a lot of things that they've been thinking about too much. Not all of us were all focused, which is very understandable, and not being in the gym for a whole week. The little things are going to come together. It's just a matter of time, believing in each other and believing in ourselves and good things are going to happen. It just takes patience." Girls: N-O 3 10 6 2 21 Ponca 12 18 9 11 50 In the boys game, the Warriors got off to a slow start, spotting Ponca 5 points before a drive to the hoop by Beau Murray gave N-O its first points of the game. Before N-O could close the gap any further, the Indians went on a 9-0 run. Julien Hearn and Hunter Charf each dropped a trey and Charf went 1-2 at the line, but trailed 15-9 at the end of the first 8 minutes of play. There wasn't much offense to kick off the second quarter, but in the final four minutes of the half Cole Belitz fired in two shots from beyond the arc and Isiac Kurpgeweit hit the boards for two put backs for a 26-19 deficit at the break. To begin the third quarter Kurpgeweit added a bucket, but Ponca poured in 18 points before the Warriors answered with an Austin Rice trey. The Indians outscored N-O 10-6 in the fourth to advance in the tourney. "Defensively, Ponca's physical," Coach Ethan Larsen said. "We knew that was going to be a challenge for us, but I think we matched up okay with them. We had our strengths and they had their strengths. We just turned the ball over too many times." The Warriors, who hadn't played a game in more than two weeks, were "a little rusty." "And I hadn't seen the kids since school got out," Larsen said. "With the events of the week, we were unable to get a lot of shots up in our own gym, but the kids still came out and did a nice job executing how we wanted them to. This was not our most complete game of the year, but I am proud of how the boys battled for four quarters." Kurpgeweit led the Warriors with 8 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocked shots, followed by Cole Belitz and Charf with 6 points apiece; Rice, Murray and Hearn with 3 each, and Garret Belitz 1. Ponca 15 11 18 10 54 N-O 9 10 5 6 30 It may not look or feel like golf weather, but the Antelope Country Club has already made big strides for the 2019 season, beginning with the hiring of a golf professional.
Andrew Smeal recently moved to the area with his fiancee Monica Wiehn after spending two years as the pro in Cambridge and the previous two as an assistant pro in Beemer. Wiehn is the athletic director at Elkhorn Valley. Board member Tonya Strom said it was good timing to hire a golf pro since longtime clubhouse manager Lisa Hansen was stepping down to spend more time with family. “It’s something the board has talked about several times,” Strom said. “The clubhouse and restaurant have always ran well, but we didn’t have anyone to get people teeing off when they needed to and promote the golf side of things. We just didn’t have anyone for that, and when he approached one of our members about possibly doing that, it ended up being perfect timing since Lisa wanted to take time off and be a grandma.” Smeal grew up in California but had family in Nebraska. His father lived near Stanton until he was 12 and has since retired to Beemer. Smeal said he golfed in high school before playing on some mini tours after college. He spent a couple years in sales before joining the PGA. With his father and brother living in Beemer, he headed east and became and an assistant at Indian Trails Golf Course. Smeal spent two years in Beemer, returning to California in the winter, before taking a head pro job in Cambridge for two years. ACC will extend its course season to March 1 through Oct. 31 and be open any day the temperature reaches 50 degrees. They will feature a full menu during that time and appetizer items year round. Once again, mother nature failed to corporate Friday and forced the Shootout on the Elkhorn Holiday Tournament in Wisner to be postponed.
With the newest delay, the Wisner-Pilger changed its format from an eight-team, bracket-style, tournament, to two four-team brackets. The Warriors still face Ponca in the opening round, With the girls playing at 2:30 p.m. and boys at 4:15 p.m. on Saturday. The boys and girls will either play Wisner-Pilger or Battle Creek on Monday. The Lady Warriors tip-off at 10:00 a.m., while boys start time Monday is 1:00 p.m. After the inclement weather forced all of Thursday's games to be postponed, Friday's games were also changed because of the hazardous conditions.
