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Grapplers take home hardware from Regionals

By
Sonja Karp, NLJ Sports Editor

The Dogies/Bobcats showed up and showed out at the 3A East Regional Tournament last Friday in Douglas. Though the team hasn’t fared well in duals throughout the season due to open weights, head coach Lee McCoy’s crew qualified all but two athletes for the state tournament and finished fourth as a team at the Regional Tournament.
“The tournament went just about as good as it could have gone,” McCoy smiled. “I was really proud of how the kids wrestled. They left it all on the mat.”
At 106 pounds, Haven Vrana dominated his weight class, pinning his quarterfinals and semifinals opponents in 55 seconds and 1:35 respectively. In the championship match, Vrana won by tech fall with a score of 18-3. According to McCoy, Vrana probably would have gotten a pin for the title, however circumstances made it challenging for the sophomore.
“The Rawlins kid got a really bad bloody nose so they were stopping the match every 10 seconds or so for a blood time out, which made it really hard for Haven to get anything going,” McCoy frowned. “He did win decisively despite that, though. I think there may have been a little bit of doubt from other kids and other coaches that he may not have been as tough as he was being given credit for, but he removed all doubt on Friday.”
Landon Norman had a pretty good showing at 113. According to McCoy, given that he is just a freshman, he was feeling a little more pressure than normal and lost a pretty close match 5-2 in the quarterfinals against a Rawlins opponent. From there, he won out to take third place, getting the better of a couple of pretty tough Worland kids and won against Wheatland for third place.
Jackson East finished first as Regional Champ at 120 pounds. In the quarterfinals, he pinned his Buffalo opponent in 47 seconds. In the semis, he defeated the Wheatland wrestler who beat him last week in the duals. However, on Friday, he pinned him in 1:50. 
“He tore through his dudes, but the big matchup was in the finals against Blaine Johnson from Douglas who is tough,” McCoy began. “He’s been on Jackson’s hit list for a year and he ended up pinning him in the second period in 3:05. It was a good, overwhelming win for Jackson.”
The only surprise was Trey Schneider at 126 pounds who, though he finished in the top eight so qualified for state, he did not end up in the top four. 
“The rib injury Trey suffered earlier was giving him a hard time,” McCoy began. However, the bright side of that was that Scott Larson, our other 126 pounder had a fantastic tournament finishing second. I wish we had two at every weight, so that when one is down, the other can step in.”
Larson, who entered the tournament seeded fifth, was pitted against the second seeded wrestler from Torrington in the quarterfinal round. Despite the seeding, Larson pinned him in 1:37. He then won in the semis by fall in 1:56 and then was defeated by the returning state champion from Rawlins in the title match. 
“Scott had an outstanding tournament, and he was on a mission,” exclaimed McCoy. “In the championship, Scott took his guy down right away and had him on his back pretty early. However, toward the end of the first period, Scott got caught in a cradle and got pinned. He went for broke like I wanted him to, and he ended up getting second.”
Unfortunately,  Larson and Schneider will meet up in the very first round at state so that will be a tough one for the team. 

“Trey goes in unseeded, so it was the luck of the draw, but definitely not where we want them. Both will come out determined to win, and I won’t say a word when this situation comes out. I let the two of them settle it on the mat.” 
Like Schneider, Casey Matthews (132) and Thomas Prell (138) didn’t earn a place at the Regional Tournament as they only wrestle out the top four matches. However, each finished in the top eight so will go into the state tournament unseeded.
“Trey drew Scott, Casey drew the number one seed from Pinedale to start, and Thomas drew the Buffalo kid who beat him twice at Regionals,” McCoy chuckled. “None of those are great draws for us, but we’ll just go out and wrestle one match at a time and see how it goes.”
Jacob Prell was also Regional Champ at 170. Though he wrestled 182 throughout the season, in a strategic move, he dropped to 170 for Regionals, and the move paid off for the senior.
“We devised the plan after the quad in Douglas where he had a chance to wrestle a couple of the 182 pounders. I had overheard a couple of the kids talking about their plans for Regionals, so we talked to Jacob about dropping to 170,” McCoy explained. “It worked out well for him and he feels good at that weight. He’s a little lighter and a little quicker, and he pinned his way through the quarterfinals and semifinals.” 
He then faced Hazen Camino from Buffalo for the championship, and the two wrestlers have a lot of history. Camino beat Prell at state last year in overtime, however he turned the tables and beat Camino in overtime at Regionals this year.
“I was so proud of Jacob,” McCoy beamed. “He had an outstanding Regionals and his championship match was a great one for him.”
Heath Henkle at 285 didn’t have many wrestlers in his bracket. He got pinned in the quarterfinals by the Douglas heavyweight who is number one, but then he came back to beat a Burns opponent by decision in the consolation semis, and won the third place match by pinning Rawlins in 2:06.
“That was great for Heath, because he has worked so hard but not had a lot of success throughout the season,” McCoy nodded. “But he had a couple of quality wins on Friday that got him a seed at state, and he has a pretty favorable draw there.”
In addition to the regular State Tournament which is scheduled for Friday and Saturday this week in Casper, there will also be the very first girls state tournament this year which will take place on Thursday and Friday.
Kyah Miller is going in seeded second at 120 and Courtney Matthews is unseeded so will draw in at 115 pounds. 
“It’s Kyah’s tournament to win,” determined McCoy. “The number one girl from Jackson is undefeated but she is a freshman. I don’t think Kyah will have any problems getting to the finals, and I feel like her experience will pay off. Hopefully we come home with three or four or five state champions and it will be a pretty good year for us.”
Due to the forecast of a severe winter storm coming through this week, the team left for Casper on Tuesday in order to ensure that they were able to make the trip.

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