Svoboda, Kluck and Owens all set to battle for gold
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Aurora's Trevor Kluck is one of three finalists for the Huskies battling for gold in Saturday's state finals. -
Caden Svoboda will make his second appearance in the state wrestling finals Saturday night. -
Mack Owens will make his first state wrestling finals appearance at 182. -
Brekyn Papineau embraces coaches Derek Keasling and Brandon Timm after finishing 3rd at 195. -
Aaron Jividen finished 4th at 285 in the state wrestling championships.
Aurora pushed three wrestlers through to the finals Saturday morning at the state wrestling championships.
Caden Svoboda at 106, Trevor Kluck at 145 and Mack Owens at 182 all punched tickets to tonight's state wrestling finals after wins this morning.
Svoboda earned a 9-4 decision victory over Blair's Jesse Loges and returns to the state finals for a second straight year. The Aurora senior finished runner-up in 2020 and will take on Gering's Ashton Dane in the 106 finals.
Kluck, after three years of coming up short, pushed through to his first state finals after earning a second period pin victory over Blair's Charlie Powers. Kluck hopes to finish his high school career on top, taking on Hastings' Landon Weidner in tonight's 145 finals.
Owens will also wrestle in his first state final after grinding out a 5-2 decision over Beatrice's Deegan Nelson. Owens will match up with Bennington's Luke MacDonald in the 182 finals.
Aurora has three finalists that hope to join an exclusive club. The Huskies feature 12 total state champions in school history between nine individuals, the last of which being now assistant coach Garret Johns in 2012.
The Huskies also had two medalists -- Brekyn Papineau and Aaron Jividen. Both lost tough semifinal matches before battling through placement matches this morning.
Papineau won two decision victories after his semifinal loss to finish 3rd. The Aurora junior is now a two-time medalist after finishing 5th a year ago.
Jividen battled back after his semifinal loss to get into the third place match, but lost a tough overtime decision to end up fourth.
The Huskies currently sit third in the team standings behind Gering and Beatrice. Gering leads the way with 116.5 points while Beatrice has 104.5 and Aurora at 99.
The finals for the state wrestling championships are set to begin at 7 p.m. and can be seen on NET.
For live updates from the sidelines follow us on Twitter @SportsANR and see next week's News-Register for full coverage.
