Dogies/Bobcats hit the ground running

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The combined Newcastle/Upton Wrestling team had a busy start to their season by competing in a quadrangular in Edgemont on Thursday, and then splitting to attend either a tournament in Lusk on Friday or one in Rapid City on Friday and Saturday.
Head coach Lee McCoy was pleased that most of his wrestlers were able to get in several matches over the three days, and felt the weekend provided him and his team some great insight regarding what needs to be addressed moving forward.
“The guys had some really good opportunities to get some mat time against a variety of different levels of competition,” he nodded. “Between the three duals on Thursday and the tournaments, we got some great experience for our first weekend out.”
First up for the team was a dual against Bennett County at the quad in Edgemont. The two teams were pretty evenly matched in both experience and weight classes, so the match provided the opportunity to see where each was standing starting the season out.
The Dogies/Bobcats ended up pulling out the 37-30 victory over Bennett County with wins by Cael Holmes (106), Jory McFarland (113), Kale Corley (138) and Skylar Jenkins (160). The Dogies also won by forfeit in two weight classes to give them the advantage.
The next dual was against a very loaded Custer/Edgemont team which ended very differently than the first match with Newcastle losing 18-57. Only Corley, Jonathan Morgan (132) and Josh Womack (220) picked up wins in that contest.
“I thought we matched up very well against Bennett County, and the guys did a pretty good job in that dual,” McCoy nodded. “But when it came to Custer/Edgemont, we got our butts kicked. They are a pretty tough team and we just weren’t up to that level.”
The final dual of the evening was against Newell, who did not bring much to the table. Due to eligibility issues, they only wrestled three athletes so the Dogies won that dual 48-18.
Morgan was one Dogie who had the opportunity to actually wrestle in the dual. His match ended in a loss, but the circumstances surrounding the loss were unique to say the least. Morgan was disqualified due to excessive locked hands calls, which McCoy admits he has never seen happen in his 41 years of experience in the sport.
“I had to call our guy at the state to see if the DQ was actually a legitimate thing, and it turns out that it is,” he chuckled. “Locking your hands is a technical violation. The first two times it happens results in one point for the opponent each, the third time it is two points and the next one is a disqualification.”
While the rules regarding this situation are clear, how the rules were applied in Morgan’s case is what caused McCoy to question the decision.
“Jonathan actually got two calls in the same sequence, which is incredibly rare,” he began. “He took the kid down, the kid did a switch and Jonathan locked his hands on the switch. They usually let the wrestling go about 10 or 15 seconds to give the bottom man an opportunity to get an escape. Well, in that time frame, Jonathan relocked his hands, so they counted it as two and I’ve never seen that before.”
On Friday, the team headed in different directions, with 11 members going south to a one-day tournament in Lusk and the other six going north to Rapid City for a two-day tournament there.
“The guys we sent to Lusk got some good matches in and they saw a big variety of competition,” McCoy nodded. “There were kids that were better than us, some that were right at the same level and some that we could do some things with so that was great for the young guys and the guys who need a little more experience.”
The six who went to the Rapid City tournament had their hands full, according to McCoy. Only two, Reid Holmes and Kale Corley, came into it with any real experience wrestling at that level, so the coach admitted that he was not surprised to see several struggle against the competition.
“I kind of expected to see that the South Dakota kids were ahead of where we are at right now because they got a two-week head start on us on the season,” he explained. “The guys did fine though and they all won at least one match, so that was good.”
McFarland, Jenkins, Blake Durfee and Gavin Durfee were beat out in the tournament on Friday, which made them eligible to compete in the second chance tournament on Saturday. There they were competing against other wrestlers who were in the same boat, so McCoy considered it a great learning opportunity for them, and each was able to experience some success on the mat.
Corley and Holmes did not wrestle on Saturday, but for different reasons. Holmes split 2-2 in competition on Friday, so was not eligible to compete while Corley suffered an injury in his first match of the day, so was out the rest of the weekend.
With the first weekend of the season under their belts, McCoy noted that his team has a great deal of work to do to clean up some habits and tendencies that are limiting their abilities to compete successfully at the next level.
“It was a big time reality check for us that we have some things we need to fix, but that’s what is nice about these early season tournaments,” he explained. “We need to get them on the mat to evaluate where we need to go team-wise, and start honing in on individual things as well.”
Work is underway to address some of those issues as the squad prepares for the upcoming contests. On Thursday, the Dogies/Bobcats host Buffalo in a dual in Upton beginning at 5:00 p.m., and then will hop on a bus to go over the mountain for the Battle of the Big Horns tournament in Worland on Friday and Saturday. 
This is a big dual tournament with a good mix of 3A, 4A, and a smattering of 2A schools. This year there will probably be about 20 teams and the format consists of pool play on Friday with the bracket on Saturday. As such, each wrestler is expected to get about eight or nine duals over the two days. The Dogies wrap up action next Tuesday with a dual in Glenrock, which will carry the team into Christmas break.