It was a big weekend for the South Loup wrestling team, as they qualified four athletes for the Nebraska State Wrestling Championships in Omaha. The quest for a medal for the foursome began on Thursday morning, Feb. 15.

One of the four earned a medal by the end of the tournament, but all four wrestled well.

Junior Dawson Mason started off with a win in the 132-pound division by decision over Logan Spotanski of Arcadia/ Loup City, 5-0. Next, he was matched up against Tanner McLain of Hitchcock County in the quarterfinal, where Mason won by fall just a few seconds into the second period.

However, things did not go his way in the semifinal match on Friday as Mason was pinned by Braxton Siebrandt of Wisner-Pilger with only two seconds left in the match to drop him to the consolation bracket.

Siebrandt went on to win the gold medal.

Mason won his consolation semifinal by major decision over Josue Munoz of Homer, 12-1. That got him into the match to decide the third and fourth-place finishers, and what a match it was. Mason maintained the lead throughout the majority of the match, but in the final moments, Briggs Hill of Arapahoe scored to take the third-place medal, 4-3. Mason finished his season with the Class D fourth-place medal and a record of 45-9.

Sophomore Josiah Coleman has wrestled well all year and has come on particularly strong at the end of the season. He secured a first-round win over Carter Trambly of Franklin by decision, 10-3, but was pinned in his quarterfinal match by Braxtin Fowler of Twin River to move to the consolation bracket.

Coleman was able to get a pin in the round two consolation match over Ryan Ragsdale of Hemingford. In the heartbreak round, Coleman met a wrestler he is very familiar with, Brett Larson of Brady. Though he fought hard throughout the match, Larson secured the pin to move on to the medal round while Coleman saw his season come to a close.

CJ Quandt, a junior, had a couple of tough matches at the state tournament on Thursday. It took overtime, or in wrestling sudden victory, for Xavier Pieper of North Platte St. Patrick`s to get the first-round win over Quandt, 12-10.

In his first-round consolation match, Quandt found himself on the wrong side of a pin by Titus Goshert of Arapahoe to end his season.

Dawson Doggett is one of only two seniors on the Bobcat wrestling team, and the only senior to qualify for the state tournament. In round one Doggett was able to pin Trevor Manka of Maxwell 1:07 into the match to earn his way to the quarterfinal. There he met Samuel Hemenway of Elgin Public/Pope John and lost by decision, 2-0. Doggett fought his way to a win by decision in the second-round consolation match over Wyatt Stieb of Arcadia/Loup City, 4-3, to make his way to the heartbreak round. That is just what he felt, as he ended his season and career with a loss by fall to Jeremy Felix of Alma. Doggett finishes his season with a record of 26-8.