Northwest College

News Archive (2019-20 and older)

Wrestling Hosts NWC Open

Tournament Sees Some Repeat Matchups

Nine wrestlers placed in the top four across eight of the 10 weight classes, and Northwest placed second overall as a team at the NWC Open on Saturday.

Both Heber Shepherd at 184 pounds and Jeffrey Oakes at 197 pounds took first. 

Coming in at second place were Riley Loveless wrestling in the 141 pound weight class, Garrett Wood at 149 pounds and Reece Prosser at 174 pounds 

Placing third were Matthew Barfuss at 125 pounds and William Kishpaugh at 197 pounds. 

Fourth place finishers were were Justin Polkowske at 157 pounds and Andrew VonRein at 165 pounds. 

The four teams who competed in the tournament were Air Force Prep, University of Wyoming, Western Wyoming Community College and Northwest College.

As a team, UW took first with 119.5 points. Northwest barely beat Western for second place with 75.5 points to 74 points. Air Force came in fourth with 42.5 points. 

Shepherd scored 14 points for Northwest. He had a bye his first round then won by fall over Jay Westcott from Western at 2:45 in the semifinals. In the finals, Shepherd faced off against Shane French of Western and won by a 3-2 decision to take first place in the 184-pound weight class. 

Thirteen team points were scored in the 197-pound weight class by Oakes. In the semifinal matchup, Oakes won by fall at 2:15 over Cole Phelps of Air Force. Then in the finals Oakes won by a 4-2 decision over Aspen Naylor from Western. 

This was the third encounter between Oakes and Naylor with Oakes being victorious two of the three times. 

In the other semifinal matchup for the 197-pound weight class, Naylor pinned Kishpaugh at 4:54. 

Naylor has now pinned Kishpaugh in both their match-ups with the first pin coming at 3:37. 

Kishpaugh took third place winning by technical fall over Phelps from Air Force to get 5.5 points for NWC. 

Loveless finished second overall at 141 pounds with 11 team points. 

In quarterfinals, Loveless won by a 7-0 decision overMario Kastl of Air Force and pinned his opponent in the semifinals. Loveless now has a 2-0 record over Kastl. 

For the finals match, Ben Hornickle of Wyoming won by a 8-3 decision. 

At the 149-pound weight class, Wood scored 12 team points and placed second overall. 

Ky Webb of Western and Wood met up in the quarterfinals. This was the second matchup between these two this season and both times Wood pinned Webb. 

In the semifinals, Wood faced off against Samuel Freeman of Western for the second time this season. Wood won this time by a 15-9 decision. A week ago at the dual between Western and Northwest, Freeman had beaten Wood by a 10-5 decision. 

Wood was pinned in the finals by Jake Elliott of Wyoming at 6:20.

Also placing second place was Prosser at 174 pounds after losing to Matt Hebel of Western by a 6-3 decision. 

Coming in third place was Barfuss at 125 pounds and scoring six team points.

In the first round, Barfuss pinned his opponent. In his next round he was pinned by Tony DeCesare of Air Force. DeCesare is now 2-0 over Barfuss for the season. 

Barfuss then lost to Mark McConnell of Wyoming by major decision 13-4. McConnell and Barfuss are 1-1 for the season. 

Polkowske scored 6.5 team points and placed fourth overall at 157 pounds. 

After receiving a first round bye, Polkowske pinned his Air Force opponent at 1:02. In the quarterfinals, Ryan Winger of Western would win by a 3-2 decision. 

The loss to Winger put Polkowske in the consolation semifinal match against fellow teammate Nic Urbach who wrestled unattached. 

Polkowske won by a 13-11 decision. 

Polkowske then lost to Parker Simington from Air Force by a 2-1 decision to take fourth place.

Also placing fourth was Von- Rein getting 3.5 team points. 

VonRein won by a 4-2 decision in the quarterfinals, and then lost by a 8-6 decision in the semis to Lucas Livvorn of Wyoming. 

That loss put VonRein against Marco Frias of Western for the second time this season in the consolation semifinal. VonRein beat Frias again with a 8-6 decision, having beat him last week also by decision. 

In the third place match, VonRein and Tate Allison had a DFF result, giving them both a fourth place finish. 

The NWC wrestling team is off this weekend for the Thanksgiving holiday. The next competition will take place the first weekend of December in Great Falls, Montana, for the Battle of the Rockies Dual on Dec. 2 and the University of Great Falls Open on Dec. 3. 

NORTHWEST WRESTLING
Individual overall records
Matthew Barfuss 125 lb. 2-1-0
Riley Loveless 141 lb. 3-0-0
Garrett Wood 149 lb. 2-1-1
Nic Urbach 157 lb. 1-2-2
Justin Polkowske 157 lb. 2-2-1
Cameron Braden 157 lb. 1-2-1
Thomas Painter 165 lb. 0-2-0
Andrew VonRein 165 lb. 2-2-0
Reece Prosser 174 lb. 0-1-0
Herber Shepherd 184 lb. 2-0-1
Jeffrey Oakes 197 lb. 2-0-0
William Kishpaugh 197 lb. 1-1-0
*wins-losses-byes