The North Platte High School wrestling team is hosting the 2014 Grappling on the Gridiron for kids from grades third through 12th Friday, May 30 at North Platte High School’s Memorial Stadium.
The Grappling on the Gridiron will begin at 7:00 pm under the stadium lights at Memorial Stadium on Bauer Field. The North Platte High School gymnasium is on reserve in the event of inclement weather. The divisions are kids that have just finished 3rd-4th grades, 5th-6th grades, 7th-8th grades, 9th-10th grades and 11th-12th grades. The brackets will be open with the 10 percent rule in effect.
Matches for third through sixth graders will be three one-minute periods and seventh through 12th graders will be three 1 1/2- minute periods. High school rules will apply for all age divisions.
The cost is $16 per wrestler with t-shirts costing an additional $15. T-shirts can be purchased online during registration. To register go to trackwrestling.com under Grappling on the Gridiron 2014 or click on this link. Medals will be awarded for the top four places in each division.
Admission is $5 for adults and children 17 and under are free. Weigh-ins for wrestlers will be from 3-5 pm in the North Platte High School wrestling room. For more information contact North Platte Bulldogs wrestling coach Dale Hall at 308-760-3153 or email at dahall@nppsd.org.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Wilin Rosario hit a go-ahead, three-run homer and Jorge De La Rosa pitched six strong innings to lift the Colorado Rockies to a 6-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday night.
Drew Stubbs went 2 for 4 with a double and an RBI for the Rockies, who had lost four of five while being outscored 16-0 in their two previous games.
Ben Revere hit his first career homer in his 1,466th at-bat, and Darin Ruf also went deep for the Phillies.
The start of the game was delayed 1 hour, 22 minutes due to rain.
De La Rosa (6-3) continued his strong stretch, allowing one run and six hits with four strikeouts and two walks. The left-hander is 6-0 with a 1.58 ERA in his last seven starts.
Philadelphia starter Cole Hamels (1-3) left after the seventh after giving up four runs and three hits with four strikeouts and two walks.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Collin McHugh held light-hitting Kansas City at bay over seven innings, and Matt Dominquez drove in the only run the Houston Astros needed in a 3-0 victory over the Royals on Tuesday night.
Houston tacked on two more runs off reliever Tim Collins in the eighth, and Tony Sipp and Chad Qualls breezed through the final two innings without allowing a hit to complete the shutout.
McHugh (3-3) scattered five hits while striking out nine without issuing a walk to earn his first win in five starts. He stranded a runner at third base in the second inning and runners at second and third in the fifth, but otherwise cruised through the Kansas City lineup.
The only run Jeremy Guthrie (2-4) allowed came when Dominquez followed up a pair of one-out walks to Dexter Fowler and Jason Castro with a single in the fourth inning.
DESTIN, Fla. (AP) — SEC Commissioner Mike Slive says the NCAA’s rules regarding contact between athletes and agents don’t allow for players to make the best judgments about when to leave school early.
Slive hopes rules regarding agents will be one of the many areas the five major college football conferences will be able to reform when and if the NCAA agrees to change its governance structure to allow those leagues to pass legislation without the approval of other conferences.
Speaking to reporters after the first day of the Southeastern Conference spring meetings, Slive said the “NCAA’s current rules are really part of the problem not part of the solution.”
Currently, an athlete cannot reach a verbal or written agreement with an agent and remain eligible.
Patrice Wolfson is ready to give up her title as the owner of the last Triple Crown winner.
She may get the chance if California Chrome is successful in his bid to join Affirmed and 10 other horses atop racing’s pinnacle.
No horse since Affirmed in 1978 has swept the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes. Since then, 11 have won the first two legs only to fail in the 1 ½-mile Belmont, the longest and most grueling of the three races.
Wolfson owned Affirmed with her late husband Louis. She believes California Chrome has the potential to be a great horse, and she’ll be cheering for him at Belmont Park on June 7.
The competition was fierce on the fast-paced, tacky Dawson County Raceway oval on Sunday night, as there were new faces reaching victory lane along with two-time winners in 2014 thus far: Colton Osborn, Jamey Kennicutt and Mike Nichols.
Taking advantage of the late red flag, Colton Osborn of Cozad, Nebraska was able to snare the lead away from his brother on lap 14 and drive to the victory after starting in the back row. Cale Osborn led from the onset and was checking out on the field until mechanical issues caused issues that resulted in Osborn persevering to the end with a runner-up finish. McCook’s Ronnie Wallace drove his way to a third place finish after starting in row four of the feature.
