CCCC easily defeats Colby

Between a snow day closing campus on Wednesday and an hour-long delay due to an emergency for Thursday night's official, the Cloud County Community College wrestling team waited a little over 25 hours to take the mat in its first KJCCC home dual of the season against Colby Community College.
But it took little time for the No. 15 ranked T-Birds to dispose of the visiting Trojans, winning four of the five matches wrestled Thursday en route to a 43-9 dual victory.
"I thought the guys did a really good job handling the hour delay, not letting it rattle them and staying loose," said Cloud County head coach, Cody Cole. "I thought across the board we looked a lot better than last week and looked refreshed."
Cloud County got the evening started with a 13-2 major decision win for freshman Brady Lowell as the Cuba, Kansas native made the most of his varsity start with the decisive victory over Colby's Tim Westbrook.
"It was exciting to see a guy like Brady wrestle tonight and get a big victory," Cole said. "It was really nice to see him open up and take some shots. It was another nice home crowd for him and he got us a good victory there."
Fellow freshman Dakota Miller followed with a dominating win of his own, earning a pin of Joey Unruh in 1:58.
Redshirt freshman Bryce Gfeller made it three victories in a row with a 6-0 decision win over Kollin Wade at 141-pounds, upping Cloud County's dual lead to 13-0.
"Bryce really needed a win and he opened up more and did a great job getting to his leg attacks and finishing with the 6-0 victory," Cole said.
Following a forfeit win at 149 pounds for Cody Wuthnow, redshirt freshman Austin Eldredge ballooned the lead to 25-0 with an action-packed bout against Colby's Dalton Moody.
The dual combined for 28 points through the first 2:50 of the first period. Eldredge held an 18-10 lead after reversing out of a near pin before posting sealing the victory with a fall time of 2:55.
"Austin did a really good job taking the guy down and getting some turns in," Cole said. "Colby's guy continued to fight, put us on our back and in a little danger there for a second. We really preach putting guys away when we can and we were able to do that, even though it was a nail bitter there for a little while."
Cloud County suffered its lone defeat at 165 pounds as redshirt sophomore Noah Aziere dropped a tight 6-4 battle in overtime to Colby's Dino Baldes.
Aziere held a late 3-2 lead before Baldes scored a takedown with seven seconds remaining in the third period. Just before the clock hit zeros, Aziere was able to score an escape to tie the match at 4-4, but was unable to complete the comeback in overtime.
"Noah was good on bottom and there was some really good hand fighting. We just need to pull the trigger a little more," Cole said. "After getting taken down with seven seconds left most guys kind of lay down there, but Noah kept wrestling hard to force overtime. It's something we can work on."
The T-Birds will look to build off Wednesday's performance for next Wednesday's showdown against No. 3 ranked Northwest Kansas Technical College. Action is set to get underway at 6 p.m. inside Arley Bryant Gymnasium.
"I think it's going to be a very competitive dual next Wednesday," said Cole of the meeting with Northwest Kansas Technical College. "We match up really well across the board. I think it's going to be a tight dual either way and hopefully we come out on top."
125 —  Brady Lowell (Cloud County ) over Tim Westbrook (Colby) (MD 12-3)
133 — Dakota Miller (Cloud County) over Joseph Unruh (Colby) (Fall 1:58)
141 —Bryce Gfeller (Cloud County) over Kollin Wade (Colby) (Dec 6-0)
149 — Cody Wuthnow (Cloud County) win via forfeit
157 — Austin Eldredge (Cloud County) over Dalton Moody (Colby) (Fall 2:55)
165 — Darryl Baldes (Colby) over Noah Aziere (Cloud County) (Dec 5-4)
174 — Kobryn Mann (Cloud County) win via forfeit
184 — Matthew Cruickshank (Cloud County) win via forfeit
197 — Sean Jackson (Colby) win via forfeit
285 — Benny Hernandez (Cloud County) win via forfeit