Grapplers wrap it up

The Dogie wrestlers finished up their regular season schedule with a quadrangular meet in Wheatland Thursday, where they took on Wheatland, Burns and Douglas in three consecutive duals. Head coach Teigen Marchant had a skeleton crew, but was pleased with how his athletes did as individuals throughout the day.
 
“It was a pretty good way for us to finish up the regular season,” Marchant said. “I thought the guys did well and we are looking forward to seeing how we fare at regionals this weekend.”
 
The team admittedly got off to a bit of a slow start in their first contest against Wheatland, and fell to the Bulldogs 24-48, but in the five matches where weights matched up, the Dogies were able to wrangle three wins.
 
“We started out a little bit slow and sleepy against Wheatland,” Marchant said. “The rest of the day went much better though.” 
 
Charlie Bowles, in the 120-pound weight class, fought hard in the first match of the day, but ended up falling with just 38 seconds remaining in the third period. Casey Matthews dominated his match at 132 pounds, pinning his opponent in 47 seconds.
 
Scott Larson (138) was down 3-8 in points at the end of the first period. However, he was able to catch his opponent in a cradle to get the pin just eight seconds into the second period.
 
Thomas Prell drew a tough Bulldog in the 144-pound weight class, but he went blow for blow with him and had the scores knotted up at sevens. However, he was thrown into some peculiar situations he hadn’t been confronted with lately, and was defeated by pin in 3:22.  
 
“I have been really impressed with Thomas these last couple of weeks,” Marchant said. “He’s gaining confidence, his conditioning is right where it should be, and I think he’s peaking at just the right time in the season.”
 
Dane Crabtree (157) was the final Dogie to take the mat, and he finished things off with a quick, 48-second pin over his opponent.
 
Against Burns, the Dogies ended the contest with a tied score of 24-24. However, the match ended up being a loss for Newcastle due to a decision based on how many open weights each team had. Burns had less open weights than the Dogies, so were awarded the win. 
 
“We finally went up against a team that we matched up with pretty well, numbers wise and weight wise,” Marchant said. “I was happy with how we did in the dual as well.”
Matthews had another solid match, pinning his opponent in 37 seconds, while Larson won by fall in 1:37. 
 
Prell won his match against his Bronc opponent, also in 1:37, in a very dominating fashion.
 
“Scott woke up a little bit after his slow start in his first match against Wheatland,” Marchant said. “Thomas was phenomenal in this match. He was up 13-4 and then got the pin, so he scored a lot of points in a very short period of time.”
 
CJ Hardy got the opportunity to compete in this dual as there were a couple of athletes in the 157-pound weight class. Although the junior fell to his opponent in 52 seconds, as a rookie who is brand new to the sport, Marchant couldn’t complain about his performance.
 
“CJ did really well, but he was up against a pretty tough kid,” Marchant  explained. “He just hasn’t had enough time on the mat yet, but I’m really happy with how he is coming along.”
 
Crabtree (157) picked up another pin on the day, sticking his opponent in 54 seconds.
 
“Dane looked significantly better when he came out in the match than he has in the last couple of weeks,” Marchant said. “He dominated his guy, and he is just getting better and better.”
 
The final dual was against Douglas, and here the Dogies didn’t fare as well, dropping the contest, 18-54. 
 
Bowles (120) was losing 8-17, but then was able to turn things around late in the third period to stick his opponent for the win.
 
“I was really impressed with Charlie in this match,” Marchant said. “He was up against a really tough kid, but he trusted himself and he overcame being down by a significant amount.”
 
Matthews (132) was able to finish the day with a perfect record by pinning his Bearcat in 2:50. 
 
“Casey was leading 7-3 before he got the pin, so he just really had a solid day,” Marchant said. “He’s kind of on a roll right now which is great timing for the season.”
 
Larson (138) went up against a familiar wrestler from Douglas, and was battling in a 2-2 match when he got caught in a cradle and ended up losing by fall in 2:35.
 
“It was a really good match, and they were really evenly matched,” Marchant said. “Then he just kind of got into a bad situation and paid the price.”
 
Prell (144) finished his day off with another win, getting a quick pin in 43 seconds. Crabtree (157) went on to take his first loss of the day when he was pinned with just two seconds remaining in the first period. 
 
“Thomas came out with a vengeance, so that was great to see,” Marchant said. “The score was 0-2 when Dane got pinned, so he was hanging on pretty well. He definitely wrestled him better than he did the last time the two met.”
 
This weekend the Dogies will make the trip to Torrington for the 3A East Regional Tournament on Friday and Saturday. Marchant feels confident that there will be Dogies on the podium at the end of the second day.
 
“I am really hopeful that we will have a good weekend,” Marchant said. “I anticipate that we will have some contenders and that we’ll have guys bringing home some hardware.”