Cyclone Holiday Tournament For the second day in-a-row, the Cyclone Holiday Tournament had to push its opening round back a day. Saturday's games begin with the Ewing and Chambers/Wheeler Central girls at 10:30 p.m., followed by the boys' contest at noon. The Lady Cyclones battle Elkhorn Valley at 1:30 p.m., while the OC and Falcon boys wrap up the day with a 3 p.m. game. On Monday, the girls and boys consolation contests take place at 10:30 a.m. and noon, respectively, and the girls championship matchup tips at 1:30 p.m., followed by the boys title tilt at 3 p.m. Madison Holiday Tournament The holiday tournament the Elgin Public/Pope John girls and boys basketball teams were supposed to participate in postponed its opening round. The Lady Wolfpack open with Emerson-Hubbard at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. The winner of the EPPJ and E-H contest, faces the Madison-Burwell winner in the championship game Monday at 2:30 p.m. The consolation game is scheduled for 11 a.m. The EPPJ boys team faces E-H in its first-round matchup at 4:15 p.m., while Madison plays Burwell in the other first-round matchup at 12:45 p.m. The boys third-place game is at 12:45 p.m. and the title tilt takes place at 4:15 p.m. Ord Invitational Clearwater/Orchard's wrestling squad has to wait another day to resume its season after the Christmas break. The Ord Invite has been pushed back to Saturday at 1 p.m. Make sure you stay locked into ACN for any other cancellations or changes to the area sports' schedule. Neligh-Oakdale will not be traveling to the holiday tournament games at Wisner-Pilger on Friday due to the weather.
The games originally were pushed back due to Thursday's weather and then changed to accommodate the Nate Metschke services on Friday night. However, Neligh-Oakdale administrators decided that due to Friday's weather, the Warriors will not play on Friday at all. It is unknown when the next games for Neligh-Oakdale will be. Wisner-Pilger is making accommodations for Neligh-Oakdale players, coaches and fans to attend the memorial services for Nate Metschke on Friday.
The Shootout on the Elkhorn Holiday Tournament in Wisner was postponed one day, due to the weather, and will now begin earlier on Friday to accommodate Neligh-Oakdale. The Warriors plan to participate all three days—Friday, Saturday and Monday. Friday's games will be against Ponca and both the boys and girls will tip off at noon. On Saturday, the girls are scheduled to play at 6 p.m. and the boys at 7:45 p.m. Monday's times will be determined by first two days of play. Metschke, a long-time band teacher at Neligh-Oakdale, died on Monday. His postponed visitation now will begin at 3 p.m. Friday in the Neligh-Oakdale High School Gym and a celebration of life service will follow at 6:30 p.m. in the gym. The Cyclone Holiday Tournament has been pushed back a day as dangerous weather conditions approach the area. Games will be Friday and Saturday in Clearwater.
On the girls bracket, Ewing/CWC will play Friday at 3 p.m. and OC/Elkhorn Valley at 6 p.m. In boys action, Ewing/CWC will play at 4:30 p.m. and OC/Elkhorn Valley at 7:30 p.m. Saturday's times are 10:30 a.m./Noon for Girls/Boys Consolation games and 1:30 p.m./3 p.m. for Girls/ Boys Championship games. Neligh-Oakdale's boys and girls basketball teams will not play Thursday and Friday's holiday tournament games in Wisner to give students the opportunity to attend Nate Metschke's memorial services. Neligh-Oakdale Athletic Director Ron Beacom said weather was also a factor in their decision as students and parents may have hurried back to attend the memorial events.
Metschke, a longtime band teacher at Neligh-Oakdale, died on Monday. His visitation will be Thursday from 5-7 p.m. at the United Methodist Church in Neligh and a celebration of life service will be Friday at 6:30 at the school gymnasium. The tournament has since been pushed back to begin on Friday. Neligh-Oakdale's game times on Saturday are unknown at this time. A late fourth-quarter rally doomed the Elgin Public/Pope John boys basketball team in its 40-34 defeat to Spalding Academy Thursday.
