LARAMIE, Wyo. – Opening the season with their first of back-to-back trips out west, the Cloud County Community College wrestling team would open their season with 10 individual victories at the University of Wyoming Cowboy Open at War Memorial Fieldhouse in Laramie, Wyo., on Saturday.
It would be a pair of T-Birds who would pick up multiple wins on the afternoon at 133 pounds as Blake Leiszler would earn an 18-13 decision over Johnny Murphy of Western State Colorado along a 5-2 decision over teammate Albert Werden in the consolation bracket after dropping a match to Samuel Edelblute of NCAA Division I Utah Valley in his second match of the day. Chandler Schoenberger would also win twice at 133 pounds, defeating Carl Cronin of Montana-Northern 10-3 along with a 15-2 major decision over Jimmizan Redhorse of Adams State while falling to Jacob Svlhel of the University of Wyoming and William Fish of Northwest Wyoming College.
Brandon Rohr would be the lone other wrestler for CCCC to win twice on Saturday, going 2-2 overall at 157 pounds with wins over teammate Nate Normandin (10-4) and a pin of Dominic Helbok of Adams State while dropping matches to Logan Pleninger of Colorado School of Mines Josh Johnson of the University of Providence.
Returning sophomore Blayne Harris would manage to pick up one win on the day at 125 pounds while dropping a pair of close decisions to Brendon Garcia of Wyoming and Ethan Crawford of Colorado Mesa, earning a pin in 2:41 over Christian Elmore of Colorado Mesa. Aiden Connors would defeat Alex Barela of Northwest Kansas Tech by major decision (11-3) at 133 pounds while dropping matches to Nicholas Braswell of Western State Colorado and unattached wrestler Riley Fuchs. Jose Lopez would be the only T-Bird wrestler at 285 pounds to earn a victory on Saturday, defeating Sylvester Montgomery of Adams State with a pin at the 8:51 mark while Carlos Sanchez and Elwin Trejo would each wrestle twice and drop a pair of decisions to their opponents.
Other wrestlers for Cloud County who saw action on Saturday would be Albert Werden at 133 pounds, Tristin Hauck at 149 pounds, Nate Normandin at 157 pounds, Kobryn Mann at 174 pounds, and Micah Sterling at 184 pounds as Cloud County would have six of their wrestlers compete at the collegiate level for the first time in their careers at the open meet. Most of the matches for the T-Birds would come against NCAA Division II competition, with a few matches taking place against NCAA Division I, NAIA, and NJCAA foes.
What’s Next?
Cloud County will continue it’s early season swing of open meets on Sunday as the T-Birds will be out in Greeley, Colo., to take part in the University of Northern Colorado Open. Action is slated to get underway at 10 a.m. (CST) as the T-Birds see four of their first five dates of competition come in open meets.