Grizzly grapplers show improvement at Wrangler Duals

Wresting in their second tournament of the season, the Rocky Mountain Grizzlies showed improvement from week one to week two as they competed at the Battle in the Big Horns tournament in Worland Friday and Saturday.

“Our Grizz wrestled significantly better than we did last week, not just as individuals but as a team,” head coach Eddie Whiting said. “We still need more work on controlling the match pace and on moves.

“Charlee Anderson came away with another championship and some hardware. She had her first loss in the pool wrestling on Friday but came back fired up and ready to roll. She shows a lot of strength and heart, which is huge in this sport.”

Wrestling at 190 pounds, Anderson stuck Sammi Cesko of Rawlins in the championship match, with the referee hitting the mat at 2:15.

Also wrestling in the girls brackets for the Grizz were senior Rebecca Herren and junior Emmilee Wambeke.

For the boys, two sophomores placed fifth for the Grizzlies in the best-of-the-best junior varsity brackets. Austin Weller placed fifth at 138A, and William Torres placed fifth at 215 pounds. Freshman Ethan Haslem won a match at 144 pounds.

Dual matches

The Battle in the Big Horns is a duals tournament for varsity boys, and the Grizz went 1-6 on the weekend. In round robin wrestling, the Grizz first fell to Powell 35-30 as Zach Unruh pinned Tanner Seifert by pin in 4:58 and Torres stuck James Emmett in 25 seconds.

The Grizz defeated Newcastle 36-30 in a forfeit filled dual. In actual wrestling, Colten Bitton pinned Connor Helwig at 138 pounds and Alex Walker stuck Jonathan Bainer in 1:39.

Riverton beat the Grizzlies 48-19 in the third dual of the day as the Grizz picked up wins from Unruh, who beat Devan Clawson 12-0, Torres, who stuck Paul York in 50 seconds, and Walker, who beat Trevor Eckhardt 9-3.

The final round robin dual pitted the Grizz against Rawlins, and the Outlaws outscored the Grizzlies 51-14. Triffen Jolley beat Eddy Lozano 8-5, and Torres crushed Remington Mathill 19-3 for Rocky’s two wins on the mat.

Silver bracket

Competing in the silver bracket Saturday, the Grizz fell to Glenrock 54-24 as Unruh pinned Hunter Rivera in 59 seconds, Jolley stuck Kyler Sorensen in 1:42 and Walker pinned Gene Hershley in 3:07 for Rocky’s three wins on the mat.

Lovell topped Rocky 42-24 in the consolation semifinals as Unruh pinned Chance Hatch in 4:46, Jacoby Wachob stuck Hunter Krei in 3:48 and Jolley made quick work of Mikkel Klepp in 20 seconds.

And finally, Buffalo topped Rocky 30-24 in the seventh-place match. The lone Rocky win on the mat (not a forfeit) came from Bitton, who pinned Carson Bergstreser in 2:50.

“My pair of 144-pounders this weekend, Zach Unruh and Dalan Wambeke, wrestled off, and Zach was our 144 and Dalan wrestled for Shoshoni,” Whiting said. “They both looked solid this weekend, and in my mind these two just like to grind on matches, and their heart shows no quit.”

Though Masen Twomey’s results do not appear in Trackwrestling.com, Whiting had good things to say about the sophomore.

“Masen Twomey came out this week looking like a wrecking machine and bulldozing everything and everyone in his way,” Whiting said. “We worked on more control for him and man it showed how much it benefited him. My and coach Lytle’s thoughts were that, if it wasn’t for him having to opt out of day two, he would have been in for the best of the best and placed in the top two.

“Our plan for this break is to go back to the basics and control while getting ourselves some time to heal but ramp up on the conditioning.”

The Grizzlies will return to action on Saturday, Jan. 11, when they compete at the Wind River Duals in Pavillion. Wrestling begins at 9 a.m.