Janke, Moaney Capture Wrestling Titles For Nic

Drama and defense.

Those are the routes North Idaho College freshmen Mark Janke and Jason Moaney took to National Junior College Athletic Association wrestling championships on Saturday night at Bismarck State College.

But there was no suspense involved in the 40-team race.

Defending champion Lassen College of Susanville, Calif., finished with eight All-Americans, including four individual champions, on its way to 129.5 points.

NIC, the top-ranked team in the final coach’s poll, wound up second with 82.5. The Cardinals placed five of their eight qualifiers in the top eight.

Lincoln, Ill., was third with 73. NIC’s regional rival, Ricks College of Rexburg, Idaho, made the biggest team jump. The Vikings climbed from 12th on Friday to place fourth with 60.

NIC had four finalists.

Janke’s 7-5 decision over Titus Taylor of Lincoln, Ill., at 158 pounds was one of the most exciting finals. Janke, a Moses Lake native, snapped a 5-5 tie in the last 2 seconds.

“Talk about a match,” Cardinals assistant Bill Pecha said. “Janke took him down at the buzzer with a little duck-under and caught the guy sleeping. We needed (the win). It cinched second place against Lincoln.”

NIC was a half-point behind the Illinois team going into Janke’s match. It was Janke’s 33rd win in 39 matches.

Kris West of Ricks wrestled defensively and didn’t give Moaney a chance to get untracked in the 167-pound finale. Moaney, a Dover, Del., native, settled for a 4-3 decision, his 36th win against three losses.

“That guy didn’t want to tie up with him,” Pecha said. “He knows Moaney is strong. He didn’t take the down position (in the third period) because he didn’t want to get turned.”

The Cardinals picked up second places from freshman Dan Vega (34-13) at 118 and sophomore Orlando Jordan (36-12) at 190.

Vega gave up the go-ahead takedown the last 10 seconds of a 5-3 decision to Paul Gomez of Lassen.

Jordan was unable to take the mat for his final. The victory was awarded via injury default to undefeated Kevin Jimenez (30-0) of Northwest Wyoming.

Jordan sustained a broken collarbone after being illegally slammed in the third period of his semifinal match with Kevin Campbell of Cuyahoga, Ohio. Campbell was disqualified, and Jordan was taken to a hospital emergency room.

Freshman Josh Clausen (27-18) placed eighth for NIC at 177.

“Lassen placed eight guys,” Pecha said. “There’s no way, even if we would have brought our other two guys and if they both would have been national champs, we probably still would have lost.

“We got four guys in the finals. You cannot complain,” Pecha added. “To score as many points as we did was not bad; that would win a lot of national tournaments.”

NJCAA Tournament

Top 10 team scores: Lassen (Calif.) College 129.5, North Idaho College 82.5, Lincoln, Ill. 73, Ricks (Id.) College 60, Meskegon, Mich., 54.5, Gloucester, N.J. 54, Northwest Wyoming 42.5, Cuyahoga, Ohio, 39.5, Iowa Central 39, Wilmar, Minn. 30. NIC results, semifinal round: 118-Vega (NIC) d. Kristsonas (Colby, Kan.) 5-4. 158-Janke (NIC) d. Vance (Iowa Central) 8-4. 167-Moaney (NIC) d. Ennells (Cuyahoga) 22-11. 190-Jordan (NIC) won by disqualification over Campbell (Cuyahoga). Championship round: 118-Gomez (Lassen) d. Vega 5-3. 158-Janke d. Taylor (Lincoln) 7-5. 167-Moaney d. West (Ricks) 4-3. 190-Jimenez (NW Wyo.) won by injury default over Jordan. Wrestle-backs 126-Bingham (Ricks) d. Schaeffer (NIC) 2-0. 150-Serio (Lincoln) d. Morton (NIC) 15-6. 177-Clausen (NIC) d. Boone (Ricks) 7-3; Jones (Farmingdale, N.Y.) d. Clausen 13-4. 190-Prawitt (Ricks) p. McArthur (NIC) 6:32.

Seventh-place match 177- Westpahl (Iowa Central) d. Clausen 7-5 overtime.