Wrestlers face top competition

The Bobcats wrestled five duals last week on Friday and Saturday, winning one. They faced some top competition.

“At this point in the season we are looking for the best competition we can get for our wrestlers. Without tournaments this year our top wrestlers don’t get as many chances to wrestle 3A and 4A wrestlers that we would in a normal tournament filled season. With that when Star Valley asked to be included in our duals we took that opportunity. Star Valley has the best team in the state in any class and our athletes took the challenge and wrestled hard.” said coach Travis McDermott.

Remington Ferree had the only win in the dual with Star Valley at heavyweight in his first week of competition after getting down to the top 287 weight. Ferree had a good weekend with wins over the 3A #3 and #5 ranked wrestlers as well as the #4 2A wrestler.

“We are glad to have Rem in the line-up and the hard work in getting down from 325 to 287lbs.,” said McDermott.

With a group of six freshman wrestlers from 120 to 132 the Bobcats had a hard time getting everyone matches. According to McDermott, this group is making good gains and learning with the experiences they get.

“This is another challenge with the dual format as they have to wrestle top kids in the state in order to get a match but they all accept that challenge and go out and give their best,” said McDermott.

Ethan Crow showed a lot of heart fighting off of his back on numerous occasions at 132 lbs. Crow also got a couple wins in his first high school competition. Seth Needham went 3-0 for the weekend as his wrestling continues to improve, according to McDermott.

Wyatt McDermott had a challenging weekend wrestling the 2A #1 ranked wrestler at 132 and winning 6-0. His match up with the #2 ranked wrestler in 3A from Star Valley was one of the most exciting Friday night with a 4-3 loss after a takedown was taken away from him in the third period.

Wyatt pressed and had another potential takedown on the edge of the mat but the SV wrestler managed to get out of bounds without a stall call that would have tied it up. Saturday he went on to beat the #4 ranked 3A wrestler from Lander in dominating fashion 8-3.

Roedy Farrell also had a couple of challenging matches against Star Valley wrestlers. The first against #2 ranked 3A wrestler in his first match that went the full six minutes. Roedy gutted out a 7-3 win. In his evening match against Star Valley top ranked wrestler Haze Child took advantage of a mistake and gave Farrell his first loss of the season with a fall.

The Bobcats will be in Shoshoni this Friday and in Dubois on Saturday.