Juan Perez brings home fourth place medal from Omaha

The State Wrestling Tourney

wrapped up Saturday Feb.

17. Perkins County took two

wrestlers, senior Mason Toner

at 144 pounds and senior Juan

Perez at heavyweight.

Toner struggled in his opening

match Thursday against

Kegan Payne of Neligh-Oakdale,

unable to get any offense

going. Payne won the match

with a 5-0 decision, sending

Toner into the consolation

rounds.

Friday afternoon, Toner

faced sophomore Cort Buss of

Burwell. In a close match, Buss

took a 5-3 decision over Toner

to end Toner’s tournament.

Perez , 29-5, had a great day

Thursday, pinning Paul Fehlhafer

of Centennial in 2:41 to

advance to the quarterfi nals.

Perez faced Zeb Wilde, D3

Champion from Sandhills/

Thedford, in the quarterfi nal

match. Perez toughed out a

6-4 decision to advance into

the semifi nals where he would

face the number one seeded

Collin Vrbka of Shelby-Rising

City with a 48-2 record.

Vrbka had his hands full Friday

evening, but squeeked out

a 1-0 decision over Perez. Vrb-

Sports

Juan Perez brings home fourth place medal from Omaha

ka went on to win the title over

second seeded Josiah Brezina,

41-6 of Aquinas Catholic, with

a 6-4 decision Saturday.

Perez fell into the medal

rounds on Saturday morning

where he won his fi rst match

over Aiden Gubbels of Randolph

by decision, 6-2.

In the third place match,

Perez got caught by sophomore

Kyan Sones, 48-4 of Meridian

and was pinned in 1:43 to take

the fourth place medal.

Aquinas Catholic won the

team title in Class D with a

score of 118.5. Perkins County

tied for 43rd with Arcadia/

Loup City with 14 points.