Anderson places sixth at tough Ron Thon Memorial

The Rocky Mountain Grizzlies went to battle with the big boys — and girls — at the annual best-of-the-best, all-class Ron Thon Memorial wrestling tournament in Riverton last week.

The meet started with the girls division on Thursday, and as that bracket wrapped up Friday, the boys division started and continued through Saturday.

“This tournament is a big one, and it’s one of the toughest tournaments in the state, but it’s not the one we are chasing at all. The girls started out Thursday afternoon with a huge bang. I loved that I got to watch some good wrestling and got to coach some great matches.”

The most successful wrestler for the Rocky team was, indeed, a girl: sophomore Charlee Anderson, who placed sixth at 190 pounds. Anderson crushed Caylee Steele of Campbell County (Gillette) 15-0 and pinned Stella Lind of Star Valley in 1:45 before falling to Joci Davis of Cheyenne East, Kamia Runyan of Big Piney and Danika Harris of Glenrock, each by a pin.

Sophomore Andria Doren went 1-2 at 155 pounds, her lone win coming on a medical forfeit, and senior Rebecca Herren and freshman Grace McAlhany went 0-2, each at 135 pounds.

“Our girls wrestled well and tough; we went in and wrestled girls tougher than most of them thought they would do,” Whiting said. “Charlee Anderson is our lone placer out of both the girls and boys. She has been wrestling tough all year, and she continues to have that drive to get after it and get it done.

“Another girl that stuck out this weekend is our lone girl senior, Rebecca Herren. She has been developing up to her potential, and she is keeping up with girls that have been wrestling a lot longer than her, but she just has a drive to her and has a smile on her face when she comes off the mat and just brings joy to the sport.”

The only Grizzly boy to win a match was sophomore Mason Twomey at 215 pounds, who went 1-2 with a pin against Colter Percifield of Campbell County in 2:28.

Sophomore Sam Loyning (126 pounds), junior Colten Bitton (138), sophomore Austin Weller (138), sophomore Paul Shetler (157), junior Triffen Jolley (165), sophomore William Torres (215) and freshman Alex Walker (285) each went 0-2, though they wrestled some competitive matches.

“On the boys side of things they had tough draws right out the gate,” Whiting said. “You want to go hard first thing and come away with a win, and we fell short in those matches, but we fought hard and had long battles. I would say each one of these gentlemen walked away with their heads held high and left it on the mat, no matter the outcome, because they went out and battled hard fought matches.

“Paul Shetler had the biggest bracket in the whole thing where he had to have a preliminary match just to make the bracket, so that’s tough for a young man to do — wrestle guys that are also trying to get into a hard bracket. Sam Loyning wrestled really well and found himself in a tough spot in wrestle-backs when we had a rematch with the Rawlins gentleman that hurt us early on in the season. But nonetheless he completely competed to a caliber I have been waiting for him to unleash.”

The Grizzlies will make the short trip to Greybull Saturday for the annual Greybull Memorial Invitational, with wrestling commencing at 10 a.m.

“We will have a long week to help us prepare for our last regular tournament of the year before Regionals and State,” Whiting said. “Greybull is also that tournament before Regionals that helps to get a seed or where we can place a wrestler.”

The 2A West Regional tournaments will be held in Southwest Wyoming this year. The girls will wrestle in Evanston in an all-class format on February 21-22, but the boys will wrestle on February 21 only in Big Piney.