Strong individual efforts highlight Sidney's day of duals

In five dual meets at Ogallala on Saturday the Raiders finished with a record of 2-3.

Sidney opened their day with a 54-24 defeat of Hershey and later topped Chase County 57-12. In three other matches the Raiders fell short, against Bayard (37-30), Wray (48-30) and Gothenburg (42-36).

"I'm disappointed with the overall results," said Raiders Head Coach John Ganser. "We have to learn how to fight harder and some still have to learn interdependency. We let the Bayard and Gothenburg matches get away from us."

Wrestling in the 113 lbs. class Sidney's Jack Fedderson had a good day, winning three contested matches. His day began when he pinned Hershey's Makayla Brown in 3:39. Against Wray's Michael Flores he won 7-2. His toughest test of the meet was against Adam Burpo of Gothenburg, who put Fedderson in a 5-0 hole early. Fedderson was almost pinned in the first period.

"I just knew I needed to take him down after I fell behind," Fedderson said after his match with Burpo. "I was having a good day and I didn't want to have it ruined now."

With about 15 seconds left in regulation Fedderson held a 7-6 lead when he was assesed a one-point penalty for clasping hands. Though the penalty sent the match into sudden-death overtime, Fedderson earned a quick two points to end it.

Michael Muggli also put in a strong performance by winning all of his matches. The state qualifier from last season rebounded from what he considered a disappointing day at Thursday's Western Trails Tournament when he finished third at 145 lbs. On Saturday Muggli was never in any serious trouble as he pinned four opponents and earned a forfeit in another.

"I was kind of down after Thursday," Muggli said. "I spent some time working on my stance and a few little things and today I felt a lot more confident."

During the Duel with Chase County Muggli was expecting a forfeit but instead found out only moments before that he had a match. Five minutes after the match began with Bryson Fisher, it ended with another Muggli pin.

"He bumped up from 138 so I wasn't expecting to wrestle. I wasn't even stretched out or warmed up," said Muggli.

At 160 lbs. Brody McKnight split his two matches and won a forfiet in another. Earlier Ryan Wooley, who won his first match at 160 lbs., suffered a possible concussion against Jonas Cure of Wray. Wooley was forced to retire from the match just 1:33 in.

As for McKnight, he was nearly pinned in the opening moments of his match with Khristofer Kuhlmann of Chase County. But 2:42 into the battle, McKnight reversed fortunes on Kuhlmann and won by a fall.

"I could hear the guys yelling don't get pinned because that would give (Chase County) six points," McKnight said. "When I got to the second period I knew he was pretty gassed. He got me in a wizard then when he flared his arm I got him into a half nelson and that led to the pin."

In the Raiders opening duel with Hershey, Fedderson was joined by Austin Storbeck (126), Wooley (160), Brenton Christian (170) and Brandon Lulf (182) who all won their matches. Several other wins came by forfeit.

In the narrow loss to Bayard, Muggli (145) and Lukias Higer (152) were the only Raiders who were able to win a contested match. Fedderson dropped down to 106 for his win over Wray's Flores in the Raiders third duel of the day. Muggli and Kane Taylor (195) also won their matches against Wray.

Muggli, McKnight and Fedderson won their matches against Chase County while Muggli, Taylor and Jake Heeren (220) came out on top against Gothenburg.

The Sidney grapplers face their next test on Saturday at Chase County. The first match is scheduled for 9 a.m.