The Chadron Boys were back in action on Tuesday night against Mitchell in the subdistrict opener at the Alliance gym, and came home with a 47-27 victory.

The Cardinals jumped out to a fast start, and led at the end of the first quarter 17-5.  Chadron extended their lead and was in command with a 27-11 score at the break.  By the third quarter the Tigers were not getting back into this game, Chadron’s lead was 41-17.  The final score was 47-27.

The Cardinals got it done from the three point line hitting five three pointers in the game, including three from Vonsinh Sayaloune, who finished with 11 points, while Spencer Eliason led the Cardinals with 12 points.

With the win Chadron will play on Thursday night in Alliance at 6:30 for the subdistrict final against Kimball.  The Longhorns advanced after beating Gordon-Rushville 69-26.

 

CHADRON – Wrestling fans are in for a treat in Chadron this weekend.

Chadron State is hosting the Super Region 4/Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships in the Nelson Physical Activity Center. The two-day tournament begins Friday with the first session at 11 a.m. The second session, which is the championship semifinals and the consolation quarterfinals, starts Friday at 5:30 p.m.

Saturday’s action gets underway at noon with the consolation semifinals and finals. The championship finals are slated to begin at 5 p.m.

Ticket prices for all sessions are $25 for an adult and $12 for students and senior citizens. In addition, individual session tickets will be sold for $7 and $5.

Free online video also will be available throughout the tournament at https://www.americaonesports.com/partner_members.asp?id=67.  RMAC assistant commissioner Eric Danner and Craig Peterson of Rushville will provide commentary for Saturday evening’s championship round.

The 12 western-most NCAA Division II teams on the continent will be involved. The top four finishers in each of the 10 weight classes will advance to the National Championships in Birmingham, Ala., on March 8-9.

Eighteen wrestlers who are among the top eight in their weight classes in the latest Wrestling Coaches Association rankings will be among the participants.

“It will be a great tournament,” Chadron State interim head coach Brett Hunter said. “There will be lots of great wrestlers, and I’m not talking about just the guys who are ranked.  There are always some people who come out of the woodwork and upset guys you never expected them to beat.

“Every team seems to have at least a couple of wrestlers who can win it all if they catch fire. Wrestling is a sport where almost nothing is cut and dried.”

This year’s tournament has something that’s about the same as usual, but also different.

Nebraska-Kearney, which has won nine of the last 11 regional championships and is the reigning national champion, is no longer in the RMAC.  However, the Lopers are still assigned to the Super Region 4 Tournament and will be the odds-on favorite to win another title.

Two other teams in the tourney—Fort Hays State of Kansas and Simon Fraser University located at Burnaby, British Columbia—also are not RMAC members. In addition, Grand Canyon University of Phoenix and San Francisco State University are affiliated with the RMAC only for wrestling.

The remainder of the schools—Adams State, Colorado Mesa, Colorado Mines, Colorado State-Pueblo, New Mexico Highlands, Western State Colorado and Chadron State—are RMAC members in all their sports.

The highest placing RMAC team in the regional tourney will be declared the conference’s tournament champion. But if a member of one of the three non-RMAC teams wins a weight class, no more matches will take place to determine a conference champion at that weight.

Kearney is seventh in the latest national team rankings and has five nationally ranked wrestlers, the most of any of the teams in the tourney. Even though it has no one on the national list, Colorado Mesa is 14th in the national team standings, followed by Grand Canyon at 19th and Fort Hays State at 20th.

In addition, Adams State vaulted into 11th place the final week of the season and Western State also received votes, but did not crack the top 20.

Both Grand Canyon and Adams State have three ranked wrestlers. Fort Hays, San Francisco and Western State have two and CSU-Pueblo has one—Jesse Hillhouse, the No. 1 rated 125-pounder.

The other No. 1 ranked wrestler is Kearney’s Raufeon Stots, the defending national champ at 149 pounds. Stots lost to Grand Canyon’s Bobby Ward 4-3 at that weight at the regional tourney last year. Ward is now ranked eighth.

None of the other wrestlers who will be competing in Chadron this weekend has a No. 1 ranking, although Kyle McCrite of Grand Canyon is second at 125. Also ranked second are Chase White of UNK at 157 and Elliot Copeland of Western State at 174.

Hillhouse was the Super 4 Region’s 133-pound champion last year, but did not place at the national tournament and dropped down to 125 this year. Meanwhile, McCrite was second at the 2012 regional tourney and then won the 125-pound national championship.

