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STANTON — Three Hartington-Newcastle wrestlers walked away from Saturday’s Stanton Invitational with medals, but it was Grady Lammers who set the tone, battling his way to a second-place finish at 126 pounds to lead the Wildcats.
Hartington-Newcastle had several wrestlers advance deep into the brackets across multiple weight classes.
At 126 pounds, Grady Lammers opened his run with a quick 48 second pin over Taigent Prorok of Humphrey-Lindsay, then followed with an 8-6 decision over Teagan Rerucha of David City in the semifinals. Lammers finished as the runner-up after dropping an 11-0 major decision to Plainview’s Beau Johnson in the championship match.
At 150 pounds, Josiah Christensen received byes in the opening round and second round of the consolation bracket. His tournament came to an end in the third round, where he was pinned by Reciel Nieves of David City at the 4:47 mark.
Ty Opfer put together a strong showing at 157 pounds, starting with a first-round bye before recording a pin over Randolph’s Elijah Bermel in 2:52 in the quarterfinals. Opfer was edged 5-0 by Kaleb Gardner of Osmond-Wausa in the semifinals but rebounded with a pin of Joseph Findlay from Lyons-Decatur Northeast in the consolation semifinals. He placed fourth after falling 8-3 to Owen Larsen of Pender in the third-place match.
At 215 pounds, Kyptin Collier also received an openinground bye before earning a narrow 2-1 decision over Jaden Venegas of Lyons-Decatur in the quarterfinals.
Collier was stopped in the semifinals by Pender’s Kaddo Schrunk via technical fall, then dropped a 5-4 decision to Jacob Swick of Ponca in the consolation semifinals.
Collier closed his tournament on a positive note, winning the fifth-place match by medical forfeit over Kwyntin Kampa of Lyons-Decatur Northeast.
