Bobcats storm back on Day Two of the Pinnacle Bank Battle in the Big Horns

THERMOPOLIS - Day One of the Pinnacle Bank Battle in the Big Horns wrestling dual tournament went poorly for the Hot Springs County Bobcats.

As a part of Pool C, the Bobcats on Friday lost to Douglas 52-24, lost to Newcastle/Upton 45-28 and ended the day by being shut out 69-0 to Sheridan.

The terrible start was tough to swallow but when the Bobcats returned home head coach CJ Scholl and his assistant coach Trey Ottley brought their team to the wrestling room. There they spoke with the team about what it takes to have your name immortalized as one of the greats in Bobcat wrestling.

"Myself and coach Ottley were disappointed with how we ended up on Friday. So we came back to the school and came up to the wrestling room and talked about the names we have up on our wall. We talked about what it takes to make it on the wall and the commitment required," said Scholl.

Scholl and Ottley also asked their team to do a 180 from Friday's performance.

"It's always tough to flip the switch, but we sat the boys down and asked them to flip the switch, to become a different team and go out with that junkyard dog attitude, you know, it's only got three legs but will come at you like it has seven," said Scholl.

The 'Cats took their coaches' message and request to heart Saturday as they looked nothing like the team that showed up Friday. Starting the Silver Bracket they beat Lovell 48-24, took down Pinedale 39-36 then staged a comeback against Riverton in the championship to win 40-36.

"They exceeded our expectations. They went out Saturday and wrestled like you wouldn't believe. In the finals, we gave Riverton 18 points and we wrestled like monsters. We don't fill a whole team and our boys know that, so if we want to come at the bigger teams we have to gain extra points. They stepped up with getting pins instead of majors, minors or techs. We were super happy with their effort," said Scholl.

At 126 pounds, Blake Williams was one of the many 'Cat wrestlers to embody the junkyard dog mentality while facing Pinedale's Victor Vejar during the semifinals of the Silver Bracket. For much of the match Vejar held the advantage not only in points but coming close to pinning Williams as well. But Williams kept fighting, kept grinding and in the third round with Vejar running low on energy, went on the attack.

With seconds ticking off the clock Williams grabbed the lead late in the third at 9-8 and was close to pinning Vejar before time expired.

"Blake had that junkyard attitude of not wanting to quit. Our motto has been, 'We're going to catch you in the third' and we condition real tough. He takes his conditioning very seriously and it showed. The Pinedale kid didn't have as much in the tank as Blake did and he went after him. It was awesome," said Scholl.

Williams and the rest of his teammates' impressive turnaround on Saturday made it hard for Scholl to single out just one wrestler.

"Cullen Becher making and winning the best of the best was great. Jeffery VanAntwerp stepped in for Koy Meyers, who missed weight, was fantastic and that was huge for us. Against Riverton, we needed a pin to win it and he went and got it. Also, it was his birthday, so it was a pretty cool experience for him. It's hard to single out just one because as a team everyone stepped up and did as we asked with flipping the switch. It was just an awesome day for us," said Scholl.

Maintaining the positive momentum from Saturday is something Scholl has been thinking about since the Battle ended. As the 'Cats head into the Christmas break Scholl plans to bring in some Bobcat wrestling alum to help his wrestlers stay fresh as well as hear from new voices.

"Our big plan is to have open mats and have some old guys come in to help and give them some new people to talk to them and keep this thing going for us," said Scholl.