Clifton captures crown; Cards finish 5th overall

The Carrington Cardinals performed about as well as they could have done in the State Class B Individual Boys Wrestling Tournament.

Behind a state championship performance from 152-pound junior Corbin Clifton, and six total wrestlers earning placement, the Cards scored 85.5 points to earn fifth place behind a very-loaded top four in the team standings.

South Border scored 185 points to win their first individual Class B title in a 10-year span, and their fifth in the Ashley/Wishek co-op history. Lisbon, a six-time defending champion as recently as two years ago, was second with 150, followed by 2023 title-winner New Salem-Almont (115.5) and trending darkhorse pick Northern Lights (110.5).

For his first championship, Clifton got a first-period takedown over top seed Carson Hildre of Velva, allowed an escape, and fended off Hildre's shots the rest of the way for a 2-1 defensive title win.

He follows brother Michael, a two-time champion in 2021 and 2022 (182 pounds) onto the top spot on the podium.

Junior Dru Carr wrestled his way to a fourth place showing at 114 pounds. Included in his results were wins of 1-0 over Lisbon's Cruz Reinke in the quarterfinal round, and a 4-0 triumph against Jared Schilling of South Border in the wrestlebacks.

At 215, Callen Garber had a strong outing to take fifth place, and matched Clifton with four tournament wins.

Sixth place went to Nic Garber (139), who had one of the more exciting wins of the tournament by pinning Ryker Vetter of South Border while trailing big, and Brody Weisenburger (285) made a triumphant return to the sport for the first time since his elementary days by winning three matches and also finishing in the sixth spot.

Skye Kramlich, at 107, was the final Cardinal placer, taking eighth. He had a tough draw, falling to top seed and eventual state champion Bode Henderson of Northern Lights in the quarterfinal round, but won two of his other four matches.

Gabe Clifton (133) and Max Ciubotareanu (172) won matches in their brackets, but did not advance far enough to place.

NR-S athlete Vinnie Ruppell got to participate in the tournament as an alternate at 152 pounds. Though he didn't win a match, he got valuable experience under the bright Fargodome lights.

Full results from Cardinal wrestlers at the State Individual Tournament are as follows:

State Class B Individual Boys

Wrestling Tournament,

Fargodome

Thurs.-Fri., February 15-16

Team Scores

South Border 185, Lisbon 150, New Salem-Almont 115.5, Northern Lights 110.5, Carrington 85.5, Killdeer 84, Velva 81, Williams Co. 79, Bishop Ryan 77.5, Kenmare/Bowbells 75.5, Stanley 74, Oakes 68, Kindred 57, Hillsboro/Central Valley 54.5, Napoleon 52.5, Ellendale-Edgeley-Kulm 52, HWC 48, Beulah/Hazen 44, Bowman Co./Beach 35.5, Des Lacs-Burlington 32, LaMoure 26.5, Grafton and Pembina Co. North 26, Hettinger/Scranton 21, Mondak (Grenora/Westby, Mont.) 15, Linton-HMB 6, May-Port-CG and New Town/Parshall 3, Northern Cass 1.

Individual Results

(final record in parentheses)

107: Skye Kramlich (46-18) - 8th 2-3; Pinned Lander Rice (Kill) 5:17; Pinned by Bode Henderson (NL) 1:53; Pinned Gavin Rude (Kin) 3:51; Decd by Isaiah Hackman (Vel) 3-0; Decd by Walker Miller (EEK) 5-1

114: Dru Carr (44-14) - 4th 3-2; Decd Carson Henningsen (EEK) 6-2; Decd Cruz Reinke (Lis) 1-0; Pinned by Dalton Feist (Nap) 4:25; Decd Jared Schilling (SB) 4-0; Pinned by Cole Mogren (K-B) 2:11

121 & 127: OPEN

133: Gabe Clifton (32-18) - DNP 1-2; TFalled by Sawyer Owens (HCV) 15-0 3:38; Decd Victor Christian (Mon) 8-2; Decd by Kyler Schalesky (H-S) 3-2

139: Nic Garber (27-17) - 6th 3-3; Pinned Stone Stadheim (H-S) 4:00; TFalled by Ethan Maier (NSA) 17-2 5:28; TFalled Walker Sheldon (Will) 16-0 4:42; Pinned Ryker Vetter (SB) 4:54; MajDecd by Justin Hudson (NL) 12-0; Decd by Brextyn Yanish (Vel) 8-4

145: Corbin Clifton (48-9) - 1st 4-0; Pinned Christian Ramos (Kill) 1:36; Pinned Adin Jones (Mon) 1:50; Decd Harrison Schwartz (DL-B) 7-1; Decd Carson Hildre (Vel) 2-1

152: Vinnie Ruppell (7-34) - DNP 0-2; Pinned by Rocker Aguilar (Will) 2:47; Pinned by Blake Ketterling (Lin) :37

160: OPEN

172: Max Ciubotareanu (33-25) - DNP 1-2; Pinned by Timothee Ford (K-B) 3:54; Decd Kelson Mascol (Vel) 6-1; MajDecd by Tate Thorpe (Oak) 10-2

189: OPEN

215: Callen Garber (32-17) - 5th 4-2; Pinned Matthew Jacobs (Will) 1:49; Pinned by CL Weinberger (NSA) 4:44; Pinned Brody Geston (NC) 2:26; Pinned Birch Bang (Kill) 2:24; Pinned by Cade Okeson (Ryan) 1:48; Decd Griffin Wilhelmi (Stan) 7-1

285: Brody Weisenburger (26-18) - 6th 3-3; Decd by Rodney Wolf (Kin) 5-3; Decd Jamison Rime (Vel) 3-1 SV-1; Pinned Porter Johnson (HWC) 2:30; Pinned Jermaine Gisi (B-H) 1:27; Pinned by Wolf (Kin) 2:08; Pinned by Clayton Grove (Will) 1:57

State Champions

107: Bode Henderson, Northern Lights

114: Dalton Feist, Napoleon

121: Kruiser Burns, Grafton

127: Kashden Wadeson, Lisbon

133: Sawyer Owens, Hillsboro/Central Valley

139: William Cook, Kenmare/Bowbells

145: Corbin Clifton, Carrington

152: Blaze Reinke, Lisbon

160: Gus Bohmbach, Killdeer

172: Drew Zwak, Bishop Ryan

189: Ivan Carruth, Ellendale-Edgeley-Kulm

215: Shane Nitschke, South Border

285: Coy Okeson, Bishop Ryan