Warriors make quick work of Riverton, win dual 66-18

WORLAND - In what could be a showing of what's to come, the Worland Warrior wrestlers opened their first home dual of the season with a convincing 66-18 win over the Riverton Wolverines Thursday night at Worland High School.

On the eve of their home dual tournament, the Pinnacle Bank Battle in the Big Horns, the Warriors built plenty of momentum for today and tomorrow with a pin-heavy victory over Riverton.

"Starting off the week with a win like that is a huge momentum boost for us, especially for [today]. We'll continue to build off of that, and our kids are hungry right now and fresh. We had a good week of practice and the kids are going to look to turn some heads this weekend. Wrestling in front of your home crowd is always fun, exciting and the kids are amped up," said WHS wrestling coach Josh Garcia.

Riverton left open weights 170 and 182, giving Worland a quick 12-0 lead. At 195, WHS junior Isaac Goncalves pinned Riverton's Ricky Hoffman in the first round. Not to be outdone, seniors Alex Beck (220) and Morgan Tigner (heavyweight) pinned their opponents in the first round as well.

Warriors Kein Anderson (106), Domanic Hartley (112), Daniel Weyrich (126), Hayden Johnston (138), Luke Goncalves (145) and Lane McBee (160) joined Thursday night's pin party, contributing to the team's 66 points.

"In wrestling, you definitely want to build that momentum and come out strong. In these types of duals, you want to get that momentum and keep going. Anytime you can start off with four or five pins right out of the gate, you're going to be tough to beat. You'll have one kid get a pin and the next kid tries to live up to those expectations, and it just keeps building and building for the team. That's what we did tonight," said Garcia.

The Warriors racked up nine pins in total on the night and did so in dominating fashion as most pins came in the first round or early in the second round.

"We definitely like to be pinners and we came out really strong. Sometimes that doesn't happen and we teach our kids to grind throughout the match. If we can't get a pin in the first, we'll focus on the second and if we can't get it there will try for the third," said Garcia.

The Warrior JV team even picked up four pins during their matches and showed how strong the program is from top to bottom.

"Often times our JV kids get overlooked and I'm just super excited about those JV kids, they were able to get pins [Thursday]. Kudos to our JV coaches and wrestlers they did a great job and it was very exciting to watch them. One of our JV kids, Anthony Estes, wrestled two matches in about less than 12 minutes from each other. That's really good for those kids and I'm really proud of the effort they show," said Garcia.

PINNACLE BANK BATTLE IN THE BIG HORNS

Today begins the Pinnacle Battle in the Big Horns dual tournament, 16 teams will battle it out at Worland High School and Worland Middle School today and tomorrow.

"We want to wrestle a lot of matches this weekend. I told the kids to go out there wrestle as much as they can, have fun and just enjoy this weekend," said Garcia when talking about the Warriors focus for this weekend.

Joining Worland in the Battle will be Buffalo, Cody, Douglas, Glenrock, Lander, Lovell, Newcastle/Upton, Pinedale, Powell, Riverton, Rock Springs, Sheridan, Shoshoni, Thermopolis and Wheatland.

Today's portion of the tournament starts the pool play, beginning at 1 p.m., with the 16 teams having been divided into four pools, Pool A (at WHS Mats 1 and 2)– Worland, Buffalo, Rock Springs 2, Lander; Pool B (at WHS Mats 3 and 4)– Riverton, Glenrock, Powell, Lovell; Pool C (at WMS Mats 1 and 2) – Thermopolis, Douglas, Sheridan, Newcastle/Upton; Pool D (at WMS Mats 3 and 4) – Cody, Rock Springs 1, Wheatland, Pinedale.

The top two teams from each pool advance to the gold bracket on Saturday, while the two remaining teams move to the silver bracket.

The Warriors start the Battle against 3A rival Buffalo High School at 1 p.m. on mat 1 at WHS.