Three Jays advance to semis

Jamestown High School’s “Tenacious 10” made its presence felt during the opening round of the state Class A individual wrestling tournament at the Bismarck Civic Center on Thursday.

The Blue Jays advanced three of those athletes into today’s semifinals, while the remaining seven are still alive and will be coming through the wrestlebacks today to try to make it to the podium.

Overall, Jamestown currently sits in a seventh-place tie with Grand Forks Red River with 39 points in the individual team standings. A total of 18 Class A teams are competing in the individual tournament.

“We had a very good day, and we’re happy with the way we ended up,” JHS coach Greg White said. “We came into this tournament and mentioned we’d like to be in the top 10. There’s two days of wrestling left. Anything can happen, but we’ll look to stay where we are.”

Jamestown’s Zane Braun (152 pounds), Jaden Horsted (120) and Eathan Gumke (170) all went a perfect two-for-two on Day 1 to make it into the semifinals. Braun, a junior seeded fifth, picked up a pair of pins over Devils Lake’s Tommy Good (1:27) and No. 4-seeded Michael Lehmann (2:43) of Wahpeton, and will now face No. 1-seeded Eddie Maisey of Williston for a shot at the 152-pound title.

“He’s faced Maisey twice and lost twice, but they’ve been close and it’s our turn now,” White said. “Zane is the type of guy that nobody wants to wrestle. He’s a tough matchup.”

Both seeded No. 4, Gumke and Horsted are sitting where they were predicted to be. Gumke pinned Turtle Mountain’s Waylon Decoteau (3:07) and notched a nail-biting 4-3 decision over Century’s Tommy Moravec in the quarterfinals.

“That match went down to the last 15 seconds, but there was a huge amount of wrestling in that 15 seconds,” White said. “Gumke was down by one with 10 seconds to go and he scored a reversal right at the end.”

Gumke will face No. 1 seeded Kip Jangula in today’s semifinals.

Horsted pinned John Windsor (2:30) of St. Mary’s and scored a 10-3 decision over Bismarck’s Lane Kaseman in the quarterfinals. He’ll take on No. 1-seeded Trevor Kringlie in the semis.

“They came out really aggressive and wrestled well, but they are all the underdogs on paper now,” White said. “But that’s why you wrestle. Anything can happen.”

Jamestown’s Nate Purcell (220), Ryan Hillerud (138) and Paxton Mewes (106) all need one victory today to place in the top eight after going 1-1 on opening day.

No. 8-seeded Mews picked up a pin over Williston’s Hayden Rossol to start the day, but came up just short against No. 1-seeded Tom Walton of Fargo North in the quarterfinals, 7-6. Hillerud won by a medical forfeit in the first round, before being pinned by Bismarck’s Ryan Blees (3:21).

Jamestown’s Mark Reynolds (285), Reece Waldie (182), Pat Lane (195) and Mitch Ova (132) all need two victories today to place, after all four lost their opening match on Thursday.

White explained that if the Jays can mirror their opening-round output today, a top 10 team finish should be well in reach.

“If we can continue to wrestle the way we did today, yes,” White said. “But you can’t let down. There’s 18 teams here.”

Class A Individual Wrestling Tournament

At Bismarck Civic Center

Thursday’s team results

1, West Fargo 102; 2, Bismarck 75; 3, Turtle Mountain 59; 4, Williston 57; 5, Minot 51.5; 6, Bismarck Century 47; 7 (tie) Jamestown 39; Grand Forks Red River 39; 9, Fargo South 35; 10, Valley City 34; 11, Grand Forks Central 31; 12, Fargo Davies 30; 13, Fargo North 29; 14, Dickinson 26.5; 15, Mandan 23; 16, Wahpeton 10.5; 17, Bismarck St. Mary’s 7.5; 18, Devils Lake 6.0.

Sun sports writer Michael Savaloja can be reached at (701) 952-8461 or by email at mikes@jamestownsun.com

Tags: sports, jays, wrestling