By Marisa Dawson
Photos By Tisa Kreikemeier
Bennington High School’s wrestling programs, both girls’ and boys’, showcased strong performances last week, with standout individual efforts and team successes across multiple events.
Girls’ Wrestling Highlights
Under head coach Craig Pokorny, the Bennington girls’ team competed in a challenging triangular and a competitive invitational, demonstrating resilience despite injuries.
At the Millard South / Millard West Triangular, Bennington faced tough opponents in Class A competition. The team fell to Millard West 54-21 and to top-ranked Millard South 66-18. Pokorny noted the matchup difficulties due to lineup changes from injuries compared to an earlier meeting at the Fracas. He praised the squad’s effort, highlighting a key upset: “In the premier match of our duals, Mia Anderson defeated Millard South’s #3 ranked (at 115) Ella Casey by pin.”
The team then traveled to the Schuyler Invite, a 24-team event with strong brackets. Bennington finished 10th with 86.5 points, an improvement over past performances at the tournament, despite being without five starters due to injuries. Pokorny called it “a good indicator of where our team is at 3 weeks out from districts.”
Individual medalists included:
– Mia Anderson – 1st place
– Addi Shippen – 3rd place
– Maren McIlnay – 4th place
– Katelynn Kinsella – 6th place
Pokorny detailed standout performances. Katelynn Kinsella opened with a pin over Ralston’s A#9 ranked wrestler, then won two more matches for her medal in a bracket with four rated girls, showcasing “solid technique and sticking to a move and working through her opponents defense.”
Maren McIlnay, seeding #6 and giving up nearly 10 pounds in a lower weight class, upset the #3 and #4 seeds en route to 4th. Pokorny said, “Maren is starting to turn the corner that we normally see toward the end of a high school wrestler’s second season. I’m excited to see her continue to improve and compete at the level we believe she has the ability to.”
Addi Shippen went 5-1 for 3rd, including a win over a ranked Blair opponent. Pokorny added, “Addi is really starting to find her groove now that she is in a weight class more her size. She continues to refine her technique based on our feedback, which is always great to see as a coach.”
Mia Anderson dominated the toughest bracket, featuring six ranked wrestlers at 110 pounds with the highest average ranking. She pinned the B#4 in 22 seconds in the semifinals and, in the finals, pinned returning state champion Darling from Yutan in under a minute—a matchup highly anticipated all season. Pokorny believed this should have earned her Outstanding Wrestler honors: “I felt should have solidified her as the Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament. Unfortunately, I believe Mia’s utter dominance leads to many forgetting about the strength of her bracket and opponents when voting for the OW.”
Pokorny concluded, “Overall, I continue to be pleased with how hard all of our girls are wrestling. We were down 5 starters at Schuyler due to injuries, but even with all of those teammates out, our girls continued to battle and fight. As a team we finished higher as a team than we have at this tournament in the past.”
The girls’ team next faces a quad with Omaha Westview, Omaha North, and Papillion-LaVista South later today, followed by the Louisville Invite on Friday and Weeping Water Invite on Saturday.
Boys’ Wrestling Highlights
Led by head coach Alan Pokorny, the Bennington boys’ team posted impressive dual wins and captured a tournament title.
In duals, Bennington defeated Syracuse 50-16 on January 13th in a matchup of top-10 Class B teams. Two days later, they topped Class A Norfolk 42-19 in a lively atmosphere with a large crowd and energetic student section.
At the Schuyler Invitational on January 17th, Bennington won the team title with 213 points, outdistancing runner-up Scottsbluff (178) by 35 points—despite missing five starters and having two open weights. Pokorny called it “a great effort to win the championship by 35 points over the #4 team in class B, Scottsbluff. Even more impressive is that we were short handed with 5 of our starters out and 2 open weights.”
Champions included Elijah McCrery, Brodee Scobee, Brayden Kreikemeier, and Ty Bouaphakeo. Third-place finishers were Finn Williams, Kellen Mann, and Ty Thomsen. Fourth went to Ethan Clackum and Dominic Gillett, with Knox Naughton taking fifth.
Pokorny highlighted key performances:
– Elijah McCrery won his weight class, defeating the #5 state-ranked wrestler in the final. Up 12-2, he gave up points to force overtime but secured the winning takedown: “Elijah dominated for most of the match and was up 12-2 before giving up a takedown and back points to send it into overtime. Elijah gets the takedown in overtime for the win.”
– Ty Bouaphakeo pinned his first three opponents in under a minute each, then pinned the #4 ranked wrestler in the finals.
– Brodee Scobee pinned his opener quickly, earned technical falls (including over the #5 ranked), and won the title 20-7 major decision over the #3 ranked.
– Brayden Kreikemeier won a tough bracket, beating a returning state runner-up in the semis and the #3 ranked in Class C in the finals.
Both programs continue to build momentum heading into the postseason.
Photo above courtesy of Tina Pacelli Williams
