When Wilber-Clatonia’s Mason Zimmerman went to his first practice with the Wolverines high school track team as a freshman, he had never competed in hurdle events before.
Fast forward 3 1/2 years and the three-sport standout had secured a scholarship to compete in that very event at the college level.
The three-sport athlete, who also plays football and basketball, was a sprinter and high jumper in middle school.
Published by gordonhopkins on Tue, 03/03/2020 - 10:19am
106: Pedro Hernandez, Wilber-Clatonia
Record: 28-10, State Qualifier
Hernandez is the all-area team’s lone freshman and he made the list by punching his ticket to state his first season competing at the high school level at 106 pounds. The underclassman placed second at the districts and tallied a 1-2 record at state in Class C. Hernandez had a strong finish to the 2019-2020 campaign with top-three finishes at five tournaments leading up to the state tourney.
Published by gordonhopkins on Tue, 02/25/2020 - 2:33pm
By Nathan Heuer
Wilber-Clatonia head coach Jaime Bates has been the head wrestling coach of the Wolverines high school program for quite some time – 28 years to be exact.
Heading into last week’s state wrestling tournament he never had a team where every state qualifier won at least one match. That fact stood no more after Friday’s first round of consolation matches.
Published by gordonhopkins on Thu, 02/20/2020 - 3:50pm
On Monday the Wilber-Clatonia girls basketball team saw their season come to an end with a 50-18 loss in the first round of the Subdistrict C1-6 tournament at Beatrice High School.
The fifth-seeded Wolverines fell behind 15-3 after one quarter of play and that separation continued in the second half as the fourth-seeded Tigers outscored Wilber-Clatonia 25-5.
Megan Tinsley led the Wolverines with eight points. Nevaeh Honea and Abby Renzy scored three points apiece.
The present time ranks up there with some of the best in school history and the future looks to have similar potential for the Wilber-Clatonia wrestling program.
Wilber-Clatonia 28-year head wrestling coach Jamie Bates had eight of his wrestlers qualify for the state wrestling tournament – the best of any area school – on Saturday at Oakland-Craig High School at the District C-3 tournament, one qualifier shy of tying the school-record.
The icing on the cake – six of those wrestlers will be returning to next year’s squad.
The Titans improved their season record (13-7) to the second-highest win percentage in the Fairbury Journal-News coverage area for girls basketball teams on Tuesday with a 15-point win on the road against the Cardinals. Thayer Central outscored Doniphan-Trumbull 15-6 in the first quarter and 12-5 in the fourth quarter.
The Trojans got back on the winning track on Tuesday in a road game after losing two straight games to end the Pioneer Conference Tournament a week ago. The meeting between the Class C-2 teams was the first this season. Tri County improved their record to 14-8 with the win. HTRS fell to 6-14 with the loss.
Out of three area schools and six area teams participating in the Southern Nebraska Conference Basketball Tournament, the Wilber-Clatonia boys were the lone squad to reach the semifinals.
The fourth-seeded Wolverines (13-5) accomplished the feat by defeating fifth-seeded Sandy Creek 53-49 on Tuesday in the tourney’s quarterfinals at Wilber-Clatonia High School.
By the end of Saturday’s Southern Nebraska Conference Tournament at Milford High School four area wrestlers were crowned champions and another 12 brought home medals from the 10-team event.
Fairbury’s Seth Firmanik earned his third conference title, doing so at 195 pounds. Wilber-Clatonia claimed three gold medals as Tommy Lokken (132), Colby Homolka (138) and Tad Moldenhauer (152) each won their respective weight classes. The trio’s effort played a large role in the Wolverines placing third as a team.