Grapplers finish a busy, brutal week

The Newcastle/Upton wrestling crew had a brutal week of competition last week as they opened things up with a quad against Douglas, Wheatland and Torrington in the Dogie Dome on Tuesday, then traveled to Moorcroft for a triangular on Thursday, and then back again on Friday and Saturday for an invitational.
 
Head coach Lee McCoy was pleased with his team’s performance over the four days of wrestling. Though the Dogies/Bobcats came up short in duals — owing to the fact that they gave up four open weight class forfeits — when it came down to it, the team won most of their matches against their opponents.
 
“Against Douglas [on Tuesday], of the varsity matches that were wrestled, the Bearcats only won two,” McCoy began. “Usually, we’re on the other end of that against Douglas. It’s been quite awhile since we’ve done that well against them, and it felt pretty good to take it to them like that.”
 
Haven Vrana, in the 106-pound weight class, made quick work of his opponent, pinning him in just 8 seconds. 
 
Kyah Miller wrestled an exhibition match against their JV 126-pounder and pinned him as well. 
 
“That was a tough match for her and just what she needed,” McCoy reported. “It gave her better competition and she had to wrestle hard and do things right to win the match — and she did just that.”
 
Casey Matthews (132) also did well against his opponent, getting the pin in 2:20. 
 
“Casey is a little unorthodox in some of the things he does,” McCoy explained. “But he’s been working on keeping his intensity up, while staying in control, and that paid off for him on Tuesday night.”
Despite winning all but two matches, the Bearcats took the dual by a score of 46-31. 
 
The next dual on Tuesday ended in a tight 35-36 loss against Wheatland where the Dogies/Bobcats gave up three weight classes in forfeits. 
 
“We also lost a couple of matches that we probably shouldn’t have, and that was probably the difference in the match,” McCoy admitted. “But we also had some pretty quality wins, so that was good to see.”
 
According to McCoy, Vrana, Jackson East (120), Trey Schneider (126) and Matthews all had quality wins over their opponents.
 
In the final contest of the night against Torrington, McCoy’s team lost 30-42. Unfortunately, Vrana suffered an injury to his temple in a strange turn of events, and though he wasn’t concussed, he wasn’t able to continue his match so lost by a medical forfeit. 
 
“It was a weird blow to the temple area that short circuited him for a little bit,” McCoy explained. “I think that it also rattled our guys a little bit, because we didn’t wrestle nearly as well against Torrington as we had against Douglas and Wheatland.”
 
Only East, Schneider, Jacob Prell (182) and Heath Henkle (285) were able to pick up wins against the Torrington Trailblazers.  
 
“Any time we’re giving up four or five weights, we’re not going to win many duals,” McCoy said. “I was proud of the kids, though, because they wrestled well, and we count those duals as wins, even if they aren’t on paper.”
 
On Thursday, the Dogies/Bobcats traveled to Moorcroft for a quad there. The team was scheduled to wrestle Wright as one of their duals, however, since McCoy’s squad is scheduled to take on Wright this week, he opted out of that one given how much competition there was still to come in the week. As such, Newcastle/Upton took on Moorcroft and Shoshoni only on Thursday. 
 
Moorcroft was up first, and although the Dogies/Bobcats wrestled the Wolves pretty tough, they took another loss against them, 17-54. 
 
Landon Norman (113), East and Prell were the only wrestlers to win in the dual, and each did so by sticking their opponent.
 
Miller took her first loss of the season against the top ranked girl in the state at 120 pounds. “Rebekah [Anderson] had dropped down to 115, but we talked them into having her wrestle up so she could go against Kyah,” McCoy explained. “Kyah was kicking her butt for about 5:45 seconds, but then she made a mistake by putting her head down.” 
 
Anderson took advantage of the mistake and put Miller on her back for the pin. At that point, Miller had been up 12-2.
 
“It wasn’t a loss she wanted to take, but at the same time, it was a great learning opportunity for her,” McCoy said. “Not that we want anyone to lose, but we really did kind of want her to get beat, because it takes some of the pressure off of her, and also gives her something to work toward.”
 
The team had their way with Shoshoni in the second dual of the night, winning 30-40 despite giving up four forfeits due to open weight classes.
 
“There were a couple of kids out of the line-up, but their 220-pounder was pretty tough,” McCoy explained. “He bumped up to wrestle Heath, and he got the better of him, but other than that, we were pretty dominant.”
 
Norman, East, Matthews and Thomas Prell (138) all picked up wins by pinning their opponents while Jacob Prell won by major decision.
 
The Dogies/Bobcats turned around and went back to Moorcroft on Friday and Saturday for a big tournament with teams from Wyoming, North Dakota and Montana. Newcastle/Upton finished 11th out of 25 teams, scoring 82.5 points.
 
A lot of competition and big brackets meant that McCoy’s squad had their work cut out for them through the two days of wrestling. 
 
“They had to win a lot of matches to get into the top of the bracket,” McCoy said. “As coaches, we were super happy because we beat some kids who we are not supposed to beat on paper. I don’t remember how long it’s been that we’ve gone to a tournament of that quality and come away with seven placers.”
 
Miller won her bracket at 120 and so was awarded the belt buckle, which is a unique trophy that Moorcroft awards at the Dylan Humes Tournament.
 
“That was pretty special,” McCoy said. “Since they’ve been handing out belt buckles, Kyah is the first kid we’ve had to win one, so that was awesome.”
 
At 106, Vrana went 4-2 earning fourth place, Norman (113) finished third with a record of 4-1, East was sixth at 120 going 3-3 on the day, Scott Larson (126) was also sixth with a record of 4-3, Schneider (126) finished fifth going 4-2, and Jacob Prell was sixth at 182 finishing with a record of 3-3.
 
“Landon beat a lot of tough kids to finish third, and several were seeded over him,” McCoy began. “The kid he beat to take third was an overtime win, so he had to fight hard to tie it up at the last second in regulation, and then took the kid down in overtime so that was also a special win.”
 
“At 126 it was pretty cool that Trey and Scott met again for fifth and sixth,” McCoy continued. “It was a close match, where Trey ended up on the winning side, but both kids had great tournaments to get to that match.”
 
This week will be busy again for the Dogies/Bobcats, but not as brutal as last week. 
 
The squad will wrestle the Panthers in Wright on Thursday beginning at 5 p.m. then will head to Belle Fourche on Friday and Saturday for another tough, multi-state tournament there.