NORFOLK - The Scottsbluff wrestling team tuned up for next weekend's district tournament with another strong performance Saturday in the Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference Tournament.

The Bearcats, powered by six wrestlers who posted top-two finishes, earned a third-place finish in the eighth-team tournament, which included several Class A schools.

Scottsbluff piled up 144.5 points, and North Platte scored 163.5 points to take second place. Kearney took the championship with 207.5 points.

"We had a pretty good showing," Scottsbluff coach James Miller said. "It was nice to see all the seniors place in our final regular-season tournament. . Our goal was to finish first or second, so we fell short of that a little bit, but the guys still wrestled really tough and did a great job. There were some situations where some guys had to work through some tough spots and had some tough matches, but I think that was good for us, especially with districts next weekend."

Scottsbluff competed against a number of teams for the first time Saturday, including district foes Lexington and McCook. Miller said the GNAC Tournament helped his squad prepare for the tough competition in the district tournament, which will be Friday and Saturday at Gothenburg.

"I like how we're heading into that tournament," Miller said. "We definitely have some goals as a team for districts. We're looking to qualify quite a few guys. I think we have a lot of guys who have a chance to go to state. We just need to continue to work hard this week and address a couple things. We need to get the guys mentally prepared and ready to go. There's going to be some weight classes where our kids are really going to have to battle and work hard, but we think they can get in."

Colton Adams and Tyler Nation continued to excel for the Bearcats on Saturday. Both won championships, with Adams posting a 2-0 record at 126 pounds and Nation registering a 3-0 mark at 138 pounds. Both had tough matches in the championship round, but Adams ended up recording a technical fall while Nation earned a decision over his foe.

Scottsbluff also had four runner-up finishers, including Kolby Aulick, who went 1-1 at 195. Miller said Aulick wrestled tough against a top-rated wrestler from Columbus in the final, losing by just a 5-4 decision.

Also earning runner-up finishes for Scottsbluff were Keegan Hessler at 113 (2-1 record), Cruz Delacruz at 106 (2-1), and Jed Weis at 170 (2-1).

Andrew Aratani posted a fourth-place finish at heavyweight, and Cody Rossman at 152 placed fifth. Brandon Krichau at 160 took sixth place.

"I'm really proud of all the guys. They wrestled really hard," Miller said. "It was a long road trip, but I'm definitely proud of the way we handled things."