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State wrestling's royalty could expand by three at Saturday's Nebraska high school finals.

Competing at the same time at CenturyLink Center, trying to become four-time state champions, will be 132-pounders Thomas Gilman of Omaha Skutt in Class B and Eric Coufal of Howells in Class D. Then at 138 pounds comes Andrew Riedy of Grand Island in Class A.

Should all three win, the roster of four-time winners would expand to 19 and it would be the first time since 2000 that there were three in the same year.

Coufal would be only the third wrestler to be undefeated in a four-year career.

By the time they wrestle, Gilman and Riedy should know whether their teams are going to stand together as champions at meet's end. Both teams left the arena Friday with comfortable leads, but not with locks on the titles.

"This isn't in the bag like we're accustomed to,'' Grand Island coach Mike Schadwinkel said.

His team has five in the 2 p.m. finals to four for Omaha Burke, which is 24.5 points behind the Islanders after Friday night's semifinals that drew an announced paid crowd of 10,530.

Skutt is on the verge of reclaiming the Class B title from Central City, which is mathematically alive with three in the finals and one in the consolation semifinals.

The Class C and D titles could come down to the finals as Madison finished Friday night with a 115-114 lead over Valentine in C and Amherst held a 143.5-142 edge over Pender as they left the rest of Class D far behind in the standings.

Grand Island and Burke left their coaches feeling better at the end of Friday's competition than the night before.

"I can say about the same things as last night, just with a better mood,'' Schadwinkel said.

A key win in the semifinals was Riedy's 4-1 decision against Burke's Jared Green after the first period went scoreless.

"When Andrew got the reversal to start the second period, I started feeling OK,'' the Islander coach said. "It was a good win, one we had to have."

The only Burke-GI matchup in the finals is the opener at 106 between Brent Curtis of Burke and Dante Rodriguez, who beat Curtis in overtime in last year's semifinals.

Grand Island's other finalists are Trey Trujillo at 126, Carlos Rodriguez at 152 and Chase Reis at 170.

Burke, which trails 154.5-130, also has Aaron Fletcher at 113, Jacob Wilcoxen at 120 and Jordan Hammond at 145. Fletcher (34-1) faces Kearney unbeaten Hunter Bamford and Wilcoxen (45-1) draws once-beaten Seth Nehls of Kearney.

Skutt's finalists include a pair of wrestlers with double-digit losses, reflective of the SkyHawks' strong, multi-state schedule similar to Grand Island's.

JT Sloboth (33-12) advanced to the 113 final and Keith Jadlowski (21-10) to the 145 title bout.

"We had some great performances,'' Skutt coach Brad Hildebrandt said.

He has concerns about 170-pounder Phillip Rasmussen, who lost in the semifinals to Bennington's Conor Hovey.

"Phillip got banged up. We'll see what happens,'' Hildebrandt said.

Madison has brothers Ricky (126) and Gustavo Avila (132) in the Class C finals along with Takoda Batenhorst (113) and Blake Eisenmann (138). Only Eisenmann was in the 2011 finals when the Dragons were runners-up after winning titles in 2008 and 2010 (a tie that year with Mitchell).

Dragons coach Ken Loosvelt credited a strong showing in the third round of consolations for keeping Madison in the running.

"We had three seniors wrestling for their lives trying to medal. All three of them won,'' Loosvelt said. "Our 195-pounder just won. He had a really bad elbow. He's wrestling with one hand. He finds a way to come through to win and get a medal.

"I couldn't be more proud of our seniors."

Valentine trailed Madison by 30 points after Eisenmann's semifinal win, but caught up as Jade Sandoz at 138 and Marcus Nelson at 145 won in consecutive matches and Trent Osnes finished the round with a pin at 195.

Bart Miller at 113 is the Badgers' fourth finalist.

Amherst and Pender are positioned to break Class D scoring records for the winner (161.5 by Rushville in 2003) and runner-up (143 by Howells in 2006 when it lost by a point to Amherst).

Amherst sends Mason Klingelhoefer at 126, Tanner Taubenheim at 138, Wyatt Schlake at 160 and Stuart Hircock at 170 against the Pender fivesome of Mark Dunn (106), Benny Oliver (113), Jacob Sebade (120), Garrett Bowder (126) and Ben Burmester (182).

Contact the writer:

402-444-1041, stu.pospisil@owh.com

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