Worland wrestling wraps up regular season in Buffalo on Friday

Last week was a good teaching moment for the young Worland wrestling team as they dropped two duals.

The Warriors lost to Hot Springs County 47-24 in Thermopolis on Feb. 1 and Cody 49-24 at the Warrior gym on Feb. 2.

"Those were duals against two tough teams," said WHS wrestling coach Josh Garcia. "Thermop, being a 2A school, is going to have success at the state tournament. The biggest thing for us was on our feet, giving up takedowns early against Thermop. Then not sticking to our bar-arm series."

In both duals, the Warriors' energy was not where they wanted it.

"Then flat out, we weren't ready to wrestle. I told our kids that we always have to be ready to go. Especially with regionals and state coming up, you have to be able to go in those first matches. We've got to stay aggressive and be a hammer on top.

"We lacked that in some matches last week. I'm fully confident we'll get back to doing what we do and getting pins. It doesn't matter what grade you are, our kids have to understand that we're at a different level now and you have to be ready to go. Overall, it was good for us, and we're still moving in the right

direction," said Garcia.

While it was a tough week of duals for Worland, Wyatt Dickinson did go 2-0 last week. The 126-pound senior pinned Bobcat Lance Axtell in the first period. Then, against Cody, he wrestled Ty Peterson, who is the second-ranked wrestler in 3A in the 120-pound class.

Peterson led for most of the match, but in the third period, Dickinson turned the tables and pinned Peterson for the win on senior night.

Dickinson is ranked sixth in the 3A 126-pound weight class.

"We always talk about our philosophy of never giving up. If you get out of position, you have to work to get in a good position where you can make a move. That's exactly what Wyatt did. He absolutely erupted the gym with a big pin like that. Ty is a good kid, he's won several tournaments this year and is one of Cody's top-ranked guys.

"I was so excited for Wyatt, and that's what you want the young kids to see. When you never give up and keep working hard, you never know when that turning point will be. It happened to be in the third period, and Wyatt was there to capitalize. He's got a hurt knee and wanted to wrestle on senior night," said Garcia.

Freshman JJ Espinoza picked up a big win in the dual vs. Cody. The 144-pounder trailed for most of his match but kept battling until he found an advantage and pinned Owen Foley in the second period.

"JJ is a freshman and battles a lot of nerves. I told him to let it all hang out, have fun and don't go out there and wrestle not to lose. Same thing as Wyatt; he was down, battled back and got a pin. For a freshman, stepping into our varsity lineup was huge, and that's going to be big for his confidence," said Garcia.

The Lady Warriors were supposed to dual Natrona County High School on Feb. 2, but Natrona had to cancel due to a few of their wrestlers being ill.

Instead, the Lady Warriors traveled to Sheridan to dual Sheridan on Feb. 1.

"I sure appreciate Sheridan saying bring them over. They did a tremendous job down there, and almost everyone got two matches. Coach [Trevor] Hostetter and Coach [Dalyn] Carrell said the girls wrestled super well. Win or lose the most important thing was having competition. If that didn't happen, it would have been like going to work all week and not getting paid for it," said Garcia.

Worland closes out their regular season schedule this week with the Bison duals in Buffalo on Friday. Along with starting each match with high energy, Garcia wants to see his wrestlers on the attack and applying the bar-arm series they've worked on all this week.

"Our philosophy is we always want to be on the attack. We want to be aggressive on our feet, on top and on bottom. Our kids are coming around, and battling with Cody was a big confidence booster for us. We're going to be fine if we keep working hard and focus on getting better each day," said Garcia.

All rankings are from wyowrestling.com.