Trailing by 1 at the break, the Wolfpack used an 18-12 run to claim a 33-26 advantage heading into the final stanza. The EPPJ (0-7) offense faltered in the fourth, as the Shamrocks outscored EPPJ, 14-3. Adam Dreger, Kyle Schumacher and RJ Lierman each netted 8 points. Colton Wright recorded 4 points and seven rebounds and Conor Ramold had 6 points and three assists. In the girls contest, the Lady Wolfpack continued their hot start to the year with a 73-32 dismantling of Spalding. The EPPJ (6-1) offense scored early and often, netting 12 points to start the contest, followed by a 20-point second quarter, 15 points in the third and ended the game on a 26-4 run. Kayce Kallhoff scored a game-high 17 points to lead the Lady Wolfpack. Allyson Wemhoff tallied a double-double with 10 points and 10 steals, Grace Rittscher accounted for 12 points, Kaylee Ramold accumulated 10 points, Ally Selting contributed 8 points, Kirsten Krebs netted 7 points, Araceli Palmer pitched in 5 points and Harlie Bode added 4 points. Elgin Public/Pope John returns to action Friday Dec. 28 at the Madison Holiday Tournament. The Lady Wolfpack play at 2:30 p.m., while the boys tipoff at 4:15 p.m. Despite losing the match, the Creighton wrestling team had a solid showing in Orchard in the Bulldogs’ loss to Clearwater/Orchard Thursday.
“We’ve talked about not having a full team we have to make it up in the bonus points and getting pins,” stated Creighton coach Zac Kliment. “Overcoming five opens is pretty tough, but we stress finishing the matches as best as we can. Our seniors did a great job of carrying that message on. We wrestled well.” Creighton won five of the nine head-to-head matches. The other five matches were forfeit wins for the Cyclones. “It’s the same thing I’ve talked about the last couple of weeks, the inexperience of the young guys making the wrong mistakes at the wrong times,” commented OC mentor Dan Roeber. “We need to fix it in the practice room, but we have seven seniors on the team and they’re our leaders. It stinks they are all in the heavy weights but once they get going, we can usually calm down. We need to weather the storm before they get wrestling.” The Bulldogs opened the match with a R.J. Wilmes 10-7 decision over Alex Arroyo in their 145-pound match. The birthday boy, Bode Wortman, scored a second-period pin over Gaby Gamez at 152. “I like to get takedowns, but I didn’t tonight,” Wortman noted. “It’s a lot easier to wrestle with a lead though. Once you get down right away, it’s hard to get back up and going.” JD Kuhlman kept the hot start going for Creighton with a third-period fall over Houston Marion at 160. Bulldog 170 pounder Bryce Zimmerer made quick work of OC senior Austin Pokorny, recording a pin at the 41 second mark. Brenden Waldow cruised to a 16-2 major decision over Colton Thiele at 182, giving the visitors a 25-0 lead. “We knew we had a little bit of an advantage in there from what we saw Tuesday at our Creighton Invite,” Kliment said. “We harped on getting those pins and bonus points. In a dual, momentum is massive. You can have some guys that are borderline to get a win and that just energizes the team. Today, we had a nice start, but weren’t able to finish.” Cyclone senior Clay Thiele got his team on the board with a second-period fall over Terance Burrell. After a Donaven Nolze forfeit, Tommie Peed scored a huge pin over Brody Vrooman at the 3:08 mark. Following a Peed escape, Vrooman picked up the OC heavyweight and slammed him to the mat for a takedown. The senior Cyclone showed excellent mat awareness, scoring a reversal, putting Vrooman on his back and scoring the fall. “Sometimes you have to think on the fly,” Peed recalled. “He got me in the air. I was almost out of bounds and was watching. I got around him and saw he fell to his back, so I put my arm around him and got the pin.” The Cyclones’ Anthony Ferris and Spencer Kester won by forfeit at 106 and 113, respectively. After an early takedown, OC 120 pounder Rafe Grebin locked up a cradle and pinned Shane Farnik with 10 ticks remaining in the first period, giving the green and black a 36-25 advantage. The Cyclones’ Eli Thiele (126) and James Kester (132) each won by forfeit. The Bulldogs’ Cody Hanvey won the final match of the evening, with a first-period fall over Tyson Rix, but OC captured the match, 48-31. Creighton begins its Christmas break and returns to action Jan. 5 at the Wisner-Pilger Invitational “Christmas break came at a pretty good time,” Kliment remarked. “We have a few little nicks here and there and we’ve had a lot of wrestling in the last week. Having some time off for the moratorium will be good. Having seven to nine practices before our next meet will give us the chance to break things down and fix our little mistakes. Hopefully we’ll be better than we were in this first half.” Clearwater/Orchard’s junior varsity and underclassmen compete at the Wisner-Pilger JV Invitational Friday. The rest of the Cyclones wait until Dec. 28, when OC travel to the Ord Duals. “We’re taking the young guys to a freshmen and sophomore meet,” Roeber said. “It’s a JV caliber meet. They’re going to see kids with the same record and experience level as them. We need to come away with some wins and get some confidence going into our break. We’re coming back to Ord and I just got the bracket draws today. It’s going to be a brutal tournament for us. It’s not going to be easy, but it will show us where we’re at as a dual team.” Three Elgin Public students were selected for Fall NSAA Academic All-State honors.
