Return on 28th to train for National Duals

The Northwest College wrestling team finished the 2015 leg of its schedule with three duals and a bevy of ranked opponents in North Idaho over the weekend.

The No. 14 Trappers lost to the No. 10-ranked host Cardinals 30-16 on Friday, and split their Saturday contests — a 27-18 win over Southwest Oregon Community College, and a 33-9 loss to No. 4 Clackamas.

Northwest won four of the six bouts against Oregon (each team forfeited two matches), three of which came to two points or fewer.

“Those were matches that we won on condition and guts and I was proud of them for that,” said NWC head coach Jim Zeigler.

Matthew Schmidt won a 5-3 decision over Brennan Baccay in the 141-pound bout, Justin Polkowske beat Lucius Van Rensburg in a 4-2 decision at 165 pounds and Heber Shepherd beat Tucker Cook in a 3-2 decision at 184 pounds.

Zeigler said his young but inconsistent squad flashed its potential at times in North Idaho.

“They’re young kids, sometimes they show up and some times they don’t,” Zeigler said. “They’re proving that when they do, they can be competitive.”

Sophomore Eduardo Penha pinned Beau Shatto to score the Trappers six points at 133 pounds.

Penha, ranked fourth at 133, was one of four Trappers to win twice during the weekend thanks to his 4-3 decision over No. 8 Isaac Aguilar of North Idaho Friday night.

“He won a good match against North Idaho, he won a hard-fought battle,” Zeigler said.

That wasn’t the case against Clackamas’ Michael Knoblauch, the No. 3-ranked wrestler in his weight class who pinned Penha at 1:32.

“He got man-handled by the Clackamas kid, which was a big surprise,” Zeigler said. “The Clackamas kid showed up to wrestle, got a pin on him. It happens.”

Sophomore John-David Henderson won an 11-3 major decision at 149 pounds over North Idaho’s Jordan Hall, who came into the match ranked seventh in the 141-pound class. Henderson then beat Christopher Garcia of Clackamas in a 7-4 decision before winning by way of forfeit against Oregon.

“John-David is definitely a guy that’s on the rise,” Zeigler said. “He beat both guys in our region that are ranked above him.”

Henderson was eighth at 149 in the rankings released Tuesday.

Before Shepherd’s one-point win Saturday, he beat Cardinal Chase Campbell 4-3 Friday night.

Freshman Tevin Nuttall pinned North Idaho’s Tim Parten at 174 pounds Friday night, and won a 6-4 decision against Brendan Harkey of Clackamas on Saturday. Nuttall is ranked sixth at 174 pounds.

Most of the Trappers didn’t fare so well against the Cougars.

“They came out and punched us in the mouth. That was our biggest struggle,” Zeigler said.

A technical fall, pin and major decision in the lightest three weight classes put Clackamas in control of a dual in which the Trappers forfeited their 197 and 285 bouts (as they did in all three duals).

Forfeits aside, the Trappers went toe to toe with the 10th-ranked Cardinals.

The teams split the remaining eight bouts 4-4, and the Trappers trailed just 18-16 before North Idaho was awarded six points for each of the forfeits.

“I thought the kids fought and scrapped real hard,” Zeigler said. “I think it easily could have been 19-15, us, if it weren’t for that last second reversal against Cam (Cameron Braden). We won four of the eight matches we wrestled, I felt like we could have won five of the eight.”

Braden, who wrestled against North Idaho and Clackamas in place of Justin Polkowske, lost a 5-4 decision Friday night on a last-second reversal.

“He had the match won against a really good kid but got reversed with no time left on the clock, and lost the match,” Zeigler said.

Braden came back to win an 8-2 bout against Brandon Davidson of Clackamas.

The Trappers will return from their winter break on Dec. 28 in preparation for the National Duals in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on Jan. 8-9.