Manhattan, KS native Jeff Vesta finished off his junior college career in a big way by winning the NJCAA National Championship at 125 lbs. this past weekend in Rochester, MN.  Freshman LeRoy Barnes came up just short in his bid for a championship by finishing a strong third place at 133lbs. 

Also scoring points for NCCC were two time national qualifier Edwin Gutierrez at 184 with a 1-2 record and freshman Cole Carr also with a 1-2 record.  The accumulation of these 4 point getter's for the Panthers pushed NCCC to a 11^th place finish in the nation this season climbing above the final ranking of 14^th.  Freshman Trent Robb was the last qualifier for NCCC and he went 0-2.   

Vesta recorded a 5-0 record during the two day event.  In the first round he pinned Torres of Northern Iowa Area CC in 52 seconds, round two he pinned #5 ranked Thomas of Lincoln IL in 4:58, the quarter finals Friday night Jeff won 11-8 over #8 ranked Calderon of North Idaho, and in the semifinals he pinned #7 ranked Colon of Iowa Central in 5:26.  Vesta, ranked number two all season had now made his way to the championship finals. 
In the lower half of the bracket saw #1 ranked Romero of Highline WA make his way to the finals as well pitting a rematch of last year's 3^rd and 4^th place match where Romero beat Vesta in a close hard fought bout.  Romero had also defeated Vesta in the first round of last year's national tournament. 

In the finals Saturday night the first period went 0-0 with Vesta deferring after winning the flip and Romero took down.  Vesta being very strong on the mat controlled his foe soundly building up 1:36 in riding time before Romero secured a reversal for a 2-0 lead.  However, Jeff answered with an escape at the end of the period to make the score 2-1 in favor of Romero. 

Vesta chose down the 3^rd period and after being rode for nearly a 1:40, Jeff came up with a big reversal taking the lead 3-2.  Vesta's 1:36 riding time in the second period nullified Romero's 1:45 of riding time in the third and now the final 20 seconds saw Vesta back at where he is best, on top and dominating with his tough ride for the win at 3-2 and NCCC's ninth individual National Champion. 

LeRoy Barnes had a 4-1 win/loss record for the weekend where his only loss was to #1 ranked Wright of Iowa Central in the semifinals 7-4.  He recovered from that loss and came back one hour later Saturday to beat #3 ranked Hughes of Labette for the 4^th straight time this semester 6-1 and then pin Rodriguez of North Idaho for the second time in the tournament for his third place finish. 

Comments from Coach Petterson,
        “This was what we set out for in the beginning of this season with Jeff.  After finishing fourth last year we decided from the get go that this season was for a National Championship and nothing else. 

It feels really good to put the expectation on like that and then follow through with it.  We were shooting for the same thing with LeRoy but in a different way. 

Typically freshmen don't really jell until sometime second semester and LeRoy fell right into that.  He lost to Hughes of Labette 12-9 in the semifinals of the Newman Invitational on Dec. 11 where he was ahead 7-0 after the first period.  Since that loss LeRoy went 22-1 to end up with an overall season record of 41-10.  We knew after he won the Kansas Cup and district's that we were now legitimately shooting for a title.  Next year he will be in the same shoe's as Vesta this season. 

Jeff finished with a season record of 37-7 and his junior college career record of 70-18.  That is very good considering we have an extremely tough schedule with the likes of Oklahoma State and Iowa at tournaments we seek out.  I am very proud of these guys and our team.”