Chosen for the honor were Grace Rittscher, play production and volleyball; Hunter Reestman, football; and Allyson Wemhoff, play production and volleyball. The Nebraska School Activities Association and the Nebraska Chiropractic Physicians Association recognize high school students, based on their individual academic excellence, leadership and significant contributions made to their NSAA activity. A nominated student must be a varsity player or organizational leader who has played a significant role on the team or in the organizational activity during the seasons for which nominations are accepted. The student must have a minimum cumulative grade point average, in all curricular subjects, of 93 percent or 3.7 on a 4.0-point scale or the equivalent. NSAA high schools or their cooperative sponsorship may nominate a maximum of two students per NSAA activity program. Three Clearwater students were selected for Fall NSAA Academic All-State honors.
Chosen for the honor were Jacob Long, football; Katie Stearns, volleyball and James Kester, play production. The Nebraska School Activities Association and the Nebraska Chiropractic Physicians Association recognize high school students, based on their individual academic excellence, leadership and significant contributions made to their NSAA activity. A nominated student must be a varsity player or organizational leader who has played a significant role on the team or in the organizational activity during the seasons for which nominations are accepted. The student must have a minimum cumulative grade point average, in all curricular subjects, of 93 percent or 3.7 on a 4.0-point scale or the equivalent. NSAA high schools or their cooperative sponsorship may nominate a maximum of two students per NSAA activity program. Two Orchard students were selected for Fall NSAA Academic All-State honors.
Chosen for the honor were Jaccob Bennett, football and Avery Cheatum, play production and volleyball. The Nebraska School Activities Association and the Nebraska Chiropractic Physicians Association recognize high school students, based on their individual academic excellence, leadership and significant contributions made to their NSAA activity. A nominated student must be a varsity player or organizational leader who has played a significant role on the team or in the organizational activity during the seasons for which nominations are accepted. The student must have a minimum cumulative grade point average, in all curricular subjects, of 93 percent or 3.7 on a 4.0-point scale or the equivalent. NSAA high schools or their cooperative sponsorship may nominate a maximum of two students per NSAA activity program. Three Pope John students were selected for Fall NSAA Academic All-State honors.
Chosen for the honor were Skylar Reestman, play production; Kyle Schumacher, football and Maddie Schrage, play production. The Nebraska School Activities Association and the Nebraska Chiropractic Physicians Association recognize high school students, based on their individual academic excellence, leadership and significant contributions made to their NSAA activity. A nominated student must be a varsity player or organizational leader who has played a significant role on the team or in the organizational activity during the seasons for which nominations are accepted. The student must have a minimum cumulative grade point average, in all curricular subjects, of 93 percent or 3.7 on a 4.0-point scale or the equivalent. NSAA high schools or their cooperative sponsorship may nominate a maximum of two students per NSAA activity program. Five Elkhorn Valley students were selected for Fall NSAA Academic All-State honors.
