The North Callaway wrestling team made the short trip to Mexico for its final regular season action.
North Callaway at Mexico dual meet Photo Gallery
The Thunderbirds faced Mexico, Blair …
This item is available in full to subscribers.
We have recently launched a new and improved website. To continue reading, you will need to either log into your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription.
If you are a digital subscriber with an active subscription, or you are a print subscriber who had access to our previous website, then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you have not yet logged in to your account on this new site.
If you are a current print subscriber and did not have a user account on our previous website, you can set up a free website account by clicking here.
Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.
Please log in to continue |
The North Callaway wrestling team made the short trip to Mexico for its final regular season action.
North Callaway at Mexico dual meet Photo Gallery
The Thunderbirds faced Mexico, Blair Oaks, Macon and California in a duals meet two weeks before competing in their district meet at Lafayette County High School in Higginsville. They defeated California 54-29, Macon 54-16 and Mexico 46-22 and lost to Blair Oaks 40-17.
Right before Carson Safranski tries to make it back to the state meet with several of his teammates — North Callaway sent a program-record 11 last season, the senior earned his 100th career win by pinning California’s Cody Schneider to make him the third Thunderbird to achieve the milestone this season. Senior Eli Henry and junior Lane Kimbley were the other two, and Safranski definitely deserves to be with them, head coach Ronnie Kimbley said.
“Carson has really worked hard for everything that he’s gotten,” Kimbley said. “He’s progressed every year. I think, maybe, freshman year he was under 20 wins. It was more mat awareness, obviously he’s gotten stronger, but mat awareness and understanding wrestling as a whole has gotten him really far.”
Safranski pinned in all three of his matches, Kimbley had three pinfalls and a technical fall, and Henry had pins in all three of his matches. Among North Callaway’s other returning state qualifiers is Cashton Holloway, who had two pins and lost decisions to state qualifier Nolan Laughlin, of Blair Oaks, and state medalist Grant Van Horn, Mexico, and AJ Siegel pinned both of his opponents.
Ronnie Kimbley said he was impressed by Lane Kimbley and Henry and likes where their years of experience could take them this season.
“They’ve been wrestling for a long time, and you can definitely tell,” Kimbley said. “Position-wise, they stay on their attacks. They’re very smart wrestlers.”
He also liked Casper Safranski, who split his two matches with a technical fall against Mexico’s Grant Walker and a narrow 3-1 decision loss to Blair Oaks’ Cole Peters. Caleb Rohrbach and Tristan Young are also coming around.
“I can go on and on,” Kimbley said. “They’re all starting to believe in themselves, and that’s a lot of wrestling. We’ve got a really tough district, and we know that. That’s what these next few weeks are all about.”
Brooke Giboney didn’t compete Saturday, but as North Callaway’s lone girls wrestler, is preparing for the girls district meet this Saturday at North Point High School in Wentzville.
“She’s a first-year wrestler and keeps improving every day,” Kimbley said. “We didn’t have a full girls schedule this year, so she’s just kind of missed stuff. We’re actually pretty excited to see what we’re going to do at districts.”
