CONCORDIA – With year three of the Cloud County Community College wrestling era set to get underway on Saturday, the T-Birds have plenty to look forward to as foundation has been laid from the first two season of action. In just two short years, Cloud County has qualified 15 wrestlers for the National Championship meets, earned a third-place finish at the West Central District Tournament, and placed 14th overall in the team race at the 2019 NJCAA National Championships.
“We have two national qualifiers back this year (Blayne Harris and Quentin Jiner) along with a transfer in Elwin Trejo who qualified for the National Tournament last year at Northwest Kansas Tech so that’s a really good start for us” said Cloud County head coach Cody Cole. “The majority of our freshman class either placed at their high school state wrestling meets or were state champions, so we expect them to plug in some of the holes that we have due to not having sophomores at those weight classes.”
With eight returning sophomores making up the core to go along with 12 newcomers, Cloud County can rely on both experience and depth as it makes its way through the season and challenges that come along with wrestling in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference. Last season, CCCC qualified nine wrestlers for the NJCAA Championships with Austin Eldredge and Noah Aziere becoming the first two All-Americans in program history.
“We let our wrestlers know that the wrestlers we’ve had in the past that had success didn’t let their high school success define them when they got to Cloud County but rather they did what was necessary to have the success they did once they got here.”
Harris (125), Jiner (157) and Trejo (285) will make up the core and set the tone for the season as returners Albert Werden (133), Kobryn Mann (165), and Kevin Murry (184) will look to fill spots left by national qualifiers from last year. Newcomers Joel Ostrom (141), Tristin Hauck (149), and Dante Harper (174) will also look to make a difference right away as all three placed multiple times at their high school state wrestling tournaments throughout their career.
“We talk a lot about opening up and wrestling right now in the early part of the season as we don’t want to get wrapped up in the wins and losses right now.” “The big thing for us is that our wrestlers are able to compete at a high-level right and figure out how to compete at the collegiate level.” “We want to make sure that we can compete now and then worry about the wins and losses come January as our schedule transitions to more dual meets in preparation for national meet.”
The T-Birds will need to become road warriors to be successful in the 2019-20 campaign as Cloud County will host just three total dual meets as part of their schedule for the season. After opening things with open meets at the University of Wyoming, University of Northern Colorado, and Bethany College, CCCC will host their only pre-Christmas meet on November 21st against Wayland Baptist University out of the NAIA. Cloud County will then take part in the Nebraska-Kearney open and have a road dual against Iowa Western before ending the month of December with an open meet at Wayland Baptist, a road dual at NCAA Division II Chadron State College and the annual Desert Duals in Las Vegas, Nevada.
A two-day dual meet at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M will open the 2020 portion of the schedule during the second weekend of January before the T-Birds return home for their final two home duals of the year, hosting Central Christian College and Barton Community College on back-to-back nights on January 14th and 15th. The back-half of January will see Cloud County wrestle duals against Northeast Junior College, Colby, and Northwest Kansas Tech all on the road with open meets at Newman University and the Midwest Duals in Kearney, Nebraska to set up the final month of the season. Just two meets will take place in February, with the Jayhawk Duals being hosted by Colby Community College on the 8th and 9th while the West-Central District Tournament is being hosted by Northeastern Oklahoma A&M on Feb. 22. The NJCAA Championships will once again take place in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and be held March 6 and 7 in the Mid-America Center.