Chosen for the honor were Prestin Vondra, football; Kimberly Frey, girls golf; Haley Fleetwood, volleyball; Amber Miller, volleyball and Adam Miller, football. The Nebraska School Activities Association and the Nebraska Chiropractic Physicians Association recognize high school students, based on their individual academic excellence, leadership and significant contributions made to their NSAA activity. A nominated student must be a varsity player or organizational leader who has played a significant role on the team or in the organizational activity during the seasons for which nominations are accepted. The student must have a minimum cumulative grade point average, in all curricular subjects, of 93 percent or 3.7 on a 4.0-point scale or the equivalent. NSAA high schools or their cooperative sponsorship may nominate a maximum of two students per NSAA activity program. Not even inclement weather could halt the Knox and Antelope county communities from being treated to stellar wrestling.
The Creighton Invitational was rescheduled to Tuesday after the meet was originally postponed a few weeks ago. Despite the change, some of the top teams and wrestlers from the area ascended to Creighton and put on a show Tuesday evening. “We were really happy we could find a date that we could get all the teams to come,” stated Creighton coach Zac Kliment. “There were a lot of quality teams here. With what we had at Osmond on Saturday and this today, we really are building. We have a lot to learn from today. The competition was great and it gave us a lot to look at.” Antelope and Knox counties were well represented Tuesday with each county sending three teams to the tournament. Neligh-Oakdale was the top finishers out of the area teams with a third-place finish in the team standings. Elkhorn Valley was fourth, followed by Creighton and Clearwater/Orchard, and Niobrara/Verdigre placed 13th. “We were kind of sluggish when we came in,” said N-O senior Cameron Wilkinson. “We got better as the day went on. By the way we’ve been practicing, we have to keep the tempo up and keep on rolling from here.” Grand Island Northwest won the team title with 279 points. Battle Creek took second with 232.5 points. The championship finals kicked off with Northwest’s Grady Arends pinning Elkhorn Valley sophomore Hunter Bennett in the second period at 106 pounds. Wilkinson continued his hot start to the season with a first-period pin over OC’s Spencer Kester at 113 pounds. Today’s three wins moved Wilkinson to 13-0 on the year “I started off on the right foot and I’ve kept on going and kept on winning,” Wilkinson spoke. “I’m going to keep it going from here.” At 120, EV’s Adam Miller fell to Battle Creek’s Caydon McCracken, 13-2. With the win, McCracken became only the third person in tournament history to win four Creighton Invite individual titles. Warrior senior Andrew Herley fell in the 138-pound title tilt to Battle Creek’s Damien Kersten, 7-1. Prestin Vondra got the Falcons their first individual title with an 11-5 decision over Randolph’s Alex Schmit. After surrendering the first takedown of the match, Vondra scored 10 unanswered points to take control of the 145-pound match. “You have to take advantage of mistakes and you can’t get down on bad things in the match,” Vondra noted. “You have to build from what can happen, push and keep going in the match. You can’t do anymore.” The 160-pound title went to Falcon senior Josh McFarland after scoring a second-period pin over Norfolk Reserve’s Austin Miller. McFarland got his offense going early and often with a takedown to start the match, and the senior Falcon cruised to the win. “I feel like a lot of times whoever gets their offense going and can score that first takedown, determines the rest of the match,” McFarland commented. “Just building your momentum and getting that mindset of getting the first takedown and I got my offense going so I could keep scoring.” In one of the most anticipated matches of the night, Creighton senior Bryce Zimmerer upended Randolph’s Noah Scott, to capture the 170-pound crown. Zimmerer scored an early takedown and picked up a two-point near fall to claim a 4-0 lead in the first. Escapes by each wrestler and some stellar takedown defense by Zimmerer, led the to the senior Bulldog’s 5-1 decision. “Bryce led the way today and had a really good match,” Kliment said. “He wrestled a full match, which really tested his conditioning against a good Noah Scott.” A.J. Hawthorne won the 182-pound championship with a first-period fall over EV’s Brock Schaecher. OC senior Clay Thiele took home runner-up honors at 195 for the third-straight tournament, after falling to