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

Nov. 10, 2008

National Junior College 13th ranked Neosho traveled to Oklahoma City to take on a trio of foes all from 4 year university programs. The day got off to a slow start as the host Stars of Oklahoma City University ranked #10 in NAIA defeated Neosho 37-9, Alex Gorton (freshman from Rockford, Michigan) picked up a forfeit win at 125, and Derek Heckel (freshman from Ulysses, KS) at 184 was the other winner for the Panthers in pulling out a 9-4 victory and amassing nearly 4 minutes of riding time in the process.

In the 2nd match of the day Neosho would face NCAA DII Grand Canyon University and come up with an early 21-0 lead after the half way mark, before GCU came back and took 3 consecutive matches back to narrow the gap 21-9, Matt McNabb (freshman from Chickasha, OK) appeared to be the next to suffer defeat at he hands of a GCU foe, but turned a 7 point deficit into a stunning defensive fall. Derek Heckel followed suit with a second period fall of his own and capture the 3rd team win of the year for the Panthers with a 33-9 victory.

The day finally came to a close with Neosho taking on NAIA's 2nd ranked Menlo college out of California. Stephen Kendrick (freshman from Skiatook, OK) put together 4 takedowns and clinched riding time in a solid 9-5 performance, while Justin Ringgold (freshman from Wichita, Ks) used a late escape and held off his opponent's late takedown attempts to hold on for a 3-2 squeaker. Although the Panthers wrestled tough in the last dual, the young squad still lost by a 37-6 margin and now have a 3-2 overall dual record. The Panther wrestling team will next wrestle at home against 20th ranked Pratt on Thursday at 7pm on the NCCC campus, before traveling to Warrensburg, Missouri on to compete Sunday in the University of Central Missouri Open Tournament.

Coach Petterson's comments: We came out against OCU and overall were tentative and hesitant in the first dual of the day and the final score indicated exactly that. In the second match we came out and opened up more and got things going much better. The final match of the day we wrestled tough and came out on the short end to a very good team where we plugged in some other guys to the lineup. Overall on the day Derek Heckel wrestled well the first two matches and was given a needed rest in the final. Justin Ringgold put in a fine day wrestling up a weight in the second match against GCU and their best guy, then coming back for a nice win the last match. We made some progress this weekend against some good teams. No injuries occurred and we are preparing for Thursday's opening conference dual with Pratt here followed by the top level U. of Central Missouri Open tournament on Sunday. Our schedule is very rigorous now and we must gear up every time out.

OKLAHOMA CITY 37

NEOSHO COUNTY 9

197: Jake Mabry, OCU, dec. Jeff Kirwan, 5-0

285: Corey Johnson, OCU, pinned Kris Powell, 3:00

125: Alex Gordon, NC, by forfeit

133: Justin Blumer, OCU, pinned Stephen Kendrick, 2:44

141: Jeremy Garner, OCU, dec. Montana Carson, 6-0

149: Will Shelton, OCU, dec. Caleb VanLue, 10-5

157: Nik Turner, OCU, maj. dec. Justin Ringgold, 14-5

165: Mark Meyer, OCU, pinned David Butler, 1:03

174: Dillon Blackmon, OCU, pinned Matt McNabb, 6:30

184: Derek Heckel, NC, dec. Andrew Pontikes, 9-3

MENLO 32

NEOSHO COUNTY 6

197: Al Kinslow, MC, maj. dec. Jeff Kirwan, 12-0

285: Jesse Ruiz, MC, pinned Kris Powell, 0:44

125: Eric Garcia, MC, dec. Alex Gorton, 3-1

133: Stephan Kendrick, NC, dec. Aaron Garcia, 9-5

141: Christian Martinez, MC, maj. dec. Zach Shannon, 11-2

149: Lee Morrison, MC, pinned Cody Eaton, 3:20

157: Justin Ringgold, NC, dec. Josh Emmett, 3-2

165: Sabas Cruz, MC, maj. dec. Aaron Butler, 10-0

174: Greg Alvarez, MC, maj. dec. Matt McNabb, 11-0

184: Gary Nelson, MC, pinned Jason Mellies, 2:03

NEOSHO COUNTY 33

GRAND CANYON 9

197: Jeff Kirwan, NC, dec. Bryan Cooper, 5-4 (2OT)

285: Kris Powell, NC, by forfeit

125: Alex Gorton, NC, dec. Alex Contreras, 6-3

133: Austin McNatt, NC, by forfeit

141: Montana Carson, NC, dec. Austin Moore, 2-1

149: Bryan Scambler, GC, dec. Caleb VanLue, 8-3

157: Daniel Rubio, GC, dec. Tucker Rutherford, 6-5

165: Jack Porter, GC, dec. Justin Ringgold, 9-6

174: Matt McNabb, NC, pinned Daniel Garay, 2:39

184: Derek Heckel, NC, pinned Adam Barnett, 3:20