KEARNEY, Neb. – Unattached wrestler and Rapid City freshman
Aidan Callahan won the Amateur division 149-pound bracket at the Younes Hospitality Open Saturday, leading two Eagle placers among a squad of mostly reserves competing at the open hosted by Nebraska-Kearney.
The annual large-scale tournament featured brackets in 10 weight classes across three divisions – "Elite," "Intermediate" and "Amateur." A total of 13 Eagles participated on Saturday, with one competing in the Elite divisions, four at Intermediate and eight at Amateur.
Alongside Callahan, CSC's other placer was junior
Wyatt McDermott, who took home fourth place in the Intermediate 149-pound bracket and finished 5-2 on the day. McDermott, a junior, transferred to CSC this year from Western Wyoming College.
Other successful CSC wrestlers included
Kyle Lewis (2-2, Intermediate 133),
Cyrus Wells (2-2, Intermediate 141),
Drew Janke (2-2, Amateur 133),
Brooks Loosvelt (2-2, Amateur 184), and
Cody Netherton (2-2, Amateur 285).
Freshmen
Zane Cullers (a Chadron High graduate) and
Logan Soileau each went 1-2 in the Amateur division at 165 pounds.
Caleb Nadig,
Skyler Geier-Dodson,
Payne Reilly and
Iverson Mejia all went 0-2.
Nadig, a redshirt junior from Nisland, South Dakota who won the Rocky Mountain Open at 149 pounds last season, was the only Chadron State wrestler on the day to compete in the Elite division. Nadig faced wrestlers from Nebraska-Kearney and Augustana.
Callahan, who attended Rapid City Stevens High School, went a perfect 5-0 in the Amateur 149 bracket. After a first-round bye, Callahan tech falled Barton's Brennen Pfannenstiel 18-2 in the second round and escaped with a third-round 5-4 decision win over Western Wyoming College's Tommy Dalton.
From there, Callahan was dominant, racking up major decision wins in each of the last three rounds. Callahan beat Western Colorado's Matthew Ausel 11-2, Air Force Prep's Colson Hoffman 12-3 and Western Colorado's Celestino Gonzalez 14-4 to wrap up the title.
McDermott matched up against eventual bracket champion Royce Uhrig of Adams State in the first round, falling by major decision (11-2), but stormed through the consolation bracket. McDermott beat a pair of RMAC foes in CSU Pueblo's Preston Holt (Fall 4:46) and Adams State's Travis Vialpando (4-1 dec.), then beat Augustana's Kade Sammons by 8-1 decision.
McDermott won by 17-1 tech fall over Briar Cliff's Trystan Berry, then pinned Midland's Zion Amerson in just over two minutes to advance all the way to the third-place match, where he was bested by another Augustana wrestler, Hudson Loges.
The Eagles will have Thanksgiving week off before a best-on-best December 5 dual showdown with No. 1-ranked Nebraska-Kearney and the prestigious Midwest Classic in Indianapolis on December 13-14.
