The curtain on the marquee matchup of the night in the River Cities Conference tournament fell almost as quickly as it came up.
The top-ranked 215-pounders in Class A and Class B closed the annual conference meet Thursday at the SSC Mini-Dome, and the excitement of watching two of the top wrestlers in the state was quickly tamped down by a dominating effort by Omaha Skutt senior Cade Ziola.
Ziola, who recently committed to wrestle at Nebraska and is No. 1 in Class B, was relentless after an exciting first period, needing just 96 seconds of the second period to rack up a 21-5 technical fall over Palmer, who is the man to beat in Class A, to claim the conference title and finish off another conference championship for the Skyhawks.
The two wrestlers attacked and countered throughout a scoreless first period. Ziola won the toss and immediately took the down position, and 17 seconds into the period was able to reverse on the edge of the match.
Ziola conceded an escape to get both wrestlers in the neutral position, then executed a quick ankle pick to bring Palmer down for the first time this season.
Ziola recorded two more takedowns and a four-point nearfall to build 15-3 lead going to the third period, and recorded two more takedowns on the Cardinal senior to finish off the technical fall 44 seconds into the third period, handing Palmer (34-1) his first loss of the season.
Coach Jacob Renken said it was hard to keep up with the relentless attack Ziola put on Palmer.
“We didn’t get to our offense the way we wanted to,” he said. “I think we had an adrenaline dump that firs tperiod and we couldn’t come back when you have somebody that’s so offensive like that.”
On the bright side, Thursday’s humbling might serve Palmer well heading into the final six weeks of the season.
“It’ll put a fire under him, that’s for sure,” Renken said. “This is the first time he’s been taken down all season, so i think it’s going to help him more than anything.”
As a team, the Cardinals finished third in the five-team, round-robin competition, a result that left Renken disappointed.
“It wasn’t our best day today,” he said. “We lost some matches that I felt we should have won today. We’re getting better, but this was a step back and we’ll come back from it.”
The Cardinals did come away with a pair of champions. DJ Helms dominated in the heavyweight division, winning all three matches on first-period pins, and Adrian Curiel claimed top honors at 190 pounds.
Palmer and Johnny Garcia (157) finished second in their weight classes. Thirds went to Bryan Bartolo-Lopez (113), William Messerlie (132), Erick Moreno (138) and Bodey Bligh (150).
River Cities Conference
Team Standings
Omaha Skutt 176.5, Mount Michael 130, South Sioux City 84, Omaha Gross 59, Omaha Roncalli 33.
SSC Results (all round-robin)
106: Kenny Mavalong, 1-3, 4th.
113: Bryan Bartolo-Lopez, 0-2, 3rd.
120: Cristian Navarro, 1-3, 4th.
126: Riggin Ferris, 1-3, 4th.
132: William Messerlie, 2-2, 3rd.
138: Erick Moreno, 1-2, 3rd.
144: Tristan Lounsbury, 0-4, 5th.
150: Bodey Bligh, 2-2, 3rd.
157: Johnny Garcia, 1-1, 2nd.
165: Dominick Delgado, 0-3, 4th.
175: Cooper Ferris, 0-3, 4th.
190: Adrian Curiel, 2-0, 1st.
215: Tony Palmer, 2-1, 2nd.
285: DJ Helms, 3-0, 1st.
