Cloud County Finishes with Two Wrestling All-Americans, Ibrahim Ameer Notches National Runner-Up Finish at 197 lbs.
Putting a wrap on the 2022-2023 season, the Cloud County Community College wrestling team would see two of their seven national qualifiers finish with All-American status to help the T-Birds to an 18th-place finish at the 2023 NJCAA Wrestling Championships inside the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa on Saturday, March 4th.
The 18th-place finish marks the second-straight year that the T-Birds have finished 18th after scoring 39 total points to finish with the third-highest team total of teams from the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference.
Following Friday's action that saw both sophomore Ibrahim Ameer and freshman Wyatt Powell secure All-America honors, Ameer would have a semifinal round matchup with six-seed John Lovett of Iowa Central to determine the second finalist for Saturday night's NJCAA 197-pound National Championship match. In the match with Lovett, Ameer would score a takedown just nine seconds into the match and score three takedowns along with a four-point near fall in the opening period to go up 10-3 after three minutes of wrestling. Adding to his lead with an escape, takedown, and two-point near fall in the second, Ameer would hold a commanding 15-3 lead heading into the third with bonus points looking likely. Giving up an early escape, Ameer would score two more takedowns to find himself just two points away from a technical fall, securing one last takedown with 11 seconds left in the match to end things at the 6:50 mark with a 21-6 technical fall.
After an upset in the top half of the bracket in the semifinal round that would see top-ranked Michael Gasper get knocked off by four-seed Brett Mower of Iowa Western to set up the National Championship match. With Mower and Ameer having yet to face off this season, the National Championship match would see Ameer score a takedown before giving up an escape and being issued a stall warning in the first period to lead 2-1 heading into the second. Mower would tie things at 2-2 with an escape in the opening seconds of the second period before earning his first takedown of the match to grab a 4-2 lead before seeing Ameer get an escape to keep riding time from becoming a factor.
Unfortunately for Ameer, another takedown by Mower with seven seconds left in the period would turn a 4-3 deficit into a 6-3 deficit heading into the final two minutes of wrestling which would ultimately decide the national title. With Mower starting with top position in the third, Ameer would get an escape with 1:26 left in the match to get back within two at 6-4 with riding time still not reaching the one-minute mark for a bonus point for Mower. Mower would then score a takedown with 48 seconds remaining and secure another 15 crucial seconds of riding time to point the advantage over a minute before allowing an escape with Ameer now trailing 8-5 with time becoming short.
Forced to act quickly, Ameer would secure a takedown with 22 seconds left and cut Mower loose for an escape just six seconds later knowing that another takedown would be needed while hoping to get riding time back under a minute. One final takedown from Ameer would be scored with five seconds left, but riding time would ultimately prove to be the difference as the match would end with Mower having a riding time advantage of 1:06 to win the match 10-9.
Coming up just short of finishing as Cloud County's second national champion in program history, Ameer becomes the first T-Bird wrestler to finish as NJCAA runner-up with CCCC now having their 197-pound wrestler earn a top-three finish in each of the last three NJCAA Wrestling Championships.
Cloud County's other wrestler to make it to day two of the tournament would be 184-pound wrestler Powell after fighting off four-straight elimination matches on day one after a first-round defeat. Set to take on his opening-round opponent and top-ranked Jackson White in the consolation quarterfinal round, Powell would be unable to avenge his loss by taking a 10-0 major decision defeat to fall to the seventh-place match. Matched up with Brent Greenfield of Ellsworth Community College in his seventh and final match of the tournament, Powell would see a scoreless first period be followed by a takedown mid-way through the second period before a Greenfield reversal would lead to a fall at the 3:58 mark of the match and give Powell an eighth-place finish.
The two All-Americans for CCCC join a list of five previous All-Americans while the two All-Americans at one National Tournament matches a program-best that last occurred at the 2021 National Championship tournament.