Warrior wrestlers ready for challenges of bracket tournament in Miles City

WORLAND - The Worland Warrior wrestlers showed no rust from the Christmas break placing fourth at the Thoman Invitational dual-tournament in Green River on January 5-6.

The Warriors went 5-3 in Green River, only losing to Wyoming 4A schools (Green River and Rock Springs) or a 6A Utah school (Vernal, Utah) and had three (Alex Beck, Domanic Hartley, Morgan Tigner) compete in the tournament's best of the best.

"We lost to three tough teams and when you wrestle those bigger schools you know you're going to wrestle against the best competition. Even losing three duals I was still impressed with our kids going against some of the top teams in the state and in Utah. Like Vernal they're a 6A school in Utah and they're tough, but we don't back down from the competition.

"We also had three in the best of the best, which is the most I've ever had. Tigner, Beck and Hartley. Domanic is only a sophomore and he wrestled really well in Green River," said WHS wrestling coach Josh Garcia.

During the break and Green River tournament, Garcia saw tremendous growth from his younger wrestlers.

"Our younger group of kids, the freshmen and sophomores, are coming along strong. Daniel Weyrich, to mention one, had some really great matches in Green River where he gutted it out to get the win. Same with Domanic Hartley he only lost one match in Green River. The whole group is coming on really strong and doing a nice job for us," said Garcia.

Today the Warriors turn their attention to the Miles City Cowboy bracket-tournament, which will have the best from Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming all battling it out over the weekend.

"It's a big, big tournament with schools from Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota and Idaho. It's a real tough bracket tournament," said Garcia.

Along with seeing the best other states have to offer, the Warriors will return to competing in a bracket competition, which is similar to a state tournament setup where wrestlers are seeded in their respective weight class. The last time Worland was in a bracket tournament was in Rapid City, S.D., for their season-opening tournament on Dec. 8-9.

"We enjoy going to dual tournaments because we get a lot of matches. Going to a bracket tournament we're looking at where we can fit in guys here and there for placing, how many points they can get for the team to help us in the standings. It has been awhile since we've been to a bracket tournament, Rapid City was the last one, so it's going to be fun," said Garcia.

With a strategy in place, Garcia and his staff want to see their wrestlers gut it out for each round and place as many as possible in the top six of each weight class.

"We're just looking to see if our guys can place in the top four or top six at each weight. We still have the team mentality and make sure our kids battle every single round. I feel that our kids will be ready because of their stamina and conditioning," said Garcia.

Full results from the Miles City Cowboy tournament will be in Tuesday's edition of the Northern Wyoming Daily News.