Tuesday night Norton hosted Hays High and Kearney, NE in a double dual.

Norton 67 Hays 9

Kearney 57 Hays 21

Norton 30 Kearney 27

The Norton-Kearney dual was EXCELLENT. Each team won seven matches; Norton lost two by fall but the other five of their losses were by decision--keeping points off the team score. Each team lost matches that could have gone either way.

Norton's wins were at 103 (Kearney forfeited though they had a 103 wrestler but who wrestled JV), 112, 119, 130, 135, 152, & 275.

Norton's losses were by fall at 140 & 160 and by decision at 125, 145, 171, 189 and 215.

Kearney is currently ranked in Nebraska by their State Coaches Association (NSWCA) as the #2 tournament and #3 dual team in Class A (the big schools, equivalent to our 6A). They have the following wrestlers ranked in the top 6 of their weight classes: 112, 119, 125, 130, 135, 145,160, 215, and 275.

A great dual, great crowd, and a great night of wrestling with almost 40 JV matches also being wrestled.

Congratulations to coach Johnson and the Norton Bluejays. The number of JV matches is very impressive! This is how a top notch program stays successful.

I'm surprised Hays didn't do a little better, but duals are all about matchups. I saw Hays High wrestle very well at the Prairie Sr. Classic, but this double-dual is disappointing. I hope they can put it together by Regionals in a LOADED 5A class.

Ya, Hays definatly isnt a dual team, i think they were in the last place Pool at the Goodland Duals, Just out of curiousty who were Hays' wins against Norton, Im guessing Cook for sure and then after that maybe Sanders or Smyll, Im not sure what weight Sanders wrestles though, i just know he looked pretty good at the Bob Kuhn Classic. Remember that Mike its the Bob Kuhn Classic now. Got to give Mike any crap i can after his dublet, or triplet remark last weekend.

Good job Norton your team wrestled a heck of a dual. You should be thankful for the support your community gives you.

Just a few things to add and that is I wish they would have drawn to see what weight class to start at rather than putting all the pressure on the Big guys.
And the other is that I questioned the coaches (Kearney) as to why they moved their 135 up to 140. I think our 135 JV kid would have been able to fight of the pin at 140 rather than 135.

Pressure on the big guys always seems to happen...it's crazy...let the biggest guys with the most weight that were warming up with Krispy Kremes and Cheetos put a heart on the line.

The pressure always does come down to the big guys, although in my 3 years of wrestling HWT a dual only came down to me winning once, it was my Sr. year Vs. TMP and we had not lost to them since i had been in high school, in fact my freshman year we beat them 83-0(1 point away from all pins) and im pretty sure they had a full team and if not they were very close becuase we even had 5 JV matches that night. Anyways it all came down to me to make it a perfect for years against TMP and sure enough i went out there and wrestled one of the worst matches of my life and laid down a giant choke to a kid who was ok but who i had pinned the year before and lost 1-0 in a fat fest. Needless to say i heard about that for the rest of the year, so there is my heroic story about being a fat guy.