Wrestlers gear up for the end

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
It was a busy week for the Dogie/Bobcat grapplers with a quad in Torrington on Tuesday and a huge tournament in Moorcroft on Friday and Saturday.  
In those three days, every wrestler got valuable time on the mat and sophomore Kale Corley racked up some great wins, finishing with a 6-1 record for the week.
“Kale had a great week,” head coach Lee McCoy nodded. “He went undefeated in Torrington, and got second in Moorcroft losing only to the returning 4A State champ at 132 from Sheridan.”
In Torrington on Tuesday, the Dogies combined with the Lusk Tigers because it was a five-team quad. In order to give wrestlers from each team the best possible matches, the Dogies substituted Tigers in at the upper weights for their duals against Torrington, Douglas and Wheatland.
“Lusk has some pretty good kids in the upper weights, so where there was a big mismatch for our kids at those weights, we put a Lusk kid in there and had our kids wrestle the JV kids in exhibition matches,” McCoy explained. “We wanted to make sure the good Lusk kids got good matches and that our kids didn’t have to go out and just get stuck, overhauled and manhandled because that’s not good for anybody.”
On Friday and Saturday, the Dogies competed at the Moorcroft Mixer which is a large tournament with schools of various sizes from Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming competing.
“Moorcroft is a good tournament where our guys get to see a big variety of styles of wrestlers, as well as talent,” McCoy began. “I was super proud of some of our young kids like Aidan Coberly, Josh Womack and Jacob Rhoades because, though they got beat early, they battled their way back through the wrestle-backs and were only a match away from being in the placing round so that was outstanding.”
Corley would be the only Dogie to place in the varsity division, however McCoy was pleased to see a great deal of growth from those younger wrestlers.
“Josh, Jacob and especially Aidan grew so much over the course of the weekend,” he smiled. “They kind of got thrown to the wolves a little bit, but they responded very well.”
Those who were beat out of the tournament on Friday had the opportunity to compete in the Second Chance Tournament on Saturday where all did very well. Cael Holmes (99-106), Blake Durfee (102-105) and Jory McFarland (112-114) each went undefeated on the day to win their respective weight classes.
Dylan Drost (132-142), Gavin Durfee (140-147) and Keyan Mefford (148-153) each took second, suffering their only loss in the championship match.
“We’re going to tough tournaments but we’re trying to work it out so our kids get the best competition they can at their level and we find that they’re responding,” McCoy stated. “It’s nice to get our kids on the mat so we can start seeing patterns and trends, and really see what we need to work on both individually and as a team.”
This week the Dogies will be focusing on their bottom wrestling because coaches are seeing that as a team, they need to improve in that area. The prep work will be needed as the team heads to the Ron Thon Tournament in Riverton this Friday and Saturday. This is the largest tournament the Dogies will attend this season, where McCoy anticipates all but four Wyoming schools will be competing.
“This tournament is a grinder, but it’s a good warmup for state,” he exclaimed. “In a lot of ways it’s actually tougher than the state tournament because it’s bigger and 1A through 4A are represented. As such, I am only entering Kale and Reid [Holmes] in the varsity division, and the rest in JV which is also a very good tournament.”