The Pratt Tribune

Beaver wrestlers win 2 in tourney
By Cody Hooten

CHANUTE — The Pratt Community College wrestling team opened its season this weekend at the Cameron Bradshaw Takedown Tournament, hosted by Labette Community College, then stuck around for a dual with Labette on Sunday. These matches marked the first competition for PCC wrestling since 1973.

At the tournament on Saturday, which was a pre-season tournament where the competitors only wrestle from the neutral position, two PCC wrestlers walked away with championships. Joey Stephens, a freshman from Derby, won the 120 pound division and Jason Nichols, a freshman from Garden City, won the 160 pound division. The matches consisted of one three minute period. Stephens and Nichols had the most takedowns at the end of their period.

Stephens defeated Ryan Lessener of Lincoln (Ill.) College in the finals to take the title, while Nichols defeated Joe Yust from Labette for the win.

Head Coach Chas Thompson had high praise for his two winners.

“Stephens was very impressive,” Thompson said. “He used some big moves to put each one of his opponents to their back in all of his matches. Nichols was also impressive in his showing, not surrendering a single takedown in the tournament.”

Justin Naccarato, a sophomore from Valley Center, took second in the 200 pound weight class, James Fox, a freshman from Douglass High School, placed third out of the 136 pounders and Colby Crawford, sophomore from Pawhuska, Okla., came in fourth out of the 144 pounders.

“Overall I thought we wrestled well on our feet Saturday,” Thompson said. “We looked a little flat on our feet that first round but were able to turn things around after that and have a pretty decent showing.”

PCC took their lumps in their dual with LCC, the second ranked NJCAA team in the country, on Sunday, losing 31-10. They walked away with three wins out of 10 matches. The wins came from Matt Banta, 125 pound freshman from Arkansas City, who pulled off a miracle two point reversal with four seconds left in the match to take the one point victory.

“I was happy with the win but Matt looked a little sloppy at times and he knows that. It’s nothing we can’t fix, though,” Thompson said of his young wrestler. “You got to love Matt for his guts though. One second I’m thinking he blew the match and the next he regained his lead for a huge win.”

Also, 149 pound freshman Rylan England from Duncan, Okla., and Naccarato at 197 pounds both won in dominating fashion.

“Rylan is a gamer, who was actually a 141 pounder that took one for the team and bumped up to the 149 pound class,” Thompson added. “Justin is a pretty intense kid that we know that we are going to get the full seven minutes out of every time.”

“I’m somewhat pleased with our performance,” Thompson said of their overall performance on Sunday. “We won three out of 10 matches today. I thought we should have taken two more matches from them. LCC came in very well prepared and is a solid team. I knew what we were up against. They are well coached and always in very good shape. I received several compliments after the dual on how good the kids looked and that they are happy to see another wrestling program starting in Kansas.”

The PCC wrestlers will be back in action this weekend, traveling to Chanute for a duel with Neosho County Community College and then to Warrensburg, Missouri, for the Central Missouri State Tournament.