Rocky Mountain wrestlers show improvement in seven weekend duals

The Rocky Mountain Grizzly wrestling squad kicked off the new year with a series of dual matches in Lovell and Shoshoni Friday and Saturday.
Competing in the annual Big Horn County Triangular Friday in Lovell, the Grizz fell to Lovell 64-16 and Greybull/Riverside, though coach Eddie Whiting said he couldn’t recall the score.
Against Lovell, sophomore Colten Bitton stopped JD Rodriguez 20-6 at 126 pounds, and junior Michael Bassett pinned Talon Burton in 3:11 at 138. Sophomore Triffen Jolley pinned Owen Hill in 1:18 at 150 pounds. Bassett pinned Porter Blau in an exhibition match, and Jolley pinned Stetson Asay.
Sophomore Emmilee Wambeke pinned teammate Rebecca Herren in an exhibition match featuring two Rocky Mountain Lady Grizz.
No other individual results were available from the weekend from coaches or Trackwrestling.com.
“The triangular dual was a wakeup call to these young wrestlers of Rocky Mountain,” Whiting said. “We came out and looked well, and you could see things were starting to click with them. I was proud of their performance in Lovell on Friday.”
Saturday at the Wrangler Duals in Shoshoni, the Grizz wrestled even better and won three of five matches. The Grizz beat the Riverton junior varsity 46-24, fell to Greybull/Riverside 36-24, fell to host Shoshoni, edged Wind River 36-35 and crushed Saratoga 42-18.
“We went to the Wrangler Duals on Saturday and wow, the performance of these wrestlers was night and day difference,” Whiting said. “They came out with speed and adaptability. We closed the gap on a few teams like Greybull, only losing to them by a couple of forfeits and a match or two, but what really got us fired up was beating Wind River 36-35. We went against Saratoga and just went in and crushed them.
“The day ended with three wins and two losses, showing that we can dual as well be a tournament team. I’m proud of this team making the turn in the corner, and they are headed uphill. We have a lot of tests coming up with the Don Runner and other tournaments, and now is the time we start to ramp up our training. Coach (Jesse) Dewey and I both thought that the whole team performed their best yet, and we could find a handful of things to say about each one of them.”
Don Runner
This weekend the Grizzlies will travel to Pavillion for the Don Runner Memorial Tournament at Wind River High School. Wrestling is scheduled to begin Friday at noon and continue Saturday at 9 a.m.