Current Jamestown Community College wrestlers beat Jayhawks alumni 5-4 at the inaugural JCC Wrestling Alumni Night held Saturday at the college’s Physical Education Complex. Submitted photo

It was quite the scene at the Physical Education Complex on Saturday evening as the Jamestown Community College wrestling team hosted the inaugural JCC Wrestling Alumni Night.

“This was something that we wanted to do for a long time,” said head coach Kris Schimek. “It’s important to build and grow our relationship with past alumni, show them that we have continued to build this program year in and year out.”

This was also a good time for Schimek to see his current team in action as seven of his current wrestlers faced off against the former Jayhawks.

“It was a good test for our guys,” said Schimek. “Our guys are used to drilling with one another every day so it was good for them to go against someone completely new, even if they were the wily old vets.”

In total, there were nine matches on the night with the winner of the each match gaining one point for their respective team.

After eight matches, the team scores was knotted up at 4-4 with one match remaining.

In the final match, current Jayhawks Ross Abram (Eden/Eden Central) squared off against 2012 graduate Nick Bennett. Though there wasn’t much of an age difference between the two, Abram had the upper hand with his preseason training and took the match for the current Jamestown CC team.

“It was electric,” Schimek said. “For our first alumni night to come down to the final match for all the bragging rights, you couldn’t have scripted it any better.”

Joining Bennett for the alumni team were Max Murray (2011), Lance Zerniak (2012), Ryan Guynup (2013), Brian McCoy (2014), Nick Jones (2019) and Jesse Storch (2021). Serving as the coach of the team was Ryan Richter (2016).

The program thanked Falconer High School wrestling head coach Drew Wilcox for being the guest official for the night.

“We look to keep building our alumni relations and make this a premiere event in the fall for years to come,” Schimek said. “For our first one, I thought it was a good turnout. It was especially nice to see fans back in the stands watching our young men compete.”