Three Jimmie wrestlers place, earn trip to nationals

Michael Nord’s dominant sophomore season continued on Saturday.

Nord steamrolled to the 165-pound championship at the North Region Qualifier on Saturday to lead Jamestown College to a sixth-place team finish, one spot better than last season.

Nord, who improved to 27-4 on the season, opened with a pair of pins and then capped his 4-0 day with a 12-1 major decision over Morningside’s Chad Morehead in the title tilt.

Nord, a four-time state champion for Lisbon by way of Enderlin, will be a top four seed at the national meet March 1-2 in Des Moines, Iowa.

Nord was one of three Jimmies to earn a trip to nationals

Sean Blumhardt at 125 and standout freshman Dillon Kifer at 141 were the others.

The Jimmies finished with 78 points in the 12-team meet. Dickinson State had the winning total with 153.5. Morningside (137) was second and host Midland (123.5) was third.

Blumhardt, a senior from Ellendale, won three of his four matches and beat Aspen Kmiec of Midland 8-6 in the third-place match for his 13th win in 19 matches.

Kifer did not lose a contested match. He posted wins 21, 22 and 23 at 141 in dominant fashion with pins in the opening two rounds. After a 7-0 semifinal win over Nathan Manfull, Kifer injury defaulted to Dickinson State’s Brad Steele in final.

Jaykob Miller and Antonio Lopez just missed qualifying.

Both had busy six-match days and identical 3-3 records.

Two of Lopez’s wins came by fall at heavyweight as he earned 10 points on the day. Miller totaled eight at 157 with one fall.

Senior Marlon Branson started fast, winning his opening two matches, but dropped three straight from there at 174.

Coby Horner got two wins, one a major, at 133 as part of a 2-2 showing.

Jevon Schnaubert (149) and Johnathon Gonzalez (165) each went 1-2.

Tags: sports, wrestling, jimmies