Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Pinnacle Bank Battle in the Big Horns begins today at 12:30 p.m. at WHS and WMS
Warrior Domanic Hartley works to get the pin on Wolverine Laiton Ivie during Thursday night's dual against Riverton at Worland High School.
WORLAND - Building momentum heading into today's Pinnacle Bank Battle in the Big Horns dual wrestling tournament the Worland Warriors picked up a 51-30 dual win against the Riverton Wolverines Thursday night at Worland High School.
Coming off a tough opening weekend in Sheridan and Rapid City, South Dakota, Thursday night's win is exactly what the Warriors needed. And the best part about their victory was that they executed on what they had been practicing all week.
"The kids did a really nice job tonight and I'm really happy with that win," said WHS wrestling coach Josh Garcia. "For us this early in the season I really like that we saw a lot of takedowns. We've been practicing that in our room every day and when your kids come out and do things we've been working on, from a coaching standpoint it's really exciting.
"A lot of times you teach something but then your kids don't necessarily execute and do their own thing, so that was great to see. Several of those matches in the top position they ran our bar arm series, that we teach, rather well tonight."
The Warriors had three freshmen in Thursday's lineup, 106-pound Kyle Anderson, 152-pound Josh Rose, 160-pound Ralph Moreno, and Garcia was impressed by how well each of them wrestled.
"We came out aggressive and got after it. We had several freshmen in our lineup and any time you have freshmen in your lineup you want them to go out there and battle. That's what they did, and the whole team up and down the lineup did just that," said Garcia.
Domanic Hartley at 113 pounds got the ball rolling for the Warriors getting a quick pin on Riverton's Laiton Ivie. After Hartley's match the Warriors picked up the next 21 points with 120-pound Kein Anderson defeating Brady Stingley 7-5, 126-pound Adam Bankert pinning Dalton Leach, 132-pound Daniel Weyrich pinning Garret Popkes and 138-pound Tristen Lungren pinning Dwayne Rambel.
Garcia credited his lower weights for getting the momentum on the Warriors side and getting their teammates and home crowd fired up.
"Any time you have a kid like Domanic Hartley, he's just a hammer and he's one of those hoorah type kids that gets the guys fired up," said Garcia. "As soon as the whistle blows he's right in your face and he's little but hard to handle. When you have that type of kid in your lineup it really sets the tone for the rest of your team. We got four pins after his match and that was huge, the kids fed off that momentum."
The other point-getters for the Warriors were Rose by pinning Riverton's Chydan Evans, 170-pound Peyton Woffinden by pin, 182-pound Isaac Goncalves by open weight and heavyweight Brody Hernandez by pin.
Hernandez had one of the more dramatic matches of the night. Early on in his match against the Wolverines' Skyler Soul, he was in trouble and was nearly pinned by Soul. Hernandez kept fighting and managed to make it to the second round. Trailing 5-3 in the second round, Hernandez's grit paid off as he was able to takedown Soul and get the pin with 10 seconds remaining on the clock.
That determination displayed by Hernandez is exactly the kind of mindset Garcia wants for each and every one of his wrestlers.
"That's a perfect example of what we try to teach our kids on a daily basis, and not just on the mat but also everyday life situations. You never give up no matter what happens, if you get put to your back you have to be able to fight that adversity.
"In that match, Brody did exactly what we teach. He got off his back, got the reversal then went to our bar arm series again and when our kids do what they're taught to do, they do a really nice job," said Garcia.
Today at 12:30 p.m. the Pinnacle Bank Battle in the Big Horns begins at Worland High School and Worland Middle School, and what Garcia wants to see from his team this weekend is better technique and getting that first takedown in a match.
"We want to execute better on our feet; we gave up a couple takedowns in some of those early matches. Anytime you can get that takedown it sets the momentum on your side, rather than coming from the backside down 0-2 going into the second or third. I really just want to focus on getting that first takedown this weekend, then continue to wrestle hard and tough on top," Garcia said.
