Wrestlers struggle in Douglas

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The combined Newcastle/Upton wrestling team came out of Christmas break with the two-day Shane Shatto Tournament in Douglas last weekend. Head coach Lee McCoy admitted that his team’s performance was not what he was hoping it would be for the most part.
“It is a big tournament with a lot of tough competition, which is why I only entered five of our guys in the varsity division,” he began. “I kind of expected it be a challenge for us, but we didn’t do too well which was a little disappointing.”
The five Dogies who competed in the upper division included Blake Durfee at 106, Jory McFarland at 113, Reid Holmes at 120, Kale Corley at 132 and Gavin Durfee at 138. None of the five ended up placing at the tournament, though admittedly the way the bracket shook out made earning a place at the end of competition on Saturday a challenge for each.
“We went up against mostly 4A kids and there were matches where we were completely out-gunned,” McCoy explained. “But there were also matches where we were competing and were even ahead, but for some reason we just made a mistake that ended up costing us the match.”
Corley, who is ranked in the top of 3A, had his hands full with some tough 4A opponents. He ended up finishing the weekend with a 1-2 record, losing one of his matches to a Natrona wrestler who went on to take second at 132.
“Kale did wrestle pretty well, and it was nice that he didn’t get beat by any 3A kids,” McCoy chuckled. “But we’re not just training to beat 3A or 2A kids. We want to be the best kid in the state, regardless of class, so we have a lot of work to do.”
In the junior varsity division, the Dogies fared better with Josh Womack going 3-0 and winning the title at 195. Nick Jingleski (113) and Skylar Jenkins (145) each took second place, while Jacob Rhoades (138) finished fourth.
Though they didn’t place, the rest of the JV wrestlers each competed and won at least one match over the course of the tournament.
“The guys were battling,” McCoy exclaimed. “We won some close ones and lost some close ones so I was pretty happy with how we competed.”
One advantage the tournament offered some of the junior varsity wrestlers was they were able to compete in lower weight classes than they do in duals. 
“Josh and Nick were each able to wrestle against kids who were more their size since both were able to wrestle in lower weight classes,” McCoy nodded. “Turns out that when they aren’t giving up 20 or more pounds to their opponent, they do pretty well!”
McCoy and his team are looking forward to this weekend’s competitions to get back on the right track as there will be plenty of opportunities for everyone to get in some valuable mat time.
“We learned from last weekend and we are putting our noses down and getting to work on fixing what needs fixing,” he nodded. “This is a young, but talented bunch and it’s a process to get where we need to be, but we are working hard to get there.”
On Friday, the Dogies will host the Newcastle Invitational beginning at 10 a.m. McCoy expects there to be around 12 schools competing at the one-day tournament, and then on Saturday the team heads to Torrington for the Blazer Duals where they should see around five duals over the course of the day.