Weather hinders wrestling tournament

Severe winter weather hindered teams from attending Summit's Eye of the Storm Tournament December 19-20.

Only three of the nine teams made it to the tourney and they opted to compete in dual meets.

The Outlaws lost 60-21 to Summit and 42-17 to La Pine. Coach Jeff Smith told The Nugget that injuries and holiday vacation plans reduced Sisters to filling only seven of the 14 weight classes. Short squads sealed the Outlaws' doom.

Kody Johns was the lone Outlaw to win both of his matches. Johns defeated Spencer Wilson of La Pine 8-0 and TJ Peay of Summit by a fall. Just one week earlier, Johns had struggled to earn a 5-4 victory over Wilson.

Dylan McKenzie (152 pounds) and Thomas Schantz both scored one hard-fought victory and scored another by forfeit. McKenzie defeated Sean Seifiedt of Summit in a final score of 2-1 and received a forfeit from Summit. Schantz scored an 8-6 victory over Reede Griebel of La Pine and also received a forfeit from Summit.

Nick Head defeated Taylor Stroud with a fall in his first match of the day but then was forced to forfeit.

Smith said, "Nick was forced to injury default when he injured his elbow in his match with Summit's standout 140-pound wrestler, Mitch Reuth."

John Connolly scored a fall against Yegor Moisenko of Summit but later was pinned by Tyler Stahlnecker, one of La Pine's top wrestlers.

Smith summarized the day.

"We won half of the matches wrestled today, but forfeits cost us in the team scoring. When we get healthy and we're back from vacations, we'll fill most weight, so we'll be more competitive."

The Outlaws will be back on the mat on January 3; they will travel to Madras for the 30th annual Nels Ochs Tournament.