Grizzly grapplers place five in Shoshoni

The Rocky Mountain wrestlers appear to be hitting their stride. Seeing same level competition at the Clash at the Crossroads tournament Friday and Saturday in Shoshoni, the Grizzlies came home with five top three medals.

“The Clash at the Crossroads was a great success for us to see growth in our program,” head coach Eddie Whiting said. “Not only did we have a champion at 215 but we had multiple placers and other wrestlers who came away with some huge wins.”

Rocky sophomore Masen Twomey won the title at 215 pounds, wrestling to a 3-0 record after a pair of byes. Twomey beat teammate William Torres by technical fall, 15-0, then pinned Camden Schriner of Greybull/Riverside in 1:24. Wrestling for the championship, Twomey crushed Haeden Blair of Thermopolis 11-3.

“Masen tore up his bracket this weekend to be a Clash at the Crossroads champion, earning a sweet Spartan helmet,” Whiting said. “He shows a lot of strength and determination and has room for growth.”

As for Torres, a fellow sophomore, he pinned Kyler Mickelson of Lovell in 5:18, fell to Twomey, pinned Tim Snell of Lovell in 55 seconds, pinned teammate Hayden Wambeke in 2:08 and fell to Colter Schwend of Tongue River by a fall in 3:48, finishing with a 3-2 record, then went 2-1 in the second-chance portion of the meet, pinning Snell again in 1:49 and sticking Sebastian Brown of Lovell in 1:49 for his two wins that put him at 5-3 on the weekend.

Wambeke, who joined the team after the season started, went 1-2 at the regular meet, pinning Kyler Nelson of Cokeville in 1:43 for his lone win, but he went 3-0 in the second-chance meet, pinning Nelson in 33 seconds, Keen Schmaus of TR in 1:18 and Mickelson of Lovell in 2:40, finishing 4-2 on the weekend.

“Hayden looked great for a guy who has only been out for a couple of weeks,” Whiting said. “His athleticism shows, and he’s looking like a natural out there.”

Freshman Zach Unruh had a strong tournament, battling to a 4-1 record and placing third at 144 pounds. After a first-round bye, Unruh pinned Riley Henle of Wright in 20 seconds and Tripp Isenberger of Wright in 3:05, fell to Logan Halls of Cokeville in 2:50, then rallied to edge Chance Hatch of Lovell 9-6 and pin Kanean Roberts of Saratoga in 4:13.

Junior Triffen Jolley placed third at 165 pounds with a 5-1 record. He pinned Peyton Klaproth of Shoshoni 1:06, fell by pin to Samuel Skelton of Thermop by pin in 51 seconds, then won four straight: pinning Gabe Cornell of Shoshoni in 51 seconds and Jededidah Awtrey of Cokeville in 2:40, crushing Nikoah Sorenson of G/R 16-1 and beating Calder Vollmer of Tongue River 14-9 for third.

Freshman heavyweight Alex Walker went 2-1 to place third. Walker pinned Woody Springfield of Tongue River in 5:47, fell by pin to Curtis Strohschein of G/R in 59 seconds, received a bye, then pinned Springfield again, this time in 38 seconds.

“It was huge to see these wrestlers wrestle back in the bracket to find that third place,” Whiting noted.

Sophomore Sam Loyning went 3-3 at 132 pounds, including the second-chance portion of the tournament, beating Mason Huff and Hayden Suttee of Saratoga twice for his three wins while Austin Weller competed at 138 pounds, Ethan Haslem at 144 pounds and Paul Shetler at 157.

The Grizzlies placed eighth at the tournament with 84 team points, just behind Tongue River (87.5) and ahead of Shoshoni, Wright, Saratoga, Hulett and Cheyenne South. Cokeville won the tournament 163.5-155 over Thermopolis. Greybull/Riverside was third with 153 points.

Girls division

Charlee Anderson was the top performer for the Lady Grizzlies in the girls division at Shoshoni, going 2-4 to place second at 190 pounds. Anderson pinned Savanah Peterson of Sundance in 5:59, fell to Kamia Runyan of Big Piney, Madi Ramage of Shoshoni and Ava Dafoe of Thermop, then pinned Peterson again in 5:36 and fell by fall (1:34) to Runyan in 1:34 to place second.

“Charlee found herself in a spot where we know we have room for growth but also know she is still a wrestler that is not going to just lie down and get pinned easily,” Whiting said.

Sophomore Andria Doren also competed for the Lady Grizz at 155 pounds.

Triangular

Ahead of the Shoshoni meet, the Grizzlies traveled to Basin to compete in the annual Big Horn County Triangular Thursday evening, where they took on Greybull/Riverside and Lovell in dual matches.

“We wrestled tough opponents in the triangular duals,” Whiting said. “We had some huge wins and some tough losses, but we learned from each match. Not one individual performance in the duals stuck out more than the rest did. As a whole unit I thought we did well.”

To Moorcroft

The Grizz will travel to Crook County this weekend for the Dylan Humes Memorial Mixer, with some 21 teams expected to attend. Wrestling begins Friday with the varsity boys at 11 a.m., varsity girls at 11:30 and the junior varsity boys at noon. Both boys and girls wrestling resumes Saturday at 9 a.m.

“We travel to Moorcroft, and I am excited to see what this week brings and to see the other side of the state,” Whiting said.