NJCAA WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP: New, but same situation for Cardinals

By JASON ELLIOTT

Sports writer

North Idaho College interim wrestling coach Derrick Booth has seen a few different sides of the NJCAA Tournament.

Both on the mat and off.

Today, it gets a little different.

Booth leads the Cardinals, with nine qualifiers into the tournament, which begins today at the Mid-American Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

“I got my feet wet as an assistant the last two years at Ellsworth (in Iowa Falls, Iowa),” Booth said. “But representing the Cardinals, that’s a different story. To be on that list of coaches means a lot to me. But I don’t think about myself, but for the guys. I’m just trying to keep these guys calm and ready to go.”

NIC will be represented by Kobi Johnson (125 pounds), Brant Porter (141), Kanai Tapia (149), Benjamen Mitchell (157), Ledger Petracek (165), Ethan Miller (174), Travis Waldner (184), Bradley Whitright (197) and Shai Murray (285).

“I just love their will to compete,” Booth said. “We’ve chased the best competition all year and now it’s time to go and prove that we belong. These guys will fight all seven minutes, no matter what is happening.”

NIC only had two home matches this year, facing Simon Fraser and Clackamas at home in mid-January.

“When our schedule came out, we kind of called ourselves the road warriors because we were going to have to do all of our work in another team’s gym,” Booth said. “That schedule really prepared us for this. We had Clackamas at home, but we’ve seen the stiffest competition we can find. We’re ready to go.”

Championship semifinals are scheduled for Saturday at 7:30 a.m., with championship finals at 4 p.m.

Clackamas of Oregon City, Ore., is the four-time NJCAA champion.

“This year, it’s going to be pretty wide open,” said Booth, whose team beat Clackamas twice in dual competition, then was second at the West District Championships. “It’s going to be a competitive race and going to come down to which guys show up ready to compete.

Porter (seventh at 133) and Petracek (fourth at 165) placed at nationals last year.

“It’s a pretty light group of guys,” Booth said. “Our leaders have been here for three years. A lot of our other guys have been in a lot of tournaments that are the same size. We’ll treat it like another tournament and take it from there. Our biggest goal is to try and channel whatever nerves they have. Our biggest message is that it’s nothing you haven’t seen or done before.”

Jett Strickenberger, a sophomore who finished third at nationals for NIC in 2022, also qualified after transferring to Northwest Kansas Tech. Isaiah Laguna, a sophomore from Post Falls, also qualified for Ellsworth at 197

Results can be found on FloWrestling.com.