Bobcat wrestlers bring home trophies

Last weekend, the Hot Springs County High School Bobcat wrestling teams traveled to Pavillion to compete in the Don Runner Memorial Tournament. Due to weather concerns, the event was parred to a single day on Friday. Both the boys and girls teams were dominant, and came away with a second place finish for the girls, and a third place finish for the boys.

Lady Cats

While the Lady Cats had planned to travel to Green River for the weekend, the bitter cold weather put a stop to that idea, leaving the team free to join the boys team in competition at Wind River High School in Pavillion. The change in schedule proved fortuitous, however, as the ladies brought home the school’s first ever team trophy for the Lady Cat wrestlers. With only five members to the team, the Lady Cats finished with two championships, and two runner-ups.

Lilly Quintanilla extended her undefeated streak to 17 and 0, pinning her way through three matches to win the tournament in her class.

Alix Sorensen also pinned her way to a first place finish, dominating the competition with three pins.

Summer Galovich had an impressive win to reach the championship round, with a second place finish in a difficult final match.

Kaitlin Barral also had a second place finish, only losing in overtime in the championship match.

Ava Dafoe had a win and continues to show that she is improving with each tournament.

Next up for the Lady Cats will be a trip to Lander for the Lander Invite this coming weekend.

Bobcats

Although the Cats were missing some key wrestlers, the team sent five wrestlers into championship rounds, winning three of those final matches and finished in third place for the tournament.

Coach Travis McDermott said, “The lack of a full complement of wrestlers was the only thing that kept us from a first place finish.”

A tournament win was scored by Cannon Boren, who dominated his class and pinned his way to his first championship of his high school career.

Additionally, Will Ward brought home a championship, with two wins by pin and a technical fall in his third match.

Sam Skelton also achieved his first championship, pinning his way through all three of his matches.

Lance Axtell finished with a runner-up medal at 126lbs, with an impressive tournament, and senior, Mason Reese, also made the Championship round, with a Runner-Up finish.

Ethan Crow and Jessen Basse each lost very close matches on the championship side, however, both wrestlers battled back to each finish in third place. Colter Price lost a couple of very close matches, and finished in fourth place at 132lbs.

Coach McDermott said he felt that “Overall, we didn’t wrestle as well as we had the previous week, but we did battle in every match, and the boys worked well as a team to support each other all day long.”

Next up, the Cats will be in Cody on Thursday night this week, for a dual against a top ranked team, and then will travel to the Lander Invite on Friday and Saturday.