By RON PRESTON

Reflector-Chronicle

JUNCTION CITY – In the end, it was the youth and inexperience of the Abilene wrestling team that lead to the loss to a senior laden and state ranked 6A squad in the dual match Thursday evening.

Junction City trotted out eight seniors to grapple against a group of predominately sophomores for Coach James Stout’s Cowboys.

Junction City, currently ranked second in the state of Kansas in class 6A with seven of their wrestlers ranked in the top 10 in the state of their respective weight class, won the dual 39–29.

“We are really, really young and inexperienced,” coach Stout said after the match with Junction City. “They are not just an average team –– they are a superb team –– best team I have seen from top to bottom in all weight classes,” Stout added.

“It was a great match. We gave them our best shot. I was especially pleased with Zane Bough at 113 and Jr. Morgan at 120. But I think one of the best matches came from Caysen Smith at 126, who won over Jake Bazen of Junction City, a match that the result was reversed earlier in the year,” coach Stout said following the final match of the evening.

The evening got off to a good start for the Cowboys as Logan McDowell picked up a forfeit win followed by Bough’s win by fall over Dylan Collette of Junction City. Then Morgan had a major decision win over Kevin Perez of the Blue Jays followed by Smith’s win and another major decision victory by Seth Strauss over Jay Ruiz. Strauss is just a sophomore and outwrestled his senior opponent for his 21st win of the season.

The other victories for the Cowboys came from Jacob Hagedorn who won a major decision in the 160 weight class, and Nick Ward who defeated Micah Felton 4-0 in the 170 weight class for the last win for the Cowboys.

The youth and inexperience showed in the last four matches as Junction City won them all by pins.

“I thought our best shot at the team score was to bump some weight classes – don’t know that I have ever bumped from 152 weight class to a 220 weight before. It was a strategic move and turned out to be a good one overall.“

“Again, we are really young and we have got to continue to do better, which we are. We wrestle today and get up tomorrow and continue to work to get better each and every day.” Stout added at the end of the evening.

Abilene will wrestle next again on Jan. 17 at Concordia in an NCKL event starting at 7 PM.

Team Score:

Junction City 39 – Abilene 29

Individual weights:

103 – Logan McDowell won by forfeit

113 – Zane Bough won by a pin over Dylan Collette

120 – Jr. Morgan won by major decision 9-1 over Kevin Perez

126 – Caysen Smith won 3 – 1 over Jake Bazan

132 – Seth Strauss won by a major decision 13 – 4 over Jay Ruiz

138 – Blake Anguiano lost 6 – 3 to Ezio Voeghtly

145 – J. T. Brantley loss by pin to Andrew Millsap

152 – Alex Henley loss by pin to Jeryl Denton

160 – Jacob Hagedorn won by major decision 15 – 9 over Johnathan Feaster

170 – Nick Ward won 4 – 0 over Micah Felton

182 – Blaise Lehman loss by pin to Jaylan Padilla

195 – Alex Madaes loss by pin to James Denton

220 – Jaron Dillon loss by pin to Tyrig Herbin

285 – Johnathan Todd loss by pin to Aaron Raflko

Junior Varsity

126 Rein A won by decision over Gray 12-9

126 Rosalez A won by forfeit Warren

132 Kreuger J won by major decision overHiatt 9-1

132 Woofter A won by decision over Copsetta 20-13

145 McClanahan A won by forfeit over Zimmerman

145 McClanahan A won by technical fall over McCready 15-0

152 Degzman J won by decision over Wilson 7-2

152 McCall J won by major decision over Bender 11-2

170 Hook J won by fall over Holt

170 Stoneberger A won by fall over O'Brian