By Marisa Dawson, Photo courtesy of Tisa Kreikemeier
Bennington High School’s wrestling programs showcased resilience and talent over the recent weekend, with the girls advancing key qualifiers from districts and the boys securing a strong runner-up finish at the NSAA State Dual Wrestling Championships on February 7.
In the girls’ NSAA Class A2 District tournament held February 7th, Bennington placed ninth overall with 64.0 team points amid significant adversity. Coach Craig Pokorny highlighted the team’s challenges: “Coming into the tournament, our team was suffering from a number of injuries and illnesses. Last month we lost five varsity wrestlers to season ending injuries. At the time of their injuries, I felt that both Jenisha Sasankhar and Katie Kos were wrestling at a state medalist level. We also had a number of injuries that the girls wrestling in districts were dealing with, including Sophia Crumly, a 4th place state medalist last year. I’ve never seen a team so impacted by major injuries as this year. On top of that, we’ve had illnesses running through our wrestlers that kept a number of wrestlers out this week.”
Despite these setbacks, two Bennington wrestlers earned state berths as medalists and qualifiers. Mia Anderson claimed first place with dominant performances: “Mia won her district bracket the way she has all year, with two first period pins (and a medical forfeit). With her performance thus far this year, Mia has earned the #1 overall seed in her bracket for the state tournament.” Maren McIlnay finished second in a competitive bracket: “Maren’s district bracket was very tough with 5 rated girls, including herself, so at least 1 rated girl would not qualify for state. Maren picked up 3 hard fought wins on her way to the finals. She wrestled the #3 rated girl in the finals, and gave a good battle early, including having the girl on her back, but eventually finished runner-up.”
Coach Pokorny reflected on the mixed emotions heading into the state individual tournament: “Reflecting on districts, going into state, I’m both excited for our qualifiers, and heartbroken for the girls that did not qualify. We will focus the next 7 practices on preparing for State and fully evaluate the entire season in the week or two following, after all of the emotions have subsided.” The girls’ state tournament is scheduled for next Tuesday and Wednesday at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, with no competitions taking place this week.
On the boys’ side, Bennington competed in the NSAA State Dual Wrestling Championships in Kearney on February 7, finishing as Class B state runner-up after a 25-50 loss to Omaha Skutt Catholic in the finals. The team opened with a 42-27 victory over Beatrice in the first round. Coach Alan Pokorny noted the matchup challenges and strategic adjustments: “Going into this dual, Beatrice was ranked #3 in the team rankings but was seeded 7th because of the wild card point system. This was also a tough match up for us when you break it down to the individual match ups. We had to move some guys around to maximize our points. With a little scouting and watching video of our key matches we were able to go in with a game plan for some of our guys. That really paid off as we won the two key toss up matches at 157 and 285 with bonus points. This was a real team win as we had guys move up to wrestle tougher matches, and some did not wrestle the opponent they wanted to. They all did it with a positive attitude and it paid off with a team win.”
In the semifinals, Bennington edged York 40-28 to advance. Coach Pokorny acknowledged a near letdown: “We dualed York earlier in the season and won that one 55-13, so we may have overlooked these guys a little bit. We did not wrestle our best and after taking a 26-7 lead York came back to take a two-point lead before we finished with 3 straight wins. The big win was Mason Mostek avenging an early season loss with a pin to seal the dual win and send us to the State Championship dual.”
In the championship dual against Skutt Catholic, the team fell short despite the effort: “Going into this dual, we knew that we had to wrestle perfectly and get a couple upsets to win the dual. Unfortunately, the dual went almost as expected with no upsets for us and we lost one that we expected. That match we were expecting to win but lost, we had a wrestler dealing with an illness for a few days and could not compete at the level he is used to.”
Coach Pokorny praised the team’s grit amid ongoing issues: “As a team we had some challenges to overcome going into the tournament. We had a key individual out with an injury and multiple wrestlers sick the past week including going into the tournament. That is why there were some changes to our line up that may have seemed peculiar to the outside world. We were trying to patch together the best line up we could considering our situation. To top things off, we had a tough first round draw. I was very proud of how we started off with the first dual win, how we wrestled, and how the kids made sacrifices to help the team win. I was also proud of how our kids overcame adversity and still were able to win the duals we were expecting. A State Runner-Up finish is not the goal we set but still a great accomplishment for our team and something a lot of other teams wish they had.”
Four Bennington wrestlers went undefeated across the tournament: Brodee Scobee (3-0), Brayden Kreikemeier (3-0), Ty Thomsen (3-0), and Mason Mostek (3-0). The runner-up finish marks a notable achievement for the Bennington boys’ program in a competitive Class B field.
