Eagles win tie-breaker at home, 2 at UNK duals

The Eagles’ wrestling team defeated three of its four opponents last week—one with tiebreaker criteria at home and two wins and a loss at the University of Nebraska Kearney duals.

The Eagles defeated Colorado Mesa University in a tiebreaker, Thursday Jan. 12.

The Eagles won the first two matches of the night—Brandon Kile, sophomore of Hastings, 125-pounds, in the last seven seconds took down Tommy Tawata, junior of Honolulu, to win 4-3; and nationally ranked No. 11 Taylor Summers, redshirt senior of Plymouth, 133-pounds, pinned Michael McDaniel, sophomore of Danville, California, in the first period. Those two wins put the Eagles up 9-0 before the Mavericks won the next four, with tech falls at the 141-pounds and 165-pounds, decision at 149-pounds, and major decision at 157-pounds.

With Colorado Mesa up 17-9, Chance Helmick, junior of Beatrice, 174-pounds, narrowed the gap, defeating Bruno Nicoletti, junior of Aurora, Colorado, 7-2. Mesa earned the next decision win at 184-pounds to put Mesa up by 8 points, 20-12. Going into the final two matches Matthew Kindler, freshman of David City, 197-pounds, earned a 3-0 win against Adam Visconti, sophomore of Granby, Colorado, to leave the Eagles down by 5.

Cooper Cogdill, redshirt sophomore of Chadron, heavyweight, quickly ended the match with a first period tech fall against Clayton Voytilla, freshman of Grand Junction, Colorado.

When all was said and done, the score was tied 20-20, which forced a tiebreaker. A tie is decided first by the most individual wins by a team, but both teams earned five wins; and second criteria is by the most pins, with the only of the night coming from Summers, to decide the win.

This loss was Mesa’s first dual loss of the season.

Saturday, the Eagles defeated California Baptist University, 21-20, and Fort Hays State, 32-10, but lost to Central Oklahoma University, 20-18.

Three wrestlers went 3-0: Kile, Summers, and Helmick.

One notable win included Helmick defeating Cal Baptist’s Nolan Kistler, junior of Riverside, California, who was the 2016 Super Region IV runner-up and who is ranked No. 9 in the NCAA D-II rankings.

A number of upsets occurred including: Helmick as No. 5 in the region defeating No. 4 Miguel Barreras, redshirt freshman of Rio Rancho, New Mexico, of Central Oklahoma. Regional No. 6 Luke Zeigler, junior of Glasgow, Montana, 141-pounds, defeated No. 5 Peter Cunningham, junior of Costa Mesa, California, of Cal Baptist. Cogdill as No. 7 defeating No. 4 Paul Head, redshirt senior of San Diego, of Cal Baptist, who was a national qualifier last season; and unranked Willy Cogdill defeating No. 7 Rakim Dean, junior of Wichita, Kansas, of Fort Hays State.

The Eagles will return to the mat at 7 p.m. Friday to host a dual against Western Colorado State University. CSC is now 4-1 overall and 3-0 RMAC. The theme for the dual is black out.