Northwest’s Grady Griess. After a rough semifinal round, the Warriors got back on track in the consolation semis and finals. Following a 2-7 semifinal round combined record, N-O won 14 of its last 20 matches. “Semifinals wasn’t too hot for us,” recalled N-O senior Jayden Arehart. “We had to pick it up in the consolation rounds. We picked it up, got some medals and got some big team points.” Cody Booth (106), Kaleb Pofahl (170), Arehart (182) Dawson Kaup (195) and Colton Klabenes (220) were third for the Warriors. Griffin Claussen (106), Brock Kester (120), Jose Luna (152) and Conor Dempsey (160) were fourth and Dallas Snyder (138), along with Cade Wilkinson (145), was sixth. For EV, Christian Yaw (285) placed third, Mitchell Petersen (170) took fourth, Caden Reikofski (220) finished fifth and Hunter Klinetobe (132) was sixth. The Cyclones’ Codey Snider (182) took fourth, Rafe Grebin (120), Eli Thiele (126) and James Kester (132) finished fifth, while Houston Marino (160) and Logan Mueller (285) were sixth. “We finally got some of our light guys to get some wins,” remarked OC coach Dan Roeber. “That’s what we’ve been working on in the (practice) room. They’re freshmen and sophomores and they need to turn the corner. Maybe this is the confidence boost we need for them to get going.” Also placing for the Bulldogs were Cody Hanvey (138) in third, Terance Burrell (195) in fourth, Bode Wortman (152), J.D. Kuhlman (160), Brenden Waldow (182) and Brody Vrooman (285) in fifth and Shane Farnik (126) and Sam Vortherms (152) in sixth. “Our seniors are the leaders of the team,” Kliment said. “Just like they did in football, they show the guys how everything works in the (practice) room. Today some of our best results were from some of those upperclassmen. I’m happy with where we are moving. We’re still building and those seniors do a really good job out here and keeping everyone in it.” Crofton/Bloomfield’s William Poppe (132) took third, Tyler Janssen (220) finished fourth and Tyson Sauser (138) placed fifth. For Niobrara/Verdigre, Hudson Drobny (160) and Trey Sucha (152) led the way for the Cougars with a pin each. Neligh-Oakdale, Elkhorn Valley and Niobrara/Verdigre begin their Christmas breaks, while Creighton travels to Orchard to take on OC Thursday at 6:30 p.m., and Crofton/Bloomfield heads to Wakefield Thursday at 6:30 p.m. “It was a good meet overall,” Roeder concluded. “We finished out of the top five, but we’re turning the corners, look out for us after Christmas break.” Coming off back-to-back home victories, the Lady Warriors fell to a hot-shooting Niobrara/Verdigre team on Tuesday night, 58-38.
The Cougars scored 16 unanswered points to start the contest before sophomore Paige Furstenau finally cracked the goose egg, going 1-2 at the line with a couple minutes left in the first. Neligh-Oakdale went on a 7-0 run to finish out the quarter with two jumpers by Trinity Kurpgeweit and two more free throws by Furstenau to bring the score to 7-16. Brooke Frey started out the second with a trey, followed by a Haley Kerkman jumper in the lane, but the N/V girls fired right back and converted Warrior turnovers into points. Buckets by Furstenau and Kerkman closed out the half with Neligh-Oakdale trailing, 32-16. Frey started out the second half with her second three-pointer of the game. Kerkman drained another jumper and Furstenau went 5-6 at the charity stripe to go an even 10-10 with the Cougars in the third for a score of 42-26. In the fourth, Furstenau hit one beyond the arc to start off the scoring. Kerkman added two on a put back before Furstenau and Frey each drained another trey. Riley Martensen went 1-2 at the line to add the last point for the home team. "Tonight was a learning experience for everybody," N-O Coach Christy Knutson said. "We thought we were totally prepared watching game film, but Niobrara-Verdigre came out and shot lights out. Our girls just need to understand how to finish, to come back, not give up. When things don't start falling, they stop. We need to learn how to finish and just stay mentally tough." Furstenau led all scorers with a double-double—16 points, half of them coming from free throw shots, and 12 rebounds. Rounding out the scoring was Frey with all 9 of her points coming from three-point land, Kerkman with 8 points, Kurpgeweit with 4 and Martensen with 1. Neligh-Oakdale (2-5) is off until after Christmas when they return to the court for the Shootout on the Elkhorn Holiday Tournament, Thursday, Dec. 27 at 2:30 p.m. against Ponca. A high-powered offense and stellar defense guided the Elgin Public/Pope John girls basketball team to a 61-17 triumph over Creighton Monday.