Leading from the beginning until the end, Tom Kubicka of Hastings, Nebraska won the Grand National Late Model Feature in fine fashion. On his rear bumper for much of the night was York’s Les Siebert who was forced to settle with the runner-up finish. Crossing the finish line third was Dylan Schmer of Aurora, despite the heavy pressure from challengers in the waning laps.
Flexing his muscle and taking advantage of great track position, Jamey Kennicutt repeated as the victor in the IMCA Northern Sport Modified divison. Kennicutt of Gothenburg, Nebraska led the final ten laps to power his way to the winners circle. The ageless wonder, Denny Egge of Kearney was the runner-up with his hotrod wheeling around the top side for much of the night. Chad Dolan of Gibbon led from the onset until Kennicutt drove to the lead on the tenth lap. Dolan stayed consistent throughout and earned a third place finish.
The duel that Mike Nichols of Harlan, Iowa and Maywood’s Casey Werkmeister displayed on Sunday was worth the price of admission. Nichols was able to hold off Werkmeister for the win in the IMCA Stock Car division after taking the lead on the sixth lap. Werkmeister ended up second with a valiant effort. Coming from the B Feature wasn’t enough of a challenge for Cozad’s Colton Osborn, so he drove from the back to the podium after flat tires sent him to the back of the pack.
In what has become one of the most competitive classes, Robert Leonard of Gibbon was the victor in the IMCA Hobby Stock division. Leonard led from the third lap to the finish. On the back bumper of Leonard was Kyle Bond of Gibbon, who was doing everything he could and more to try and pass Leonard, only to be forced to settle for second place the second race night in a row. Dillon Thompson was ‘rocking and rolling’ on the high line to earn a third place finish for the Campbell, Nebraska hotshoe.
Racing action returns to the fast-paced 3/8 mile dirt oval on the Dawson County Fairgrounds on Sunday, June 1st. Gates open at 5 p.m. with the drop of the green flag being at6:30 p.m.
For the first time since 2008, the Nebraska baseball team is part of the NCAA Tournament. The Huskers, who are 40-19 on the year, earned an at-large invitation during the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship Selection Show Monday morning on ESPNU. Nebraska was selected to play in the Stillwater Regional, hosted by Oklahoma State at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium.
The No. 2 seed in the Stillwater Regional, the Huskers will face No. 3 seed Cal State Fullerton in the first round on Friday, May 30 at Noon (CT). The game will be shown live on ESPNU and streamed live on WatchESPN. Regional host Oklahoma State then meets No. 4 seed Binghamton at 6 p.m. on ESPN3.
Nebraska will play at Allie P. Reynolds Stadium for the first time since 2010, when the Huskers played a three-game Big 12 series in Stillwater.
The Huskers and Titans met four times last season at Goodwin Field in Fullerton, Calif., with the Titans taking all four meetings.
Nebraska will be in search of its first NCAA Tournament win since 2008, when the Huskers opened the Lincoln Regional with a 13-10 victory over Eastern Illinois.
On the Radio this Week
Fans across Nebraska and around the world can listen to Greg Sharpe and Lane Grindle call all of the action on the Husker Sports Network – including KLIN 1400 AM and 94.5 FM in Lincoln – and live on the Internet at Huskers.com or the Official Husker App.
TV Coverage for Cal State Fullerton Game
Friday’s game against Cal State Fullerton will be shown live on ESPNU.
Web Streams for Cal State Fullerton Game
Friday’s game against Cal State Fullerton will be streamed live on WatchESPN.
Nebraska-Cal State Fullerton History
The Huskers are 0-6 all-time against the Titans, including an 0-4 record last season.
The first ever meeting between the two teams came in 1984, when the Huskers fell 9-7 on the road in Fullerton early in the season.
Friday will mark the second time the Huskers and Titans have met during the NCAA Tournament, as they also met at the 2001 College World Series. In the Huskers’ first ever game at the CWS, the Titans pulled out a slim 5-4 victory.
Nebraska & Cal St. Fullerton Series (CSF leads 6-0)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Royals are awaiting MRI exam results on pitching prodigy Yordano Ventura and have learned top prospect Kyle Zimmer will miss additional time with his own injury.
Ventura’s 100 mph fastballs have made him a budding star. He was removed from Monday night’s loss to Houston with discomfort in his right elbow, but the Royals are hopeful that his injury is not to a ligament because it was on the opposite side from where those injuries are typically felt.
