OMAHA – The 2010 state wrestling tournament began with a lot of fireworks, but in the end, only one person was left standing with their hand raised. And it was a year in the making.
Cozad’s Tanner Sturgeon, facing incredible odds in his final two matches, wrestled mistake-free to capture the Class B 189-pound championship Saturday night, in front of a crowd of nearly 10,000 people.
Sturgeon faced off with  Jake Nichelson of Ashland-Greenwood in the semi-finals. With his nemesis, Ryan Randall of Blair watching, Sturgeon took the bigger Nichelson and used his fancy footwork and did the one thing that Sturgeon knew that would out-smart his opponent.
Score before his opponent had a chance to score.
“I think he was more broke mentally,” Sturgeon said. “My brother always said, “the best defense is offense,” so I had to shoot in before he could shoot.”
Sturgeon took the match by pinning Nichelson in the third period to get his rematch with Randall. The Blair junior made it to the championship final by pinning a record 31 straight, all in the first period.
Sturgeon and Randall were familiar foes, as they met in the  quarter-finals of last year’s state tournament.
Randall got the best of the Haymaker as he won by a 12-4 major decision.
Randall ended up taking fifth place overall last season, while Sturgeon took home third place.
Coming into the new season, Sturgeon knew what he had to do to take home the title in 2010.
“I had to be in good shape and I had to be  good wrestler all-around,” Sturgeon said. “I know I had to work hard all seasonlong and so that’s what we did.”
As both dueled for most of the match, Sturgeon used his finesse and technical skill to stay away from Randall’s power for most of the match and going into the third period, led Randall by a 7-3 score.
“I saw Coach White tell me “Two minutes for a state championship,” and I was just thinking,” Whoa, I better ride hard for two minutes,” Sturgeon said. “So I did everything I could and when there was about a minute left, I was just staying safe, staying behind the elbows and doing everything that I was taught.”
The hard work and fundamentals paid off, as the final seconds ticked away and the gold medal that had eluded Tanner for the last two seasons, was finally his.
Sturgeon becomes just the second Haymaker in the school’s history to go undefeated and win a state title (Lane Kinnan). Sturgeon is excited and humbled to be placed on the “Hall of Champions” at Cozad High School.
“This is a wrestling place, this is wrestling town,” Sturgeon said. “Just to know that I will be up on that wall, people look at that wall and people respect who is on that wall.”
For coach Derek Hammerlun, this is the second Haymaker state champion he has coached in his six years that he has coached the Haymakers.
“I think it’s ust getting kids to buy into the commitment that it takes to get to this level,” Hammerlun said. “This is not something that kids do in their free time, these kids wrestle almost year round. People don’t realize the commitment that kids put in day in and day out.”
Not even 48 hours after his state championship victory, the title of “state champion” still hasn’t sunk in for the Haymaker senior.
“You can’t really describe it,” Sturgeon said. “It’s just an amazing feeling.”
The senior is still making a decision on where he will wrestle during his collegiate career. He has had offers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, UNK and Chadron State to name a few.
As Sturgeon now gets ready to move onto college, the challenge for Cozad will be to try and find a way to fill the shoes of a state champion.
“The thing is that you can’t really replace him,” Hammerlun said.” What you have to do is try to find the next pieces of the puzzle. When Ryan Levell left, we knew Tanner was going to be a piece of that puzzle. Now with Tanner leaving, we have a lot of guys who are going to be a piece of that puzzle.”
Sturgeon is leaning more toward Coach Mark Bauer and the Lopers, in which if he signs the dotted line for UNK, he wants to prove that he can be one of the best.
“I just want to prove that I can wrestle at the collegiate level,” Sturgeon said. “UNK is great wrestling school so I want to prove that I have what it takes to be a great Division II wrestler.”
Photos and statistics from the 2010 State Wrestling Tournament can be found on Page 10 of the sport section of the Clipper-Herald.

• Cozad Haymakers
• Cozad Wrestling

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