Ortiz Makes Championship Round

RICK PECK/SPECIAL TO MCDONALD COUNTY PRESS McDonald County's Lane Pointer nearly has Carthage's Brener Ocana pinned in their 285-pound match at a dual on Jan. 25 at Carthage High School. Ocana was able to stave off the near pin and came back to pin Pointer in the final minute of the match.
RICK PECK/SPECIAL TO MCDONALD COUNTY PRESS McDonald County's Lane Pointer nearly has Carthage's Brener Ocana pinned in their 285-pound match at a dual on Jan. 25 at Carthage High School. Ocana was able to stave off the near pin and came back to pin Pointer in the final minute of the match.

A second place by Oscar Ortiz (113) and a third place by Jakob Gerow (120) led the McDonald County High School wrestling team at the 2018 George Hoover Invitational held on Jan. 26-27 at Liberty High School in Liberty.

Ortiz was the lone Mustang to make it to the championship match, where he faced James Freitag of Kearney High School.

In an evenly matched contest, Freitag scored the only point of the match with an escape to claim a 1-0 decision.

Ortiz improved to 32-4 on the season with a 4-1 record in the tournament. The sophomore went 2-0 in pool matches before winning by pin in the quarterfinals and claiming a 3-1 decision over Brayden Bradley of Belton.

Gerow suffered only his third loss of the season, against 35 wins, in the semifinals when he dropped a 7-2 decision to Maxx Mayfield of Lincoln (Neb.) East High School. The senior won his only pool match by pin before claiming his quarterfinal match by pin in 13 seconds. Gerow took third place with a win by medical default.

Christian Davidson (106) had the Mustangs' next best finish. Davidson went 2-0 in pool matches and won by a pin in the quarterfinals before dropping his semifinal and third-place matches.

Rounding out the results for the Mustangs were Keagon Spurgeon, 10th, 126; Adrian Ocampo, 12th, 138; Jack Teague, sixth, 145; Timber Teague, eighth, 170; Wilson Menas, 11th, 182; Jesus Ocampo, 12th, 195; Jarred Maggard, 10th, 220; and Lane Pointer, sixth, 285.

Lincoln East won the team title with 315 points. Kearney was second with 301, and McDonald County was eighth in the 14-team tournament with 153.5 points.

McDonald County is at Carl Junction on Feb. 1 for a dual before returning to Carl Junction on Feb. 9-10 for districts.

Carthage

Carthage claimed a 53-18 win on Jan. 25 at Carthage High School.

Picking up wins for McDonald County were Gerow (3-1 decision), Jack Teague (pin), Maggard (forfeit) and Ortiz (12-2 decision).

Marshfield

Marshfield defeated McDonald County 53-30 in a double dual on Jan. 25 at Carthage High School.

Claiming wins for the Mustangs were Davidson (pin), Ortiz (pin), Gerow (pin), Jack Teague (pin) and Timber Teague (pin).

Sports on 02/01/2018