Warriors settle for 7th at home tournament

The weekend didn't go as well as Coach Josh Garcia and the Warriors would have liked, but there still was plenty to celebrate by the time the Battle in the Big Horns was over Saturday evening.

Worland finished their home tournament in seventh place. Coach Garcia said, "We like to be in the finals of our own tournament. It's always our goal to try and win. Overall I was really pleased with way we wrestled. A lot of our kids got eight matches and any time you can get eight matches in a weekend, that's quite a bit of wrestling."

He added, "It definitely is a good indicator of where we're at this early on in the season and what we need to work on; where our program is headed in next couple months."

Worland overall is in a lot better shape than most teams, Garcia said, which is a team goal. He said no one lost a match because an opponent was in better shape, however, he believes Worland wrestlers won some key matches because they were in a lot better shape.

Garcia said the tournament showed some the need to work on more technique and get to the point to "wrestle start to finish and be more consistent Friday through finals rounds on Saturday. We just want all of our kids to wrestle up to their talent."

After taking second in its pool and making the gold bracket, Worland had a tough draw in the first round with Billings West and lost a close dual 45-36. Next came Rock Springs and the Warriors had their hands full there, losing to their 4A opponent 60-24.

The loss pushed Worland into the seventh-place match where they would face Thermopolis which found its way there with a 69-12 loss to Billings Skyview in the first round and a 62-15 loss to Sheridan in the consolation bracket.

The Warriors closed out the dual portion of the tournament with a strong finish, defeating the Bobcats 48-30 for a seventh-place finish.

Garcia said, "All of our kids just wrestled hard and battled hard every single match. It was a great team effort from all of our kids, and that's all that I ask for and all that I'm looking for this time of the season."

Best of the Best

Once a champion was crowned, two wrestlers from each weight class were chosen for Best of the Best and would face off to crown a true tournament champion.

Glen Anderson at 126, Austin Beck at 220 and Sampson Rich at heavyweight were among those chosen. Garcia said that's the most in at least three years. "That's quite an accomplishment, especially with this level of competition for the tournament. There's a lot of good kids at this tournament. It's tough to be in the Best of the Best. I'm just really pleased with how these kids wrestled all weekend."

Anderson faced Austin Ketchum from Billings Skyview and pulled off a close 6-3 decision for the 126-pound crown. Anderson also won the tournament award for fastest pins, pinning his opponents in a total of just over eight minutes, Garcia said.

Beck met up with Star Valley's Erickson Vicente-Garcia for the second time in the tournament, having already beaten him by a 6-2 decision the day before.

The rematch was even closer, but Beck still managed another win by decision – this time with the score being 5-3.

Rich didn't fare as well as his two teammates, battling with Devan Maua from Billings Senior and losing by fall in 1:38.

Worland will have the week off for Christmas break, but will begin practicing again on Dec. 28 as it prepares for the Vernal Tournament of Champions in Vernal, Utah Jan. 8-9, 2016.

Garcia said, "This is a nationally-ranked tournament with probably 60 schools. It's a huge tournament with a lot of good competition that's why we like going. It's another good indicator of where we're at."