Since joining the RMAC and NCAA in 1990, Chadron State has had 16 regional champions. The last one was Hunter in 2008. He also was the regional winner in 2006 and went on to win national titles both years.

The Eagles have had just one national tournament qualifier each of the past two years. He is Jordan Debus, a 184-pound junior who finished fourth in that weight class both years. Debus has a 16-10 record this season.

Just one 184-pounder in the region, Kyle Piat of Western State, is ranked this year and he’s No. 8.  However, Hunter said 184 may have the most depth of any of the weights at this year’s tourney. He said nine entries appear to have a shot at the title.

The Chadron State coach believes several Eagles have a chance to qualify for nationals this weekend, but noted each of them will have to be at his best to reach that goal.

In addition to Debus, Chadron State’s other wrestlers are Jace Johnson (6-14) at 125, Perry McAfee (14-8) at 133, Josh McCance (8-11) at 141, Reed Burgener (5-17) at 149, Bruce Zurek (5-13) at 157, Dylan Fors (11-10) at 165, Bret Klopp (4-4) at 174, Chris Leak (15-11) at 197 and Mike Hill (21-9) at 285.

“We’re hoping for a big turnout to help cheer our guys on,” Hunter said. “I can guarantee that there’ll be some great wrestling taking place.”

Weight	Ranking, Name, School
125	1. Jesse Hillhouse, CSU-Pueblo
	5. Jerry Huff, Adams State
	6. Kyle McCrite, Grand Canyon
133	4. Daniel DeShazer, Nebraska-Kearney
141	3. Ryan Fillingame, Adams State
	4. Naveed Bagheri, San Francisco State
	5. C.J. Napier, Fort Hays State
149	1. Raufeon Stots, Nebraska-Kearney
	8. Bobby Ward, Grand Canyon
157	3. Chase White, Nebraska-Kearney
165	3. Isaiah Jimenez, San Francisco State
	4. Chase Nelson, Nebraska-Kearney
174	2. Elliot Copeland, Western State
	5. Patrick Martinez, Nebraska-Kearney
	7. Jarrod Purvis, Adams State
184	8. Kyle Piat, Western State
197	5. Tanner Kriss, Fort Hays State
285	3. Tyrell Fortune, Grand Canyon

 

Rageth, a 6-foot junior forward from Kimball, previously played at Hastings College for three seasons. She’ll have one year of eligibility remaining at Chadron State.

“She is a prototypical power forward,” Connealy said. “She can shoot the basketball and guard multiple positions inside and outside. She is athletic and she will be able to help us with rebounding.”

Rageth was a valuable shooter at Hastings. She hit 37 percent from 3-point-range for her career, including 45 percent as a sophomore.

She set a number of records at Kimball High, including scoring the most points in school history with 1,386.

Rageth said she’s enjoying Chadron State even though she can’t play an official game until next season.

“I like it here a lot,” she said. “Our team is young but we are going to continue to get better and improve.”

Allan Schmaltz, Sports Information Graduate Assistant

    DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Danica Patrick has added another first to her resume. The NASCAR rookie turned in the fastest time in yesterday’s Daytona 500, becoming the first female to capture a pole position on stock car racing’s top circuit.

Patrick was the eighth driver to post a qualifying time. Then she had to wait two hours while 37 drivers tried and failed to beat her time.

 

Patrick’s best finish in 10 Cup races is 17th, and she has one top-five in 58 starts in the second-tier Nationwide Series.

The previous highest female qualifier in a Cup race was Janet Guthrie, who started ninth at Bristol and Talladega in 1977.

Jeff Gordon was the only other driver to top 196 mph in qualifying, giving him the other spot in the front row for next Sunday’s race.

The rest of the field will be set in dual qualifying races Thursday.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Ken Clark, one of the top all-time rushers at Nebraska who went on to play for the Indianapolis Colts, has died. He was 46.

His cousin, Stephanie Clark of Omaha, confirmed Clark’s death. She said he died of a heart attack in Minneapolis on Saturday.

Clark was a two-time All-Big Eight running back for the Cornhuskers, rushing for more than 1,000 yards both his junior and senior seasons.

His career highlight came in 1988, when he ran for 256 yards and three touchdowns in a win over Heisman Trophy winner Barry Sanders and Oklahoma State. His three-year rushing total of 3,037 yards ranks seventh on Nebraska’s career chart.

Clark appeared in 34 games with the Colts from 1990 to 1992.

