COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — Finishing 10th at the NJCAA National Championships, the Labette Cardinals wrestling program returns from Iowa with three All-Americans — Davion King, Jordan Cullors and Matthew Marcum.
Indian Hills claimed the national title as a team with 182 points, running away with the crown.
Clackamas was runner-up with 141.5 points. Western Wyoming placed third (137.5), followed by Fort Hays Tech (125.5), Iowa Central (116.5), Southeast Nebraska (104), Northwest (103), North Idaho (96), Pratt (75.5) and Labette (67.5) rounding out the top 10.
Marcum, wrestling at 197 pounds, was the highest finisher for the Cardinals, placing fourth in the weight class.
Marcum opened nationals with back-to-back pins of Austin George of Southwestern Michigan and Kenneth Phillips of Snow before losing a narrow, 7-6 decision to Coen Grimm of Iowa Central.
Marcum secured a technical fall over Samuel Murphy of NEO A&M, a major decision over Corey Hyatt of Southeast Nebraska and a pin of Triton’s Ghee Rachal before dropping a major decision in the third place match to Austin Richens of Northwest.
King placed fifth at 157 pounds for Labette. King won his first three bouts — a 4-1 decision over Brice Coleman, a technical fall over Bismarck State’s Dillon Spaulding and a major decision over NEO A&M’s Zach Dawson — before losing a major decision to Henry Dillingham of Clackamas.
King then lost to Ayson Rice of Southeast Nebraska by major decision before bouncing back with an 8-6 decision victory over Western Wyoming’s Hixon Canto.
At 141 pounds, Cullors placed seventh for Labette. In his first match, Cullors lost a 9-3 decision to Western Wyoming’s Dmitri Alarcon.
Bouncing back five straight wins, Cullors pinned Stephen Dmytryk of Gloucester as well as Daniel Gonzalez of Henry Ford. Cullors then won by technical fall over Snow’s Jacob Finlinson then by major decision over Brian Vargas of Bergen and Ely Olberding of Southeast Nebraska.
Cullors then lost a 6- 4 decision to Cowley’s Evan Rodriguez before winning an 8-5 decision over Matthew Roche of Iowa Centra.
Labette, which qualified 10 wrestlers to nationals, also brought Caleb Collins (125 pounds), Cannon Carey (165), Eric Streeter (149), Gabe Kant (285), Jayden Ford (174), Marcus Terry (133) and Rodney Trotter (184) to Iowa — none of them earned placements in their weight classes.
