Lady wrestlers excited for season two

The Lady Dogie wrestlers are hard at work in their second official season of competition, and head coach Shaide Bowthorpe is excited with both the number of girls she has out this season and also with the potential the athletes have for success.

There are 17 girls out for wrestling this year, 13 of whom are returning and four who are new to the sport.

“We are a really young team, mainly freshmen and sophomores, and I think we have a really exciting year ahead,” Bowthorpe said. “Though we are young, many of those are returning with experience and will be ready to go for competition.”

The Lady Dogies lost no wrestlers to graduation but have two seniors this year. Ruth Rose returns for her second season, and Heather Conley is trying wrestling for the first time.

“Ruth improved so much last year and is doing well so far,” Bowthorpe said. “Heather is new, but brings a lot of maturity to the sport; she understands things well and is picking things up really quickly.”

Courtney Matthews returns as the sole junior, while Netanya Prell, Madalyn Francis, Addie Bergstrom, Aurora Hunter and Sage Lichtenberger are sophomores returning to the mat.

Bergstrom qualified for the state tournament last year as a freshman. Hunter had a winning record, while Matthews also qualified for the state tournament last year and is in her third year of competing.

Prell did well last year and was a state qualifier. Bowthorpe identified Prell as one of her best wrestlers.

“She is probably the toughest girl we have in our room and we are looking forward to another great year from her,” Bowthorpe said. “It probably helps that she grew up with several older brothers who were wrestlers.”

Though new to high school wrestling, some of the freshmen got quite a bit of experience wrestling in middle school. Among those are Ayonna Hunter, Abby Tacy, Brylee Caster and Tealah Stevenson.

“Ayonna and Abby both put in a big summer of wrestling work,” Bowthorpe said. “Brylee was a district champ in middle school last year and has a great deal of wrestling experience, and Tealah is a really gritty girl who lays it on the line in every match.”

The girls wrestling program has its own schedule apart from the boys, for the most part.

Last year, girls wrestling started out with about 460 girls in the state, but within the first couple of weeks the number dropped nearly in half.

“We’re starting out with 480 girls statewide this season and hopefully more girls will stay out, but it’s still an evolving sport that is in its infancy,” Bowthorpe said. “We feel really privileged to be a part of leading the growth of wrestling, and we will be hosting the first Newcastle girls-only duals and tournament this year. It’s an exciting time to be a part of this growing sport, and we are looking forward to being a part of that growth.”

The Lady Dogies will start their season off with a two-day tournament in Cody on Friday and Saturday.

“It’s a long trip, but the match count should be high,” Bowthorpe said. “One of our goals this year is to get the girls as much mat time as we can, so this will be a great start.”