Owls take fourth, Cardinals eighth at Ellsworth

By Michael Buhler TSnews

The Cheney Cardinals and Garden Plain Owls both had several wrestlers perform well at the 49th Ellsworth Wrestling Tournament last weekend. The Owls finished fourth with 70 points, while Cheney came in eighth with 42 1/2 points.

For the Owls, Reed Adelhardt (195 pounds) made his season debut and pinned all five of his opponents to win a title, while Gage Lee (160) and Francis Stuhlsatz (152) each finished second and John Stuhlsatz (182) placed third. Josiah Nowak (126 pounds) and Thane Stuhlsatz (170) both finished fifth.

“We saw some good competition and wrestled really well as a team and it was great to see us place where we did,” Garden Plain coach Joseph Gassmann said. “Reed looked good and wrestled hard for his first tournament of the year. John, Francis and Gage all wrestled some tough matches and wrestled well and saw what we need to improve on going forward.”

For the Cardinals, Jenson Hoeme (132 pounds) finished second,while Parker McClellan (126) finished third, Josiah Elder (160) placed fourth, Tred Grusing (138) finished fifth and the duo of Grady Kuehn (170) and Peyton Becker (285) each finished sixth.

“Ellsworth was a great tournament,” Cheney coach Than Underwood said. “We got to see kids from different parts of the state that we don’t regularly wrestle. Jenson Hoeme finished a strong second at 132 and wrestled a very tough kid in the finals from Hoisington, but came up short. Parker McClellam was in what was definitely the toughest bracket of the day at 126. He did beat a top-ranked wrestler and finished the day with a solid third. He continues to impress me. Josiah Elder and Tred Gruising had good tournaments as well.” Cheney and Garden Plain both will compete at Halstead Friday and Saturday.