A senior sealed the deal on Senior Night at Blair High School.
Bears 215-pounder Michael Buckley pinned Millard West's Xavier Bruno in 48 seconds Thursday, pushing his wrestling team's dual lead past the point the Wildcats could come back from. Once the visiting team opted to forfeit the heavyweight bout, coach Erich Warner's squad celebrated a 42-29 win.
“We have a lot of strong guys,” senior Hudson Loges said of his class. “They have a lot of grit.”
Due to injury, just four of the Bears' 11 seniors wrestled varsity matches against Millard West. Four more took the mat during pre-dual junior varsity matches.
“That's the whole reason we won tonight. It's because of all of the guys that didn't get to wrestle varsity,” Buckley said. “We all have each other and we've had each other for the last, some of us, 10 or 12 years.”
The Class of 2025 wrestlers pushed each other throughout their careers and did again Thursday. Their 215-pounder, though, made sure heavyweight Cornez Tucker Jr. didn't have to do anything more than have his hand raised at the end of the dual.
The Wildcats' Xavier Bruno took Buckley down at the start of their bout, but the BHS senior took advantage once both grapplers were back on their feet.
“It just kind of happened,” he said of the quick, match-ending takedown and fall. “And the next thing I know he was on his back and it was getting called a pin.”
The contested victory was the Bears' last of five for the dual. Landon Bernasek notched the first at 132 pounds, pinning Landon Reasoner in 2:29 to put his team ahead on the scoreboard, 12-11.
Loges was up next, securing the 150th win of his career with a 87-second pin of Logan Penry at 138 pounds. The senior said he would have liked to have gone for 200 during his high school career if not for the injury that wiped out his junior season.
“But it's super cool to win No. 150 on my home mats,” he added.
Blair 144-pounder Jaxon Logan added a 48-second pin at 144 pounds, too, before Millard West made its run, turning a 24-11 dual deficit into a 29-24 lead. The Bears' Carson Faue and Griffin Rosterman avoided giving up pins or tech falls during the four-match losing streak, though, allowing Blaise Baughman to regain his team's lead with a 23-second pin at 190 pounds.
That's when Buckley stepped onto the mat for Senior Night and clinched the dual win. It allowed Loges, Tucker Jr. and he to celebrate a win with their classmates — Michael Amandus, Louis Biffar, Thomas Chikos, Michael Cleary, Evan Kuchta, Henry Sullivan, Brock Templar, Mac Tupa and manager Claire Briggs.
Notably, Biffar, Kuchta and Cleary all had their hands raised Thursday night during junior varsity competition.
Baughman earns 1st Saturday
Blair earned seventh out of 15 teams Saturday during the Plattsmouth Invitational, too.
Baughman led the effort with a first-place result. He was 4-0 at 190 pounds, besting 30-8 Hudson Miron of Lincoln Southwest by 10-6 decision in the finals.
Bernasek and Logan reached their weight class finals, too, but earned a pair of seconds. Both wrestlers were 2-1 during the tournament, while Rosterman was 3-1 for third at 175 pounds. The latter Bear beat a 35-5 Falls City wrestler by 21-11 major decision in the third-place match.
Tucker Jr. claimed third at heavyweight with a 3-1 record as well, securing his last win by 18-6 major decision.
BHS next wrestles 6 p.m. Thursday at an Elkhorn South dual.
PLATTSMOUTH INVITATIONAL
Saturday at Plattsmouth High School
BOYS
Team standings: Lincoln East 320.5 points, Plattsmouth 203, Lincoln Southwest 128, Ralston 126.5, Fairbury 126, Grand Island Northwest 113.5, Blair 111.5, Nebraska City 69.5, Lincoln High 62.5, Auburn 52, Falls City 52, Platteview 41.5, Bellevue East 41, Elkhorn 40.5, Omaha Northwest 9.
Top-6 Blair placers: 1, Blaise Baughman, 190 pounds. 2, Landon Bernasek, 132. 2, Jaxon Logan, 144. 3, Griffin Rosterman, 175. 3, Cornez Tucker Jr., 285.
