Minden’s Raffety Earns Bronze In B At 170 Pounds

The Minden Whippets, Axtell Wildcats and Wilcox-Hildreth Falcon wrestling teams concluded their 2011-12 season on Saturday with the 2012 Nebraska State Wrestling Championship held Thursday through Saturday at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha.
Minden had two qualifiers senior Jack Raffety and freshman Austin Olson.
Raffety came home with his third straight state medal. He placed third to go along with his two fifth place medals for 2010 and 2011 while a sophomore and junior at 152 pounds.
Raffety entered the state field with a perfect 35-0 record and began his tournament with a pin win over Lucas Lias of Plattsmouth with a time of 1:59. In the quarterfinals, Raffety suffered his first loss of the season to Conor Hovey of Bennington by fall in 4:46.
Raffety battled his way back through the consolation bracket on Friday, opening with a pin win over Malcom Martin of Waverly in the second round of wrestlebacks.
Raffety then faced Cooper Cogdill of Chadron in a match to get into medal contention on Saturday morning and he won an 11-3 major decision. Raffety was able to defeat Alex Boryca of Cozad in the consolation semifinals by a major decision score of 14-5 to earn a place in the consolation finals. In the consolation finals, Raffety would end his state meet with a narrow 2-1 decision over Phillip Rasmussen of Omaha Skutt Catholic to take third place. Raffety ends his season with a record of 40-1.
Olson was making his state debut at 106 pounds and faced the top-seeded wrestler in the Class B field, Clayton Cobb of Norris. Cobb was able to pin Olson in the second period in a time of 2:44.
The loss dropped Olson into the wrestlebacks on Friday morning where he had his tournament ended by a pin loss to Mason Wright of Elkhorn South in 2:00. Olson ends his season with a record of 17 wins and 25 losses.
The Wilcox-Hildreth Falcons also had two qualifiers juniors Nick Johnson and Vade Jensen.
Johnson is a two-time state qualifier and competed in the Class D 120 pound division. Johnson opened his state tournament on Thursday with a pin loss to Alex Lorimar of Fullerton in 1:02.
Johnson fell into the consolation bracket on Friday afternoon where he had his state meet come to an end with a 7-3 decision loss to Chandler Tyan of Sutherland. Johnson ends his season with a record of 15-9.

For more information, check out The Minden Courier