KEARNEY, Neb. — The No. 15 ranked Cloud County wrestling team posted a 1-3 mark at Friday’s Midwest duals, hosted by the University of Nebraska-Kearney.
For the T-Birds, who competed Wednesday evening out in Great Bend against Barton Community College, Friday’s turnaround was challenging but also a positive step for a short-handed Cloud County team due to get bodies back over its incoming four-day break.
“I thought we were pretty competitive in most of our matches. It’s a challenge to make weight Wednesday the come back and wrestle again Friday,” said Cloud County head coach, Cody Cole. “It takes a lot of energy, but I thought the guys did a good job of buying in and wrestling hard the whole time even though we went 1-3 on the day. We had some open weights across a few of the duals during the day and just weren’t able to put together 6-7 solid matches at the same time.”
Redshirt freshman Austin Eldredge highlighted the day for the T-Birds as he finished a spotless 4-0, which included impressive wins over No. 5 ranked Maverick Keigher at 149 pounds from Northeastern Junior College and Tony Mendoza out of North Iowa Area Community College.
Eldredge manhandled Keigher during the final dual of the day, earning a 15-0 tech fall victory, while pinning Mendoza in a fall time of 1:12. Mendoza would go on to beat the current No. 1 ranked 149-pounder, Kendon Lee out of Northeastern Oklahoma, later in the day.
It’s a performance that can go a long way for Eldredge, who is not ranked due to missing most of the first semester with a knee injury, in building his resume for seeding in the West-Central District Tournament.
“I think it just shows, as he’s getting back into it, that he belongs at this level and that he belongs with the top guys,” Cole said of Eldredge. “He’s wrestled very little this semester, so I think as we get going that he’s going to get on a roll here and climb his way up the rankings in the country. Today should help him jump up quite a bit heading into the regional tournament.”
True freshman Matthew Cruickshank also had a big morning for the T-Birds as he finished 3-1 on the day, splitting time between the 184-pound and 197-pound weight classes.
Cruickshank, who has wrestled anywhere from 174 pounds to 197 pounds this season, started the day with a pin of NIACC’s Hunter Hagen in 2:52 at 197 pounds. He then earned an 18-0 tech fall win over Noah Manly in Cloud County’s 34-18 win over York College before rounding out his day a 14-6 major decision win over Logan Malouff from NJC.
“We wrestled him pretty hard and he was able to get some good victories and help us out,” Cole said. “He’s done a great job wrestling whichever weight class we’ve asked him to wrestle. Right now we have a sophomore 184-pounder (Cameron Young-Leggett) and sophomore 197-pounder (Zach Bowen), so 174-pounds might be what we’re looking at for him heading into regionals.”
Cloud County also received wins on the day from freshman 125-pounder Blayne Harris, who pinned York’s Harley Williamson in 1:42, and from freshman Quentin Jiner (157) with a pin of Quinn Murphy from NIACC.
The T-Birds will now have four days off to rest and regroup before hosting their first conference dual against Colby Community College at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Cloud County is anticipating the returns of Bowen, freshman Dakota Miller, ranked No. 4 at 133 pounds, and sophomore Benny Hernandez (No. 7 ranked heavyweight) to the lineup for Wednesday’s clash against the Trojans.
“I’m excited to get a few days of practice in and give some guys rest who really need it,” Cole said. “It’ll be nice to put 10 guys out there and compete at home. It’ll be first day back for classes, so I hope there’s a good atmosphere. It’s an important conference dual for us so we’ll need guys to go out and battle. I think it’s a good stepping stone as we start looking toward No. 3 ranked Northwest Kansas Tech and the Jayhawk Duals coming up in the next two weeks.”
Cloud County dual results
Match #1: North Iowa Community College defeated No. 15 Cloud County, 33-18
Match #2: Cloud County defeated York College, 34-18
Match #3: No. 7 ranked Iowa Western defeated No. 15 Cloud County, 45-5
Match #4: No. 8 Northeastern Junior College defeated No. 15 Cloud County, 48-9