Wrestlers headed to Ron Thon

Friday and Saturday the Cats and Lady Cats were in Lander for the Lander Valley Invite. The tournament is a large tournament with almost all of the 3A schools in the state along with some of the best 2A schools. As a team, the Cats did not fair as well as the previous week, with only one varsity placer, three Lady Cat placers and five JV placers.

 "On the varsity side we had a lot of tough draws in the tournament which we expect and have goals of competing in those tough matches. For the most part we did compete well especially in the first and second period but lost some matches in the third period. We definitely lost some matches that we shouldn't have. Hopefully we learn from those losses and improve our mental edge going forward," said coach Travis McDermott.

 Brody Sorensen, at 152 lbs., had a good tournament with some breakout matches. He won his first two matches to put him in the quarterfinals where he lost a well fought match to Douglas's Johnson. Sorensen then put two of his best matches together in the consolations to get into placing position. In the blood round, Sorensen knocked off Saratoga's Daley to get into placing matches. He ended the day with a win over Cheyenne South's Warburton to secure a fifth place finish.

 Colter Price had a good weekend also making it to the blood round and losing a heartbreaker in the 3rd period to keep him out of the placing rounds. Colter ended the weekend with a 2-2 record at 132 lbs. Other varsity wrestlers records Ethan Crow at 132 lbs. 1-2, Jessen Basse at 138 lbs. 0-2, Dalton Price at 138 lbs. 1-2, Seth Needham at 145 lbs. 1-2 and Mason Reese at 182 lbs. 0-2.

 On the JV side, the Bobcats had some good finishes with Daniel Blair at 126 lbs. and Ethan Yarrington at 132 lbs. picking up championships. Sam Skelton at 160 lbs. picked up a second place. Lance Axtell at 120 lbs. and Haeden Blair at 126 lbs. both came home with third place finishes.

 The Lady Cats were led by Alix Sorensen making her way through a tough bracket to get to the championship. Sorensen beat Miller of Green River, then Coot of Big Piney and Dexter of Pinedale to make it to the first place match. "We saw Alix open up and be aggressive to get those wins and she had a lot of fun with it. In the Championship match the Freshman didn't attack as she had been doing and dropped the match to Julander of Kemmerer to end up in second place. Alix had a great weekend with a breakout performance in those first three matches. If she can continue to overcome some mental blocks she will be fighting for a state championship next month," said coach McDermott.

 Our other two Lady Cat wrestlers only had one other opponent in their brackets so they wrestled a best of three series with them. "Tera Kraushaar dropped two to Kemmerer's Runnion but had her on the ropes in both matches but just couldn't finish the job. Kaitlin Barral has one of the toughest girls in her bracket in the state and went out and was aggressive. Kaitlin is new to the sport so just needs to keep developing to compete with the Pinedale girl," said coach McDermott.

 This week the Cats will host Buffalo Thursday night at 6 p.m. at the high school. This will be senior night with Roedy Farrell being the lone senior honored. This weekend the Cats will be at the Ron Thon Memorial Tournament in Riverton which is the largest tournament in Wyoming.