Wolves win eighth state championship

The Wolves wrestling team finished up their regular season this past weekend at the Wyoming High School Athletic Association State Championships in Casper. They qualified 17 wrestlers for the tournament and made quite a showing with placing ten of those wrestlers, nine of them in the top three.

The team also came away with their eighth consecutive state championship title, making it a total of ten state championship titles for Moorcroft, the other two being in 1968 and 2005.

Coach Williams says, “The Wolves had their single best day of wrestling on Saturday, for their eight year run. We got on a ‘Moorcroft roll’ Saturday morning, and couldn’t be stopped. With many emotional wins, the wolves wrestled back to an unheard-of five third place finishes. It was a performance that will be difficult to match.”

The team not only won the 2A division but placed fourth for the tournament as a whole with 203.5 team points under first place 3A Star Valley with 244 points, second place 4A Casper Kelly Walsh with 211 and third place 4A Green River with 208.5. Individual results were:

113 Sean Buckmiller: placed third and scored 20 team points. He pinned his way into the semifinals where he lost by fall. He came back to win his consolation semifinals match to move into the placings where he won by pin in 2:00 over Kagen Baker of Wright to place third.

113 Tyzer Isenberger: placed sixth. Tyzer had a great tournament, pinning all of his winning matches. His first match he pinned in 3:52, lost in the second round to wrestle his way back into the consolations. There he won with a pin in 0:52, and pinned his next match in 4:10 to advance him into the consolation semifinals where he lost to move into placings. There he lost by decision 4-1 to place sixth.

120 Mica Herrera: placed third and scored 21 team points. He won his first match with a pin in 1:17 and lost in the quarterfinals by decision 5-4 to move him into the consolations. There he won by major decision 13-5, then went on to win his next match by pin in 1:46 to move him into the consolation semifinals. There he won by decision 6-4 to advance into the placings where he won with a pin in 2:27 to place third.

120 Kaden Haynes: won his first match with a pin in 2:29, lost in the quarterfinals and in the consolation round two to put him out of the placing rounds.

126 Randy Peters: scored 1 team point. He lost his first round by fall, won his second match by decision 7-0 and lost his third match by decision 12-6 to put him out of the placings.

126 Tucker Cook: lost in the first round and lost in the consolation rounds to not place.

132 Charmayne DeLong: scored 1 team point. She lost in the first round, won her second match by decision 6-4 and lost her third match to not place.

138 Jacob Anderson: went 0-2 and did not place.

145 James Long: Coming back from an injury early in the season, lost his first match by fall, won his second match by pin in 2:11 and lost his third match by fall to not place.

145 Parker Seeley: placed first and scored 28 team points. He pinned his way into the finals with pins in 0:43, 3:22, and 2:39. In his finals match, he won by decision over Roedy Farrell of Thermopolis by decision 9-5. Parker is a four-time state finalist and a one-time state champion.

152 Darrian Black: placed 3rd and scored 19 team points. He won his first match with a pin in 0:55, lost in the quarterfinals by decision 9-8 to move into the consolation rounds. There he won by decision 6-4 then by major decision 18-5 to advance into the consolation semifinals where he won by decision 9-5 to go in for placings. There he won with a pin in 1:38 to place third. For the tournament as a whole, he placed fifth for having the most single match points with 18 and tied for second for having the most total match points with 50.

160 Sterling Norris: lost his first round by fall to move into the consolations. There he had a tough, fought match where he lost by decision 8-4 to not make it into the placings.

160 Hunter Garoutte: placed second and scored 22 team points. He pinned his way into the semifinals with pins in 2:44 and 4:30. In the semifinals he won by decision 1-0 to advance into the finals. There he lost to Wes Teichert of Cokeville by fall in 5:35 to place second.

170 Wyatt Peters: placed third and scored 20 team points. He won his first two matches both with pins in 2:30 and 1:17 to move into the semifinals. There he lost a tough match in sudden victory overtime by decision 7-5. He won his next match in the consolation semifinals by pin in 0:59 to advance into placings where he won by decision 9-6 to place third.

182 Rowdy Pfeil: placed first and scored 29.5 team points. He pinned his way into the finals with pins in 0:19, 0:48 and 0:21. In the finals he won by a tech fall over Riley Shaffer of Thermopolis 15-0 to place first. This is his third time in the finals and his second state championship.

195 Dekken Mayer: placed third and scored 18 team points. He won his first two matches by pins in 3:27 and 1:01 to go into the semifinals. There he lost by decision 3-2. In the consolation semifinals, he won by decision 4-3 to advance into the placings where he won by decision 8-2 to place third.

220 Parker Schlater: placed second and scored 24 team points. He pinned his way into the finals pinning his opponents in 0:19, 0:14 and 0:45. In the finals he fought a hard match and lost by decision 4-2 to Logan Cole of Thermopolis. This was his second time making it to the state finals. For the tournament as a whole, he tied for fourth place with having the fastest fall in 0:14.

The Wolves ended their season accomplishing the goal they set out to make, to become 8x state champions. The team wrestled smart and tough winning all of their wrestle back matches on day 2 to place 10 wrestlers and win the 2A division with 203.5 points over second place Lovell with 137 and third place Shoshoni with 129 team points.

Next up for the off season wrestlers is Jr. State this Saturday in Powell for a chance to qualify for Nationals in Fargo and the Cultural Exchange trip all this summer.