Meanwhile, the team said in a statement Tuesday that Zimmer, the fifth overall pick in the 2012 draft, will be kept from even playing catch for at least six weeks because of a strained back muscle.
Zimmer was already getting a slow start to the season because of biceps tendinitis.
The North Platte First Nationals American Legion baseball team played six games over Memorial Day Weekend and went 3-3.
The First Nationals (4-5) traveled to Lincoln on Friday for a doubleheader against JC Brager. JC Brager won the first game 6-0 behind the arm of Connor Curry. Curry threw a one-hit shutout against North Platte. The First Nationals lone hit came off the bat of Ty Brockmoller. Jace Barker took the loss on the mound for North Platte. Barker threw four and one-third innings, giving up five runs, three of them earned, on seven hits.
The second game of the doubleheader was a pitchers dual as JC Brager won 2-1. North Platte struck first with a run in the third inning before JC Brager scored two in the fifth to secure the win. Despite scoring one run in the game North Platte didn’t have a hit. JC Brager’s Noah Kulhanek threw the no-hitter and earned the win, giving up just the unearned run. Darian Allberry took the loss on the mound for North Platte after pitching four and one-third innings, giving up two runs on seven hits. Following Friday’s games North Platte was 1-4 on the season.
The First Nationals played in Gretna on Saturday in a Cornhusker League doubleheader. North Platte won the first game of the day, 2-0. Dalton Pflughaupt was dominant on the mound by pitching a complete game one-hit shutout while earning the win. Allberry provided the offense for North Platte by going 1-3 at the plate with a double, an RBI and a run scored.
The second game of the doubleheader favored Gretna as they beat the First Nationals 6-3. North Platte started to really get the bats rolling with 10 hits in the game, but could only get three runs across the plate. Jack Kenny, Barker, Luke Volz and Drew Callaghan each had two hits in the loss. Barker had the First Nationals lone extra-base hit with a double and Jayden Kruse had two RBI to lead North Platte. Riley Vierya took the loss on the mound by giving up four runs, three of them earned, on five hits in four innings. North Platte had a record of 2-5 after Saturday’s games.
The final doubleheader of the holiday weekend was North Platte’s home-opener. The First Nationals hosted Norfolk on Memorial Day and won game one 11-1. Callaghan had a two-run home run for the first home run this season by a First National. Brockmoller added a double and Volz went 3-3 at the plate in the run-rule victory. Brockmoller earned the win on the mound as well after giving up just one run on five hits, while striking out five batters.
Game two was more of a test for North Platte after leading by just one run in the sixth inning en route to a 10-6 win. The First Nationals led 7-3 before Norfolk scored three runs in the top of the fifth inning to make it a one-run game. The First Nationals gave themselves a cushion in the sixth inning by scoring three runs to secure the win. The sixth inning offense was provided by Volz. He hit a two-run double for North Platte’s only extra-base hit of the game. Volz also earned the save, pitching two and one-third innings without giving up a run on two hits. Kruse earned the win after giving up six runs, five of them earned, on six hits, while striking out four batters. Barker also had two RBI in the game to pace the North Platte offense. The First Nationals finished the weekend with a 4-5 record overall.
The North Platte First Nationals seniors next game is Wednesday, May 28 against Lexington at Bill Wood Field. It is a juniors-seniors doubleheader. The juniors will play at 5:30 pm with the first pitch for the seniors game scheduled for 8:00 pm.
The most recent results for the North Platte First Nationals juniors team shows they have a record of 5-0 after beating Ogallala 6-5 and Gering 13-3 over the weekend.
Quirt Hunt has been a bullfighter since his high school days in Custer County. The Hershey, Neb. cowboy will work fighting bulls at the Buffalo Bill Rodeo in North Platte June 18-21.
North Platte, Neb.(May 27, 2014) – Quirt Hunt has carved out his niche in the world, doing what he loves, making a living at it, and supporting his family.
The Hershey, Neb. man is a bullfighter – one of two men at a rodeo who wear the clown makeup but have a serious mission: protect the bull rider after the buzzer sounds, so the rider doesn’t get mowed down by the bull, and can go on to compete at the next rodeo.
It’s a fun job, a dangerous job, and one that requires some dedication. It’s not a huge money-maker, but Quirt has diversified with his second passion: horses and ranching – to provide for his family.