The Lady Wolfpack exploded for 34 points in the first eight minutes of play, while holding the Lady Bulldogs to just 2 points in the quarter. EPPJ (6-1) scored 27 points in the next three quarters play, and held Creighton to 15, including shutting out the the Lady Bulldogs in the third. Ally Selting led the way with 15 points. Allyson Wemhoff recorded 14 points, seven rebounds and five steals, Kirsten Krebs netted 12 points, Kayce Kallhoff scored 8 points, Grace Rittscher added 6 points, while Harlie Bode, Lexi Bode and Araceli Palmer each had 2 points. Creighton (3-5) was led by Ashtyn Fritz’s 8 points and five rebounds. Jessica Stevens accumulated 4 points and three steals, Maycee Zimmerer tallied 3 points and Brenna Fanta netted 2 points. In the boys contest, a hot start lifted Creighton to a 54-34 win. The Dogs jumped out to a quick 30-10 lead in the first half, and cruised to their second-straight win. Conner Hammer led Creighton (2-5) with 15 points and five assists. Alex Homan netted 12 points, Clay Curtis contributed 8 points, two rebounds, four assists and three steals, Carson Lilly had 6 points and six boards and Brayden Zimmerer pitched in 6 points, four rebounds and two assists. Kyle Schumacher led the Wolfpack (0-6) with 8 points, seven boards and three assists. Conor Ramold recorded 7 points and five rebounds, RJ Lierman scored 7 points, Colton Wright and Adam Dreger each accounted for 5 points and Blake Ofe had 2 points. Creighton hosts county foe Bloomfield Friday at 6:30 p.m. Elgin Public/Pope John welcomes Spalding Academy to St. Boniface Gym Thursday at 4 p.m. Nine Neligh-Oakdale students were selected for Fall NSAA Academic All-State honors.
Chosen for the honor were Ashton Higgins, boys cross country; Cole Belitz, boys cross country and play production; Austin Rice, football; Jayden Arehart, football; Emma Bixler, girls cross country; Hailey Bixler, girls cross country; Mercedes Heckert, play production; Paige Furstenau, volleyball and Claire Whitesel, volleyball. The Nebraska School Activities Association and the Nebraska Chiropractic Physicians Association recognize high school students, based on their individual academic excellence, leadership and significant contributions made to their NSAA activity. A nominated student must be a varsity player or organizational leader who has played a significant role on the team or in the organizational activity during the seasons for which nominations are accepted. The student must have a minimum cumulative grade point average, in all curricular subjects, of 93 percent or 3.7 on a 4.0-point scale or the equivalent. NSAA high schools or their cooperative sponsorship may nominate a maximum of two students per NSAA activity program. The Neligh-Oakdale junior high wrestling squad participated at the Seward Middle School Invite Saturday and several Warriors brought home some hardware.
Aiden Kuester went a perfect 4-0, with four first-period pins, to claim the 165-pound title. Other placers for N-O included Chase Furstenau (114), who placed second, Carson Whitesel (102) placed third and Tanner Martensen (187) took fourth. Trysten Coover (106) won two matches, Nathan Juarez (187), Bryson Gadeken (149) and Kegan Payne (97) each won one match, while Jacob Henry (136) and Cameran McKirdy (97) competed for the Warriors at the invite. A large crowd cheered on the future Warriors as they showed their skills in a scrimmage during halftime of the Neligh-Oakdale girls varsity game on Friday night.
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