Grapplers finish strong

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Editor
 
Last week was a busy one for the Dogies/Bobcats as they wrestled three duals against Wheatland, Torrington and the Bearcats in Douglas on Tuesday, only to turn around and compete in the Moorcroft Invitational tournament on Friday and Saturday.
Despite a couple of setbacks, head coach Lee McCoy was pleased with his squad’s performance throughout the week.
They began action against Douglas at the quad, and McCoy admitted that his team was a little shell shocked by the tough Bearcat squad who defeated them by a score of 72-12 with 6 of those points picked up due to a Douglas forfeit.
“It’s a tough place to wrestle, and it was made even tougher by starting out getting throttled by Douglas,” McCoy said with a sigh. “And then we had to pick ourselves up to take on two more teams in Wheatland and Torrington.” 
The highlight of the match against the Bearcats was senior Josh Womack’s win at 220 pounds over the Bearcat who beat him last weekend. 
“Josh is wrestling tough and he is going to beat that kid 99 out of 100 times, and he just did a great job against him,” McCoy said. “Unfortunately, our other guys struggled.”
The team was able to shake off the defeat and rebounded well to come back to get the better of Wheatland 32-26. Victories by Johnny Carlson (126), Jacob Prell (160) and Womack (220) along with a few open forfeits by the Bulldogs secured the win for the Dogies/Bobcats.
“They did give up a few forfeits, but we wrestled much better against them than we did against Douglas,” McCoy said. “It was a pretty good win for us because they are a team we like to beat. They are in a pretty similar situation to us so I was happy that we came out on top.”
Torrington was the final match of the night, and one which gave Newcastle/Upton the least amount of competition. Haven Vrana (106), Jackson East (120), Carlson, Thomas Prell (132), and Cullen Davis (145) all got the better of their opponents and the only points scored by the Trailblazers came due to an open forfeit by Newcastle/Upton.
“I’m not sure what’s going on with them,” McCoy said. “They have quite a few younger kids, and they have kids out due to injuries, but they are usually a little more competitive than what they were that night.” 
McCoy’s crew had a couple of good nights of practice before it was off to Moorcroft on Friday and Saturday where they would finish eighth out of 23 teams.
“We wrestled pretty well, and going into the last round we were in the
top five,” McCoy began. “If we would have had even some of our guys win in the last round, we would have ended up there as well.”
Unfortunately, whether it was fatigue or lack of focus, the Dogies/Bobcats came out a little flat in that final round.  
Once again, McCoy identified Womack as a standout at the tournament, claiming second place at 220.
“Josh was really pretty dominant through most of the weekend,” McCoy declared. “He ended up losing by 2 points in the championship to a kid from Lovell whom he had defeated earlier in the season.”
Kyah Miller finally had the opportunity to wrestle in a girls’ division and she won her way into the championship match where she was up against a girl from Hettinger, N.D., who is ranked 23rd in the nation.
“Kyah was probably about 10 seconds away from beating her,” McCoy said. “She got taken down and put on her back early, but she battled back to within 2 and she was close to getting a takedown right at the end, so I was really pleased with how she did over the weekend.”
Vrana finished fifth at 106, East (120) was eighth, Aidan Coberly (145) placed sixth as did Jacob Prell at 160.
“Haven battled all weekend and Jackson also wrestled well,” McCoy began. “Jacob had a fantastic tournament and beat some people he wasn’t
supposed to beat and just really showed a lot of heart.”
“Aidan wrestled an outstanding tournament,” he continued. “He came into it unranked and he upset a few seeded kids to get into the placing round. His last match against a Sheridan kid was really competitive so I was pleased with that.”
The Dogies/Bobcats start action this week with a home dual against Wright in Upton on Thursday, with senior recognitions beginning at 6:15 and wrestling kicking off at 6:30.
The squad opted to forgo the Ron Thon tournament this weekend and instead will head to Belle Fourche to compete in a tournament there on Friday and Saturday. The Belle tournament is also a big one drawing teams from the five state area, so there is the opportunity for quality competition there as well.