As a youngster growing up in Custer County on the family ranch, he dreamed of rodeo but his dad never encouraged it. “We worked. We didn’t rodeo. We went and watched in Burwell (at Nebraska’s Big Rodeo) and that’s as close as I got.” His dad and granddad had work to do: rodeo was secondary. His dad’s thinking was: if Quirt wants it bad enough, he’ll do it. “If you want it bad enough, you’ll find a way to do it. He didn’t do it that way because he hated it or didn’t love me, but he said, if you want something bad enough in life, you’ll work hard to get there.”
He competed in high school rodeo his senior year, riding barebacks and bulls, but it was the bullfighting that compelled him. He rode bulls in the amateur ranks for a few years, but “I would only find myself wanting to get jobs fighting bulls rather than riding bulls. I decided I wasn’t going to do them both, so I stuck with one.”
After that, Quirt had the chance to do something that was instrumental in his rodeo and ranching career. “The greatest thing I did was work high school rodeos,” he said. He fought bulls at about sixteen Nebraska high school rodeos a year, building relationships and getting to know people. “I got to know all the parents, from the timed event parents to the roughstock parents. I knew all those kids growing up, (two time world champion steer wrestler) Dean Gorsuch is my age, I watched (six-time National Finals Rodeo qualifying bareback rider) Steven Dent’s career. It’s cool. The relationships you make.” And as he met more people, he found work during the week, between rodeos. “I got a lot of jobs when I wasn’t fighting bulls. In the fall (rodeo) would slow down, and I’d ride colts, do fall (ranch) work. I stayed real busy.”
In 2003, he got his Pro Rodeo Cowboys Hall of Fame card, and his PBR membership. Being single, rodeo was his life. He traveled across the nation and was gone all summer and part of the winter, working big rodeos like North Platte, Burwell, Austin, Texas, Tucson, Ariz., Salt Lake City, Colorado Springs, Denver, Prescott, Ariz., and the little ones, too: Idaho Falls, Idaho, Tonganoxie, Kan., Northfield, Minn., Oneida, S.D.
He fought bulls at the PBR World Cup in Mexico and Brazil, and worked the PRCA Tour Finale in Omaha three times.
There wasn’t much down time between rodeos, but when there was, he started colts for people, including steer wrestling champion Frank Thompson, and Hall of Fame rodeo announcer Hadley Barrett, who ranched in North Platte.
And he dreamed of ranching.
When some grass came up for lease northwest of Hershey, he took it. He got married, and ranch work picked up. He and his wife Amber run cattle on leased grass, he builds a little fence (“I don’t like that to get out,” he joked), and he makes horses for his kids. Daughters Raylynn, six, and Racquel, four, love being on horseback, and Raylynn is junior rodeoing. She does well at horseback riding. “She’s a good hand for no older than she is,” Quirt said. “She sits a horse naturally.” Raylynn has won the all-around title at a couple of junior rodeos, and she loves to go to brandings. Quirt takes pride in the horses he makes for his daughters. “I put a lot of time in on my horses. Most of the horses I have, the kids can ride and get along good with them.”
It’s harder to be on the rodeo trail now. He works as many rodeos as he used to, but isn’t gone for long stretches of time, as he was in the past. “Now that I have two kids and I’m married, my priorities are different. I still try to go (on the road) as much as I can. I’d be gone every weekend if I could, but it’s hard to be gone for a month and a half and never come home.”
His closest rodeo is the Buffalo Bill Rodeo in North Platte next month. It’s his third year to fight bulls in North Platte, and he’s grateful to North Platte and to his fellow Nebraskans. “I’m pretty thankful for Nebraska. They’ve supported me. There’s a lot of people in this state who have supported me, whether it was with a job or encouragement.”
When he started in rodeo, Quirt knew his career wasn’t guaranteed. There are a lot of bullfighters who don’t last long, who don’t get hired for the big shows. “I always knew, deep down inside, that not everybody makes it to the top. So you have to have something going all the time. I don’t have any complaints. Trying to find the right balance in everything, that’s my biggest problem.”
And rodeo has been good to him. “I wanted to rodeo my whole life. I love every part of it. Everybody can make a living doing something, but the relationships and the friends, bonding with people, has been the best.”
The Buffalo Bill Rodeo is June 18-21 at the Wild West Arena in North Platte. It begins at 8 pm each night. Tickets are available online at NebraskalandDAys.com, at the NebraskalandDays office (509 East 4th Street in North Platte), and at the gate. Tickets range in price from $7 to $20. For more information, visit the website or call the NebraskalandDays office at 308.532.7939.
The North Platte High School wrestling team is hosting the 2014 Grappling on the Gridiron for kids from grades third through 12th Friday, May 30 at North Platte High School’s Memorial Stadium.
