Barton pins dual loss on T-Birds

GREAT BEND — The No. 15 Cloud County Community College wrestling team lost its first Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference (KJCCC) dual of the season Wednesday, falling 35-14 on the road to No. 22 Barton Community College.
Cloud County, down four of its usual starters, picked up three wins on the evening in what head coach Cody Cole said was a mixed bag of a KJCCC opener for the T-Birds.
"I think if you look at how we wrestled, it wasn't the Cloud County way," Cole said. "We came out really flat. We definitely had some bright spots from some guys, but overall I think — even though we have some guys out of the lineup right now running through a bit of the flu season — it goes back to the buy-in and making sure we're doing everything right. Right now our technique is just a little sloppy and we need to clean that up. This wasn't what we were looking for in our first Jayhawk dual."
The T-Birds received wins at 149-pounds by redshirt freshman Austin Eldredge, wrestling in his first dual of the spring semester, sophomore Cameron Young-Leggett at 184-pounds and freshman Matthew Cruickshank (197) wrestling up from 174.
Eldredge pinned Barton's Kolby Droegemeier in a fall time of 3:38, while Young edged out a tight 4-3 decision win over Joey Ewalt and Cruickshank pinned Kendell Johnson in 6:41.
"It was great to see Austin get back on the mat and pin his opponent in his first match of the semester. Cameron had a very nice win and Matt stepped up for us wrestling at 197 pounds and getting a pin there," Cole said. "Those three guys were able to take care of business."
While the loss was disappointing, Cole said he is positive there is enough talent up and down the Cloud County roster to right the ship and still challenge for the inaugural KJCCC team championship.
"We're going to need a little help from some other teams now, it's always easier when you just win out, but it's definitely possible for us to still contend for the conference dual championship," Cole said. "Barton is a pretty good squad. I just think we're a better team than what we showed (Wednesday). But I think we can still make a pretty big impact."
Cloud County has individual duals still left against KJCCC foes on January 23 at home against Colby and on the road against Northwest Kansas Technical College on January 30 before all the teams meet for the Jayhawk Duals in Pratt on February 2-3.
But before then, the T-Birds will turn their attention toward a talented field they'll match up against this Friday at the Midwest Duals. Action gets underway at 9 a.m. in Kearney, Nebraska.
"Friday is going to be key. We're going to wrestle Northeastern Junior College, their ranked No. 8 in the country. We'll get to see No. 7 Iowa Western again and North Iowa Area Community College," Cole said. "Those are three pretty solid opponents there and, regardless of our lineup, I think everyone on this team is definitely capable of wrestling at a high level. We just have to decide when we're going to wrestle the Cloud County way."