Thermopolis Middle School wrestlers recognized

Thermopolis Middle School Head Wrestling Coach Toby Emery congratulated his student wrestlers during the Hot Springs County School District Board of Trustees’ Jan. 19 meeting, reporting that Thermopolis finished third out of 10 teams in the 2022 Big Horn Basin Middle School Conference Boys A Division, scoring the same ranking they’d earned the previous year.

“That’s an amazing feat, especially with the number of kids we have,” Emery said. “There’s 18 slots in wrestling. We filled seven slots this year,” which he deemed as evidence that “we have a small but mighty team.”

Of what Emery described as “an extremely special cohort of kids,” eight have been eighth- graders this year, two of whom were “brand new, but the six that came through have just flourished, and helped the team in so many ways.”

Of the Thermopolis Bobcats Boys A Division, those who placed first included Dyllan Myers at 91 pounds, Cannon Boren at 120 pounds, and Mack Buckner at 155 pounds, while those who placed second included Garret White at 70 pounds and Wiley Jones at 138 pounds.

The Bobcats Boys B Division included third-place Trevin Shaffer at 98 pounds, and fourth-place Tannen Birdsley and Brendan Mann at 110 and 120 pounds, respectively, while the Girls A Division included first-place Jesalyn Blair at 132 pounds.

Lilly Quintanilla placed first at 105 pounds, and was subsequently named a middle school state champion, along with White and Boren, while Myers came in fifth among those middle school state results.

Emery congratulated Quintanilla as a two-time conference champ and a “multi-time” state champ, competing in the conference’s Boys A Division before earning a middle school state championship in the women’s division.

The overall season record saw Thermopolis win 202, lose 127 and tie in zero matches, scoring the Bobcats a 61% winning percentage.

Emery extended credit for the student wrestlers’ successes to Thermopolis’ “amazing staff of coaches,” including Thermopolis Middle School Assistant Wrestling Coach Boone Bowker, USA Wrestling Coach Sean Boren, and from Hot Springs County High School, Coach Leif Polson, Assistant Coach William Faller and Head Coach Travis McDermott.

Hot Springs County School Board Chair Sherman Skelton responded by noting that the board has received McDermott as an officially recognized guest “a couple of times, over the last few years, and he never misses an opportunity to credit the middle school program for the successes they have in high school,” with regard to wrestling.

Skelton went on to express his appreciation to Emery for his “longevity in the position, because I know it’s really hard to build a program if we have a lot of change, so your constancy has been a nice thing.”

Skeleton credited Emery’s presence with bolstering the spirits of “all the wrestling dads and moms” in turn, who “know that’s going to be the person that’s leading the program when they get there.”

As a former wrestling coach himself, Skelton also cited Emery’s role in helping to “grow the kids, not just as wrestlers, but as young men and women, so they’ll want to do it when they get to high school.”