At the Nebraska State Wrestling Tournament in Omaha on Saturday, 21 wrestlers from the panhandle participate in the walk of the parade of champions. 896 wrestlers started the journey on Thursday and 112 wrestled for the gold.

The action started at weight 106 with Juan Delacruz from Scottsbluff vs. Brian Peska of Omaha Skutt Catholic.  Brian Peska won the state championship.  Drew  Gilliland from Mitchell placed 5th at Class-C 106 pound weight class.  CJ Sidrow from Morrill placed 6th in Class-D 106 pound weight class.  Joseph Flores-Ybarra from Scottsbluff placed 4th in the 120 pound weight class in Class-B.

Keegan Hessler of Scottsbluff weight 113 would face JT. Sloboth of Omaha Skutt Catholic, Hessler would upset Sloboth to win the Class B 113 State Championship for Scottsbluff.

At 132 pound weight class Colton Adams from Scottsbluff was going for gold and Nebraska State Wrestling history, Adams was matched up against Clay Trejo of Cozad.  Colton Adams won his third straight title, his victory capped a history-making performance in the tournament by winning 53 matches in a season which is an Nebraska all-class state record.  Adams’ lone loss of the season came in the semifinals of a national tournament in Ohio back in December. That setback was against Joey Dance, who is considered to be the nation’s top wrestler. Adams finished third in that tournament, which is regarded as the toughest in the nation.  With the win Colton Adams joined Tyler Nation as the only two wrestlers in Scottsbluff history with three state titles. Nation won his third title last year.

Joey Johnson from Hay Springs placed 6th at Class-D 132 pound weight class. Tyler Smith from Alliance placed 6th at Class-B 138 pound weight class.  Brandon Nichols from Bridgeport placed 4th at Class-C 138 pound weight class.  Sabian Harsh from Scottsblff placed 3rd at Class-B 145 pound weight class.  Willy Cogdill from Chadron placed 6th at Class-B 152 pound weight class.

Tyson Dowler from Alliance was going for gold in  the 152 pound weight class against Logan Hunke of Cozad, Dowler would capture the state championship and complete an undefeated 29-0 season.

Colby Riesen from Chadron was going for gold in the 160 pound weight class against Nick Null of Plattsmouth, Null was the #1 wrestler at 160 in class-B, while Riesen was #3.  Riesen won by pin, to complete an 40-3 season and be Chadron’s first champion in several years.

Dawson Johnson from Alliance placed 4th at Class-B 160 pound weight class.  Allen Denton from Bayard placed 6th at Class-D 160 pound weight class.  Chance Bila from Chadron placed 6th at Class-B 170 pound weight class.  Brendan Swanson from Mitchell placed 5th at Class-C 170 pound weight class.  Braydon Wiedeman from Mitchell placed 5th at Class-C 182 pound weight class.  Tanner Willey from Bayard placed 5th at Class-D 195 pound weight class.  Stevin Horrocks from Hay Springs placed 3rd at Class-D 220 pound weight class.

Scottsbluff got runner-up as a team in Class-B and finished with 119 points, while Omaha Skutt Catholic once again won the team title for Class-B.  Alliance finished in 5th place, while Chadron got 13th.  In Class-C Mitchell came in 15th place, while Bayard got 13th place in Class-D.

The Eagles, who trailed most of the game, used pesky defense and clutch shooting from both Bargen and David Downey to make things interesting down the stretch to force the extra period.

Trailing by two in regulation, the Eagles’ Kyle Vinich scored a tough hoop under the basket to tie things up with 22 seconds to play. However, the Eagles needed to dodge a few shots from Mines on its last possession before moving to overtime.

In overtime, the Eagles fell behind 64-62 before Bargen completed a 3-point play to put them ahead. The Orediggers came right back as Brian Muller made a quick layup to take a 66-65 lead and the two squads continued to trade baskets until Muller hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with just over 40 seconds to play. After a missed three point attempt by Bargen, Muller hit one from the foul line to ice the game.

Also for Chadron State, Downey added 11 points for the Eagles, while Kendrick Holliman finished with 10.

The Orediggers were led by Muller’s 23 points and six rebounds. Luke Meisch added 19 points and Trevor Wages had 11 points, 12 rebounds and seven blocked shots before fouling out in overtime.

The loss drops the Eagles to 3-20 on the season and 3-16 in the league, while the Orediggers improve to 13-10 overall and 10-9 in the conference.

Allan Schmaltz, Sports Information Graduate Assistant

Box Score