COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa - Not one, but two Thursday overtime matches for Cloud County Community College wrestling freshman Zach Ferris along with determination, grit, and will power has led to the program's first NJCAA Wrestling National Champion at the 2021 NJCAA Wrestling National Championships in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Thursday.
Not only making history as CCCC's first National Champion, Ferris ends what has become a storybook year for the Chapman native who finishes his 2021 and inaugural collegiate season with a perfect 21-0 record. Just two years removed from finishing fourth at the Kansas High School 4A State Wrestling Tournament, Ferris began the year unranked and finishes the season atop the podium while knocking off the number-three and number-four ranked wrestlers in his weight class en route to the title.
Becoming just the fourth NJCAA All-American in the program's brief four-year history, Ferris has etched his name into CCCC history and raised the bar for years to come as Cloud County has shown they belong on the national stage. Earning four wins at the National Tournament, Ferris helped the T-Birds to their highest team finish in program history as Cloud County would earn a total of 59 points to take 11th while besting their previous team-best finish of 13th.
The run through the tournament for Ferris would begin with an opening round bye as the first opponent standing in his way would be Andrew Leitold of Labette. Having already faced Leitold this year, Ferris would waste little time earning a pin in 3:28 to advance to Wednesday night's quarterfinal round. In the quarterfinals, Ferris would take on Jerrell Belcher of Ellsworth who pulled an upset of number-eight ranked Johnny Franke earlier in the day and have to earn every bit of a 6-4 decision win. Trailing 2-0 late in the first period, Ferris would score a last-second reversal to tie things up at 2-2 before giving up an escape to start the second period. A takedown from Ferris would give the sophomore the lead momentarily as Belcher would get a takedown that would last all of seven seconds as Ferris would make a move to a reversal and reclaim the lead once more. Racking up the riding time to lock the point, Ferris would manage to do just enough to hang on and become the second T-Bird to ever advance to the semifinal round.
Facing arguably his toughest competition to date, Ferris would be tasked with taking on number two-seed and third-ranked Josh McFarland of Iowa Western as a barn-burner of a match would go to overtime for the second time all year for Ferris. Trailing 3-2 with just under a minute remaining, Ferris would look to push the pace as McFarland would be hit with a second stalling call to tie the match up at 3-3 and send things to the extra-time. Following a minute of sudden-victory where neither wrestler would score, McFraland would score an escape with one second left in the first 30-second overtime session as Ferris would need at least an escape in the second 30-second period to extend the match. Working his way to break free, Ferris would catch McFarland out of position and manage to turn on the IWCC wrestler as a reversal would be scored with eight seconds remaining. Ferris would then ride out the remaining time in the match to punch his ticket the national title bout and begin the long buildup towards the second-to-last match of the tournament.
With the stage set and facing off against number-four ranked Jose Valdez of North Iowa Area Community College, Ferris would see a challenge of a takedown call in the first period get overturned to keep things scoreless after three minutes of wrestling. Winning the coin toss and deferring his choice to the third-period, Ferris would be put in top position as Valdez would work an escape in what would be the lone points of the second period. Returning the favor, Ferris would get an escape of his own in the third before what appeared to be another Valdez takedown with just under 30 seconds remaining as CCCC Head coach Cody Cole would challenge the call for the second time in the match. Another overturned call kept the match at 1-1 as extra-time would be needed to decide a national champ. Similar to his semifinal bout, Ferris would keep things tied up with neither wrestler scoring in the one minute sudden-overtime period as the 30-second tiebreaker periods would be needed. After giving up an escape to Valdez, Ferris would manage to get two quick stall calls on his opponent in the opening seconds of the second 30-second period to tie things up as Valdez would fail to improve his position. Still not making an attempt to improve his position, Valdez would be hit with a third-stall call with two seconds remaining as the point to Ferris would be the National Championship winning point.
Joining Ferris as an All-American was sophomore James Davis at 133 pounds as the Dayton, Ohio, native worked his way through a pair of wins in the opening session on Wednesday which included a 9-2 decision over number-five ranked Destin Summers of Western Wyoming Community College before falling in the quarterfinals to number-four ranked Caleb Meekins of Indian Hills. Bouncing back in his final match of the day would see an 18-2 technical fall over Talge Jones of Jamestown Community College that would get Davis to the placing rounds on Thursday morning.
A thrilling victory in his first match on Thursday saw the sophomore handle Marquis Kemp of Otero with relative ease before getting a takedown in the final seconds that would end in a pin with one second remaining to guarantee Davis no worse than sixth. Number-three ranked Parker Dobrosky would be waiting for Davis following a semifinal loss as a second-period fall would send Davis to the fifth-place match where he would earn his fifth and final win of the tournament with a medical forfeit from number-six ranked Ryan Smith of Cowley with the match being called as Davis was up 10-0.
Other wrestlers who earned wins for CCCC at the 2021 championship event would include a win from Toby Gavette (125 lbs), Michael Barfuss (141 lbs), Jonny Crome (157 lbs), and Thomas Orr (285 lbs). Winning their first two matches of the tournament before falling in the quarterfinal round and then again with All-American status on the line would be Joel Ostrom (149 lbs) and Cooper Mosier (165 lbs).
In total, Cloud County would tally 18 wins at the National Tournament with seven wins coming by fall. The 11th-place finish by CCCC was the third-highest from a Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference program behind only Pratt (fourth), and Northwest Kansas Tech (seventh).