CONCORDIA, Kan. – Opening their Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference dual schedule at home, the number 17-ranked Cloud County Community College wrestling team would earn a 30-15 win over Barton Community College inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium in Concordia, Kansas on Wednesday, January 11th.
Running their dual record to 2-1 on the year, CCCC picks up their largest margin of victory win over the Cougars in the sixth all-time dual meeting between squads and first win over Barton since January 15, 2020. The Cougars dropped to 0-1 in duals this season after partaking in their first of three scheduled duals this season.
Action would start at 184 pounds with Barton having open weights at 184 pounds, 197 pounds, and 285 pounds which would allow Cloud County to jump out to an 18-0 lead. In the first contested match of the night at 125 pounds, CCCC would see freshman
Brady Foster waste little time to earn an early first-period takedown and four-point near fall to go up 6-0 after three minutes of action. In the second period, Foster would take advantage of Barton's Avery Wolf choosing the bottom position to get another four-point near fall before allowing an escape to get another takedown and near fall to end the match mid-way through the period with a 16-1 technical fall.
The T-Birds would give up open weights in each of the next three weight classes (133 pounds, 141 pounds, and 149 pounds) with Barton also open at 141 pounds for a double-forfeit to lead to the 157-pound match with the dual score 23-12 in favor of CCCC. In the 157-pound match, Cloud County's
Dylan Ancheta would trail 4-0 to Dawson Chavez after the first three minutes of action before seeing a scoreless second period keep the deficit at four heading into the final two minutes of the match. Needing to score, Ancheta would earn an escape before getting a takedown and riding out the rest of the period to pick up a riding time point that would send the match to sudden-victory overtime. In the sudden-victory period, Ancheta would remain aggressive on the offensive end to score a takedown and what would become a 6-4 victory to put CCCC up 26-12.
With the dual victory secured, Cloud County would see
Maurice Hilbert trail 6-3 in his 165-pound match against Chance Unruh after the first period and match the scoring in the second as each wrestler would score a takedown and escape to put things at 9-6 heading into the third. More action would be seen over the final two minutes of the match with Hilbert securing two takedowns to close the gap but would ultimately be unable to secure a third and potentially match-tying takedown to ultimately fall by a score of 12-10. The final match of the night at 174 pounds would see CCCC's
Gabriel Bailey control his match against Keondre Bonner from the start to score a first-period takedown as part of a 5-0 lead through the first two periods. In the third, Bailey would give up a late escape before earning a takedown and near fall points to secure a major decision victory with an 11-1 final.
What's Next?
Cloud County heads to Miami, Oklahoma to take part in the 2023 NJCAA Coaches Duals hosted by fifth-ranked Northeastern Oklahoma A&M. The two-day dual tournament will begin on Friday, January 13th with pool action as the T-Birds have been placed into pool "A" with top-ranked Clackamas College, sixth-ranked Triton College, 16th-ranked Carl Albert State College, and Otero Junior College. Following Friday's pool action, the 20-team tournament will be bracketed into two brackets for Saturday's action. Of the teams in Cloud County's pool, Carl Albert State is the only school that the T-Birds have wrestled in dual action this year while Clackamas College and CCCC have never wrestled a dual against each other.
