South Loup had six wrestlers travel to the Southern Valley Dual tournament in Oxford on Friday, Dec. 19 to challenge five schools from across the area.

First up was the challenge against the Burwell Longhorns. The Bobcats dropped matches at 106, 113, 138, 150, 175, 190, 215 and 285 by forfeit for lack of challengers. The two forfeits they could force on the Longhorns came at 120 lbs from Noah Hiatt and 144 lbs from Ryan Lords. The contested weights proved to be a struggle against Burwell, with some wrestlers bumping up to get a match. Josiah Coleman moved up to 126, but fell by fall at 1:27 to Brody Jensen. Ben Linden faced Holden Hodges at 132, falling at :20. At 157, Jacob King fell to Kolton Thoene in :44, and Paxton Bierman fell to Trenton Brown at :43 to wrap up the dual. The final score sat at 72-12 in favor of Burwell.

Next up the Bobcats faced the Hi-Line Bulls, and a couple South Loup boys got a little retribution on contested weights there. Josiah Coleman faced Cartar Kelly, and dropped him by tech fall at 3:35, and Paxton Bierman edged out Brecken Hecox by fall at just 1:56 into his match. Dropping their matches by fall were Noah Hiatt at 126, Ben Linden at 132, Ryan Lords at 144 and Jacob King at 157. With the Bulls winning an additional six weights by forfeit, they ended up the victors, 60-11 overall.

Against the Southern Valley Eagles, the Bobcats racked up a few more points against the bigger team, grabbing three forfeits and one pin by Ben Linden for a total of 24 team points. The Eagles outran them on forfeits, with eight total, and then Hayden Lans and Sully Bantam won by fall at 157 and 144 respectively against King and Lords. Southern Valley ultimately won the challenge with 60 points to South Loup’s 24.

The Bobcats wrapped up their duals with their best showing of the night, with wins against Centura (30-12) and Sandhills/Thedford (30-12) to end on a high note.

There were just two challenged weight classes against Centura, with South Loup’s King and Lords besting both of their opponents by fall. The remainder of their points came from four forfeits by Centura. In the Sandhills/Thedford matchup, Bierman bested Cesar Chavez by fall at 1:36, and Coleman pinned Caleb Clark at 1:59. The Bobcats’ Hiatt was the only loss of the bout, dropping his match at 126 lbs by fall to Mason Sutton at 3:52. The remaining Bobcats collected forfeits to seal the victory over the Knights.

South Loup wrestling will have a break over Christmas, with a sports moratorium in place until after the first of the year. Their next tournament is set for Jan. 6, a triangular hosted by the Sandhills/Thedford Knights in Dunning. Matches will get underway at 5:30 p.m.