Neosho County Community College Wrestling Release
Released by Aaron Sweazy
Assistant Wrestling Coach

Nov. 21, 2008

The Panther wrestling team went down to Parsons on Wednesday evening to take on the 4^th ranked Labette Cardinals.   Neosho ranked 13^th in the Nation was short handed coming in,  having to plug several backups in the rotation against a very strong Labette team.  The action started by random draw at the heavyweight class where Neosho’s Nathan Brown filling in from his backup spot stepped in as a heavy underdog to 2^nd ranked Ben Hohensee.   Brown trailed early and was in near danger of getting pinned early , but fought off his back and was able to push Hohensee for a full 7 minute match, but ultimately came out on the losing side of things by a major decision of 10-0. 

 Next up at 125,  two bulls locked horns as 5^th ranked Alex Gorton tussled with 8^th ranked Colin Hase.   Neosho’s Gorton took early command with a 2 takedown first period.  Up 4-3, Gorton would give up a point in the 2^nd and the match was tied up going into the final stanza.   A flurry of action took place late to end the match with Gorton hitting a reversal , then being hit with a penalty point,  as the action continued a 2^nd stall call was made against Gorton knotting the match up at 6-6.  As the clock ticked down,  Gorton countered an escape attempt by Hase, and tilted him to his back to secure 3 points nearfall and win the match 9-6.

133 was a see saw battle with takedowns, escapes and reversals being exchanged between Neosho’s Stephen Kendrick and Labette’s Donnie Curtis.  Late in the match with riding time out of the equation,  and Kendrick leading 6-5,  Curtis caught Kendrick in a cradle and secured 3pts on the nearfall.   Although, Kendrick was able to escape,  his last few takedown attempts couldn’t finish, and thus Neosho loses a tight match 7-8.

Rory Kendall made his 2009 season dual debut in a big way.   A starter at 133 last year,  Rory had lost 3 times to Labette in his 2008 campaign and was eager to extract revenge.   Scoring off an early takedown Rory was quickly reversed , only to hit a nice reverse of his own and take a 4-2 lead.   His opponent however would hit another reversal into a tilt and score an additional 2points on the nearfall in taking a 6-4 lead after the 1^st.  Labette would chose the bottom position to open up the 2^nd period and quickly get a reversal to go up 8-4,  only to then be reversed and sent to his back by an aggressive Kendall, who picked up 5 big points and lead 9-8.   In the final period Kendall would chose to be bottom and escape and clinch one final takedown in winning 12-8, doing so by racking up the final 8 points in the match for a come from behind win.

Cody Eaton fresh off a solid showing at the Central Missouri Open, got the go ahead nod for the starting spot for the dual at 149.   Outmatched on his feet by superior speed,  Eaton fell behind in a hole early with a series of takedowns and reversals by his foe.  In the end Eaton could only  rack up 4 points and lost by a major decision.

Justin Ringgold battled back early from a 5-2 deficit and clawed his way into a 3 point 3^rd period tying it up.  His opponent escaped however, but luckily for Ringgold riding time was in his favor meaning that wrestling would continue in the overtime.   However, after a scramble ensued, Ringgold was taken down once again and would suffer defeat by an 8-6 margin.

Tucker Rutherford,  Aaron Butler and Matt McNabb all bumped up weights to try to help out the Neosho surge,  but wound up all suffering bonus point defeats by major decision, and then consecutive back-to-back falls at 174 and 184.

Jeff Kirwan would be the final wrestler up for Neosho at 197.  Kirwan’s opponent countered off a front headlock attempt early on and scored a takedown with nearfall to go up 5-0.  Kirwan would escape  twice more during the competition and also gain a penalty point, but would surrender an escape of his own in falling to his opposition by a 6-3 margin.

Neosho goes to 4-3 on the year and will next travel to Omaha, Nebraska for Saturday’s Kaufmann Brand Open.  The Kaufmann Brand Open is listed as the largest single day college tournament in the world and will boast over 40 colleges and 600 entries.   Wrestling action will take place all day and go til late at night, and feature teams from NCAA D1,  Junior College, and even Olympic Training Center.

Neosho 6  Labette 33