Grapplers get season under way

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Dogies/Bobcats Wrestling team began their season with back-to-back competitions last Thursday and Friday. The first had the team travel to Custer to take on the Wildcats in a dual and on Friday, they headed south to Lusk for a tournament. 
In the opening contest on Thursday, numbers didn’t truly tell the story of how the team performed. The Dogies dropped the meet at a team by a score of 21-45, but there were some hard fought matches that ultimately went the way of the Wildcats.
“Because of our weight decent plan, some of our guys had to wrestle up a weight class, so we had some pairings where our guys were at a disadvantage weight-wise,” began co-head coach Jason Wheeler. “Also, Custer started their season earlier, so they are about two weeks ahead of us. Given those two things, we did okay, though not as well as we would have liked.”
Blake Durfee (113) had a good first time out of the gate, winning his match by a 7-2 decision despite the fact that he was competing a class above his normal 106. 
Skylar Jenkins (160) was able to wrestle at his normal weight class and went out and made quick work of his opponent, pinning him in 1:31. According to Wheeler, he tossed the kid and put him in a headlock from which he couldn’t escape. 
“Blake looked sharp and really wrestled well,” Wheeler declared. “Skylar has a lot of upper body strength that he was able to use to his advantage, so that was fun to watch.” 
Josh Womack and Weston Simianer also won their matches at 195 and 220 respectively. Both were able to stick their opponent 24 seconds into the second period. 
Kale Corley lost a close one at 152 by a 10-9 decision. 
“Kale went out and was really taking it to the kid. He was up in the first two periods, but then you could tell that he just hit a wall and ran out of gas, which allowed the kid to sneak by him,” Wheeler explained. “He was wrestling up a weight class and his opponent was also one of Custer’s better athletes who is expected to have a good shot at taking the state title this year.”
Sixteen teams from Wyoming, Nebraska and Colorado were on hand to compete on Friday the 13th in Lusk. Though the date may be considered unlucky, for the Dogies there was no superstitious consequences as all athletes placed and as a team, walked away from the tournament in second place behind Moorcroft.
For this tournament, the team was allowed unlimited entrants at each weight, so all the athletes were able to wrestle in their appropriate divisions. 
Corley went undefeated on the day, winning all five matches and taking home first place at 145. His longest match was 2:28, otherwise Corley stuck his opponent in the first period. That includes the championship match which was the shortest of the day ending in only 43 seconds. 
“Kale just looked really sharp all day. No one really gave him too much of a match, and most of the time he was just trying things out,” Wheeler smiled. “He did have one that was a little tougher, but he still managed to win that one pretty easily too.” 
Jory McFarland (120) went 4-1 on the day. Because his one loss came early in the tournament, the senior ended up in third place, and like Corley his wins ended with a pin and were finished in the first period.
“Jory looked really good coming out,” Wheeler nodded. “He had one match that was tougher and you could see that
there is still a little rust that needs to be worked off.”
Dillan Wornkey (138) also went 4-1, however he took second place because his only loss came in the championship round. That loss also happened just three seconds before time expired in the match. 
“Dillan wrestled really tough in the first couple of periods, but the kid liked to throw and he caught him in the third to get the pin,” Wheeler explained. “He looked really good for a freshman, and came off the mat pretty happy, because he knew he could get him the next time.”
Jenkins (160) finished third going 4-1 as well. According to Wheeler, in his one loss he nearly had his opponent pinned, but ran out of energy and out of time before he could make that happen so lost by decision 5-3. He made quick work of his opponent in the third place match, however, sticking him in just 57 seconds. 
“For the first week of competition, we did pretty well,” Wheeler stated. “We got to see the areas in which we need to improve which was great. We need to work on what to do when we’re on the bottom, but a lot of our takedowns looked good so that was exciting.”
Co-head coach Lee McCoy agreed with Wheeler.
“We got a lot of matches in this weekend where we saw some really good things and we saw a lot we need to improve upon,” McCoy began. “This is always the case so early in the year, but this bunch of kids have a lot of heart and are coachable. As a staff we are excited to have that combination.”
This week the Dogies will dual the Bison in Buffalo on Thursday, and then go across the mountain to Worland for the Battle of the Big Horns on Friday and Saturday. 
“That’s a big tournament and we will get to see several 3A opponents so we’ll get to see some of that competition,” Wheeler began. “ It will give us the opportunity to get a little better idea where we stand at that level before the Christmas break.”