Dogies best the Bison

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The combined Newcastle/Upton Wrestling team once again had a jam-packed weekend. It began on Thursday when they hosted the Buffalo Bison in Upton, and finished with two days of tournament action in Worland at the Battle of the Big Horns.
The Dogies book-ended their weekend of competition with wins over Buffalo, which head coach Lee McCoy admitted was a pretty good feeling for his team.
“This was the first time in a few years that we’ve beaten Buffalo,” he grinned. “It was great to do it in front of our home crowd, and it was great to do it again in Worland.”
On Thursday, the Dogies/Bobcats soundly defeated their 3A opponent 48-24. The decisive victory came about due to five forfeits by the Bison and three pins by Newcastle. 
Jonathan Morgan (132), Skylar Jenkins (152) and Keyan Mefford (160) all stuck their opponents, adding six points each to their team’s overall score.
Though he didn’t get a win on the night, McCoy noted that one of the highlight matches of the night was Gavin Durfee at 145.
“He went up against Clay Reiner, who is one of the better kids in 3A at that weight,” he began. “Gavin kept it close enough to make it a decision loss, giving Buffalo three points rather than the six they would have had with a pin.”
McCoy also pinpointed the match Reid Holmes wrestled at 126 as being one to remember. 
“I knew it would be one of the better matches of the dual because Reid had Dallas Lopez,” he nodded. “Both are very competitive kids and I’m not sure where they’ll end up later in the season, but it was nice to see them get to wrestle each other now. I don’t know if Dallas will drop weight but Reid will go down to 120, so that will be interesting.”
Holmes ended up losing the match by decision with a score of 0-3. 
However, he would get an opportunity to face off against Lopez again on Saturday after the team travelled over the mountain for the Battle of the Big Horns that began Friday morning. 
The first day of the tournament was pool play to seed wrestlers for the bracket tournament on Saturday. Unfortunately, the Dogies ended up being placed in a tough bracket against Lander, Wheatland and Worland.
“Those are three powerhouses for us, and it seemed like all three teams had some beasts from 145 on up,” McCoy admitted. “We have younger kids at those weights so it wasn’t too pretty.”
The Dogies lost all three of their matches – Wheatland 24-43, Lander 24-45 and Worland 6-70.
Against Wheatland, Jory McFarland (113), Morgan (132), and Kale Corley (138) were the only Dogies to score for the team, but each did so with a pin over their opponent. Bodey Lawler scored the remaining six points for his team with a forfeit at 182.
Three Dogies who scored points with a pin against Lander included Blake Durfee (106), Holmes (126) and Gavin Durfee (145). Josh Womack rounded out the scoring with a forfeit at 220.
In the final match on Friday, Blake Durfee (106) was the only Newcastle wrestler to pick up any points with a pin over his opponent.
The pool play record put the Dogies into the Silver Bracket for Saturday’s tournament, where they were up against Cody, Worland JV and Buffalo. 
“The guys just came alive on Saturday,” McCoy smiled. “We’re really making some great strides and improvements, and it was great to see them being so competitive.”
In the first match of the day, the Dogies lost a hotly contested match 36-37 against the Broncs. The dual actually ended in a 36-36 tie, but the tiebreaker gave the win to Cody because they had more pins in the match than did Newcastle.
“That was kind of a heartbreaker because the kids had really competed well against a pretty tough team,” McCoy sighed. 
Picking up wins by a pin in that match were McFarland, Corley and Mefford (160).
Because the next match was against the Worland JV, McCoy opted to hold his varsity kids out and allow the junior varsity athletes to compete. 
“We wanted our JV kids to get in some good mat time, so we entered them in that dual instead,” he stated. “We won that dual pretty handily, so that was good.”
The final dual of the weekend was against the Bison of Buffalo, which was essentially a rematch from the previous Thursday night. Once again, the Dogies had no problem handling the Johnson County team, coming away with the 45-27 victory and a 5th place finish in the bracket.
“We wrestled much better than we had on Thursday,” McCoy declared.  “Reid got revenge on Lopez, taking him down right at the end. He was down 0-1 and needed a takedown, which he got, and scored some back points right at the end to give him the win.”
Holmes won his match 4-1, and Morgan won with a pin, as did Corley, Jenkins (152) and Womack. 
The Dogies closed out their pre-Christmas break schedule with a dual against Glenrock on Tuesday and will open things up again with the Shane Shatto Tournament in Douglas on Jan. 4-5.