New Salem, N.D. (NewsDakota.com)—The Carrington wrestling team finished in 12th place overall just 1 point away from a top ten finish with 64 points. Lisbon won the tournament with 221 points, followed by South Border (183), New Salem-Almont (158), Northern Lights (125.5), and Velva (119.5). Twenty three teams competed in the 45th year of the East-West Classic. Oakes finished in 10th place (65 points) and Hillsboro-CV (HCV) (64.5) just ahead of the Cardinals.

Trace Hoggarth improved to 34-3 overall on the season and captured the 120 pound title with a 5-0 win over Lisbon’s Noah Anderson (28-6) in the title match. Hoggarth received a bye in the first round and then picked up wins by fall in the quarterfinals (:49 over #6 seed Alex Tandeski of Northern Lights) and semifinals (1:06 over #4 seed Carson Kozojed of HCV) to reach the title match. Corbin Clifton (28-15) entered the tournament as the top seed at 138 pounds and finished in fourth place. Clifton won his opening round match by fall over Adam Smith of HCV at 1:29 and then defeated the number 8 seed Sawyer Noll of Bowman County 7-0 in the quarterfinals. Clifton would fall 10-2 in the semifinals to the number 5 seed Havlin Delong of Northern Lights. In the placing round, Clifton defeated the 6 seed Brody Hoffman of South Border in sudden victory overtime 4-2. Gus Bombach of Killdeer (3 seed), defeated Clifton 3-0 in the third place match. Kael Kovar (32-11) entered the tournament at 152 pounds as the 6 seed and ended up fifth in a tough weight class. Kovar opened the tourney with a win by fall in quick fashion (:44) over Jack McDonald of Kindred before losing to number 3 seed Cale Ibach of Des Lacs-Burlington 11-4. Kovar would win 3 of his next 4 matches in the wrestle backs and finished with a 5th place finish pinning the 8 seed Emery Noll of Bowman County in 1:29. The Cardinals had 6 other wrestlers competing who did not place including Skye Kramlich (106), Dru Carr (113), Nic Garber (126), Jacob Hinrichs (160), Max Ciubotereanu (170), and Callen Garber (195).  The Cardinals will compete next at the Region 2 (Northeast) dual tournament in Harvey next Saturday entering as the number 2 seed behind top seeded Central Cass. All Carrington matches will be broadcasted on AM 1600 KDAK (THE CARDINAL), FM 100.1, and www,newsdakota.com