Bobcat wrestlers shine with strong individual performances

The Bobcat wrestlers varsity team was in action at the Battle of the Big Horns dual tournament in Worland over the weekend. The Bobcats had a great Friday in pool matches going 2-1 overall.

"We only filled seven of the 14 weights which makes it even more impressive. We did have 3 other weights filled by extra wrestlers from other teams but our kids did the heavy lifting. That put us in the Gold Bracket for Saturday," said coach Travis McDermott.

 The Bobcats had their first dual against Lovell where they got the win, 44-28. The Bobcats won six of seven matches, five of which were by fall.

In the second dual, the Bobcats took down Lander with a 48-34 win, with five wins all by pin.

In their final match of the day, the Bobcats lost 53-21 to 4A Kelly Walsh. Will Ward won at 126 lbs. with an impressive come from behind win in the final seconds. Sam Skelton also hung in long enough to get a surprising fall  for a victory.

 Saturday the Bobcats had their hands full with teams who had their weight classes full, starting the day with a loss to Worland 52-21. Will Ward, Ethan Crow and Roedy Farrell all got wins by pin.

"Second match against Wind River was a heart breaker as we won the dual 40-39, but a technical penalty was called on the Cats after the dual that cost us a point and by criteria lost the dual. We won five matches, four of which were by pin. We rebounded for our final dual of the day against Buffalo and won 39-30," said coach McDermott.

Farrell had an impressive weekend going 7-0, all by pins. "Roedy again dominated the field and was put in the best of the best match against Jackson Woods of Cody. Roedy controlled the action the entire match and eventually put Woods to his back and got his final pin of the weekend," said coach McDermott.

The Bobcats had several wrestlers in the JV portion with Haeden Blair winning the 138lb. weight class by pinning all of his competitors on Saturday. Lance Axtell also got into the championship where he lost a close match 5-4 and came home with a 2nd place.

 Final standings for the tournament: Varsity 126 Will Ward 4-1, 132 Ethan Crow 3-3, 138 Colter Price 2-3, 145 Jessen Basse 2-4, 160 Roedy Farrell 7-0, 170 Sam Skelton 3-2, 182 Mason Reese 2-2.

Lady Cats

Lady Cat wrestlers competed in a pool tournament on Friday and a bracketed tournament on Saturday. The four member team only had two competitors as Alix Sorensen had to pull out due to illness and Kaitlin Barral, who joined the team on Monday, was not eligible to compete yet.

 Kailey Allen got her debut weekend and made the most of it going 4-1 on Friday to give her the second seed in Saturdays tournament. She won two matches to get into the best of the best championship. She went up against Howe from Buffalo who had beat her on Friday. "She came out with much better technique but couldn't overcome the strength of the Buffalo girl and ended up second," said coach McDermott.

 Tera Kraushaar got her first two wins of her career. Tera made it into the best of the best championship on Saturday. She wrestled a combined weight and had Pinedale's Dexter for the championship. "Giving up over 30 pounds in the match, Tera never gave up and kept competing. Tera took home second place and improved dramatically from the previous week," said coach McDermott.

Bobcats and Lady Cats are off for a couple of weeks coming back with The Shane Shatto tournament in Douglas January 6-7.