Wrestlers at home Thursday

The Bobcats journeyed to Greybull for their Memorial Invitational Saturday with six wrestlers finishing in the top four.

The Bobcats were led by Colter Hansen who finished second, followed by Jon Hagen, Luciano (Louie in the practice room) Castle and Cullen Becher all placing third, finished off by Chandler Maddock and Milton Peden each placing fourth.

Scoring 105 points, the Bobcats finished a respectable sixth in the 12 team tournament. Moorcroft showed its power earning 206 points followed by Greybull/Riverside with 157.

Wyo Wrestling ranks the Bobcats sixth in the 2A power ratings based on their previous tournament performances, and this tournament should confirm that ranking.

Hansen was impressive in getting to the finals where he ran into Moorcroft's reigning state champion Tate Allison. Hansen said afterwards "I didn't expect to win, but..." Hansen had no answer for the quickness and strength of Allison and suffered several takedowns before being pinned.

Becher was looking forward to wrestling #1 ranked Moorcroft's Wyatt Rising (eventual champion), but a funny thing happened in the semi-finals, for some unknown reason, Becher could not find the energy to attack his opponent, Damon Tayler of Rawlins in the last 50 seconds while trailing by a point. He later lamented that he was not at his best throughout the entire day. He came back from that defeat to secure third with a victory over a tough Tyler Boyson of Shoshoni.

Hagen lost his first match, but fought his way back through the consolation bracket to take a forfeiture for third. Jon is rated as 4th in Wyo Wrestling's power ratings.

The other third place finisher was Castle with a 4-1 record including wins over Stewart of Moorcroft, Wilkerson of Lovell, Cole Cook of Moorcroft and Marshall Gibbs of Greybull.

Koy Myers and Peden also got to the consolation finals before losing their second matches, Myers ran into teammate Becher, while Peden dropped a 10-5 decision to Shay Bond of Rocky Mountain.

Other Bobcats adding to the Thermopolis total were,Chase White, Jon Harvey and Tyson Taboer.

Coach C.J. Scholl knows that this was basically a 3A tournament with two of the top 2A teams, Moorcroft and host Greybull/Riverside, thrown into the mix "We were not at our best as a team, but some of the wrestlers made good gains in performance. Hagen and Maddoc showed improvement and good effort. Colton [Hansen] wrestled better than at any time this season."

This week sees a scheduled quadrangle with 3A's Worland, Lovell and Douglas on Thursday. Then it's off to Riverton Friday and Saturday for the annual all-class Ron Thon Tournament - the toughest tournament in the state.