Bobcats send 11 wrestlers to 3A State tournament

THERMOPOLIS - The Hot Springs County Bobcats wrestling team may have finished eighth out of eight in the tough 3A East regional tournament, but by no means does that mean the weekend was a lost cause for them. The Bobcats brought 14 wrestlers to the tournament and 11 of them advanced to the 3A State tournament in Casper this Friday and Saturday.

"That's what we're trying to build on. That's the most we've had, even when we were in 2A since I've been coaching. I was really happy with all of our boys and the fight they showed. We got a lot more in there than we thought. Initially, I was thinking I'd be ecstatic if we could get seven to place, but then they wrestled tough. And that's something you can't take away from the boys at all," said HSCHS wrestling coach CJ Scholl.

Along with sending 11 wrestlers to the state tournament, the Bobcats had another highlight in junior Austin Ireland. The 106-pounder won his weight class for his first career regional championship. It was quite the turnaround for the junior, who did not pick up his first career victory until his sophomore season.

"He was on a whole new level. He finally got aggressive with some stuff and hit some stuff. Typically, he goes out there and is pretty easy going in his matches but that whole tournament he was all about winning matches. I told him not to focus on winning the tournament but, instead, worry about winning the match at hand and after that worry about winning that match, and so on.

"He went out there and that's exactly what the kid did. I'd love to say I did a bunch but I didn't do anything. He was a whole new kid out there ready to get after it. I'm so proud of him because during his freshman year the kid didn't win a single match," said Scholl.

Ireland will be joined at state by teammates 126-pound Blake Williams, seventh at regionals; 138-pound Jeffery VanAntwerp, sixth; 145-pound Koy Myers, eighth; 152-pound Cullen Becher, eighth; 152-pound Jon Harvey, fifth; 160-pound Riley Shaffer, eighth; 182-pound Logan Cole, third; 195-pound Austin Weaver, second; 195-pound Hyrum Rich, third; 220-pound Andrew Yarbrough, eighth.

Finishing last did not bother the 'Cats, the 3A East tournament was all about getting as many wrestlers to the state tournament as possible. To which they did and even exceed expectations in doing so.

"As coaches, we focused on how many could we get to state. We didn't talk about taking regionals. Unfortunately, we're not that team just yet. Coming out of this week no one was hurt that we didn't win the tournament. Where we sit right now we're not quite there to take down teams like Worland. We're a tough dual team, we're not a super tough tournament team yet, we showed that during the Battle of the Big Horns by winning the silver bracket," said Scholl.

The accomplishments of sending 11 of 14 wrestlers to state, having a regional champion and having another, Austin Weaver, in the championship round is what Scholl wants to keep building on.

The hope is the weekend's achievements will be the cornerstone of great future success, so that one day they can challenge for team regional and state championships.

"One day we hope to be there, like Worland does, bringing out 25 guys. This is my fourth year in Thermop and I challenged the boys to turn a page, 'How can this senior class leave an impact on Thermopolis wrestling?' The level of drilling since we asked that of them has been absolutely been crazy and I tell them this is what we want.

"We want all the middle schoolers and USA kids when they eventually get here, even if I'm not here when they get here, that's the legacy that's going to be left. Convincing them that's what they can do, they can do so much more than I can with leaving something like that. They bought into it and that's our focus, we've wanted to get better and better and that's what we are doing," said Scholl.

The 'Cats have the opportunity to build on the success of regionals at state this weekend. The physical training in practice this week will be cleaning moves, making them as clean and efficient as possible. Mentally, the training for state is about keeping it simple and taking it one match at a time.

"We're trying to fine-tune and give them some ideas to complement them. The biggest thing is we're coaching their minds as much as we're coaching their technique. We want them to focus on wrestling their best, hitting what they want to hit and not focusing on winning the state championship, per say. The idea is to focus on wrestling your hardest, come out with a win, wrestling your hardest, come out with a win. And if you do that four times you're a state champ," said Scholl.