Cyclones’ Bendorf earns Dan Hill Invite title at 182

 HARLAN (Dec. 7) -- Senior Carter Bendorf became a Dan Hill Invitational champion on Saturday afternoon, winning the 182-pound bracket to lead the Harlan Community wrestlers to third place in their annual season-opening home meet.
 Seniors Ethan Lemon (132) and Nathan Henry (195) both placed second for HCHS and sophomore Luke Musich took third at 126.
 The Cyclones filled out all 14 weights and placed in 13 of them, scoring 178.5 points and finishing behind team champion Winterset (254.5) and Logan-Magnolia (227). Perry (135.5) and Gretna (129.5) rounded out the top five among a nine-team field. Lo-Ma claimed five champs on the day, followed by Winterset with four.
 “We just didn’t do well enough against Winterset and Logan when we went head to head. That’s what it kind of came down to,” said HCHS head coach John Murtaugh. “I think our effort was real good, but there was a lot of mistakes out there as there tends to be in the first meet.”
 Carter Bendorf, who was a runner-up in last year’s Dan Hill Invite, opens the season ranked ninth at 170 (Class 2A) by The Predicament. He wrestled at 182 on Saturday and pinned both of his opponents.
 Bendorf (41-8 last year) was particularly impressive in the finals vs. Glenwood’s Mitch Mayberry, taking him to the mat with a quick-striking left-hand headlock and winning by fall in 58 seconds.
 Bendorf lost in the finals of last year’s home tourney to a returning state champ from Gretna. He was determined to take one more step up the medal podium as a senior.
 “I did summer wrestling, I’ve been training. I wanted this bad,” he said. “I trained for it and it feels good.”
 Lemon, the Cyclones’ only returning state qualifier, has moved up a weight class to 132 this year. He went the full distance, and then some, in his first two matches, making the finals with a 9-7 overtime win against West Central Valley’s Justin Garcia.
 In the championship final vs. Abraham Lincoln’s Jude Ryan, Lemon was taken to the mat twice. He scored a reversal to tie the score in the first period, then got taken down again in the third and lost 4-2. Ryan rode Lemon for the entire second period and much of the third and Lemon appeared to run out of gas late in the match.
 Henry pinned his first two opponents at 195 and nearly made it a hat trick against Gretna’s Jackson Arend in the finals with a five-point move in the final moments of the first period. Given new life, Arend started on top in the second period and twice turned Henry to his back - once for a near-fall and later for a pin in 3:32.
 Musich nearly gave the Cyclones’ a fourth finalist but was defeated 11-9 in OT by Winterset’s Keegan Jensen in the semis. He bounced back to win his next two matches and placed third with a 3-1 record. Fourth-place Cyclones included Luke Freund at 113, Dalton McKinley at 145 and Zane Bendorf at 160. Placing fifth were Sam Schmitz (106), Wyatt Obrecht (138), Thomas Frederick (170) and Jeremiah Davis (220).