WORLAND - Absent a handful of teams the Battle in the Big Horns wrestling dual meet still brought out the best wrestling competition Wyoming has to offer. With a total of 12 teams battling it out at Worland High School Friday afternoon into the evening Worland and Hot Springs County High School were among the top eight teams to earn a spot in the gold bracket.

Pinedale, Glenrock, Sheridan, Newcastle, Cokeville and Cody where scheduled to be a part of the dual meet but did not travel due to weather concerns. Nevertheless 12 schools remained and were split into two groups.

In group A was Worland, Thermopolis, Wheatland, Lovell, Lander and Kelly Walsh. For group B there was Buffalo, Jackson, Greybull/Riverside, Douglas, Powell and Riverton.

Warriors

The Warriors went 4-1 during Friday's meet dual earning second place in group A and advancing into the gold bracket.

"I thought our kids wrestled really well, especially coming off that loss to Riverton on Thursday. They came out and battled really well (yesterday). The difference today was coming out on top in the close matches," said WHS wrestling coach Josh Garcia.

In their four wins the Warriors won by a combined 40 points. Against Lander Worland won 49-30 with wins by 285-pound Morgan Tigner, 106-pound Dominic Hartley, 113-pound Paysen Curtis, 126-pound Buck Butterfield, 132-pound Hayden Johnston, 160-pound Travis Tatkenhorst, 170-pound Isaac Goncalves, 182-pound Qunetin McBee and 195-pound Alex Beck scoring points for WHS.

In their dual against Thermopolis Worland won 70-9 with 120-pound Daniel Weyrich, Butterfield, Johnston, 138-pound Hunter Elliott, 145-pound Milo Vega, 152-pound Eric Romo, Takenhorst, McBee, Beck, 220-pound Gabe Cardenas, Tigner, and Hartley contributing to the team's score.

Versus Wheatland the Warriors won 66-18 and those scoring for the team were Butterfield, Elliott, Vega, Tatkenhorst, Goncalves, McBee, Beck, Cardenas, Tigner, Hartley and Curtis.

In their fourth win WHS won 57-24, the point getters for Worland were Butterfield, Johnston, Elliott, Vega, Tatkenhorst, Goncalves, McBee, Beck, Hartley and Weyrich.

"You gain a lot of confidence from those big wins. The kids start believing in themselves and in the program. It gives them an opportunity to grow as well so next time they're in a tough position they can fall back on that to give them an edge. Also in these duals a huge part of it is creating momentum and when a kid gets a pin it creates an excitement on the team and kind of makes everyone else wrestle well," said coach Garcia.

During Worland's lone, 44-33, loss to Kelly Walsh the Warriors had Weyrich, Butterfield, Tatkenhorst, Goncalves, Beck and Tigner pull in points for the team.

"We came up short against Kelly Walsh but sometimes you learn more from losing than you do from winning. I'm looking forward to seeing our kids learn a lot from that loss and I'm excited for what they will do (today)," said coach Garcia.

With a strong performance from the team coach Garcia had a hard time singling out wrestlers for their performance. "Our leaders are doing their part by showing the youngers guys what needs to be done," said coach Garcia. "When you start with a great six pounder like Dominic Hartley, he can get things rolling for us. Daniel Weyrich did a great job today. And those two have been excellent for us as freshmen. Buck Butterfield did an outstanding job as well as Travis (Tatkenhorst) and Milo Vega. Our younger kids like Eric Romo and Gabe Cardenas didn't back down at all either and battled. As a coach that impresses me that we have kids that are saying 'hey I'm willing to get after it and it doesn't matter who it is.' That really pleases me as a coach and I appreciate that effort from our kids."

Opening the gold bracket against rival Douglas, coach Garcia knows it's going to be a hard fought dual. "The Worland/Douglas dual has a lot of tradition to it. Pins are going to be crucial again so it's up to our kids to get after it and get some pins while avoiding pins. It's going to be a good dual and I'm excited for it," said coach Garcia.

Bobcats

Even as one of the smaller 3A schools the Bobcats of Thermopolis weren't going to use that as an excuse. Instead the young team went right at their competition, they took some hits on the day but still kept battling and earned a fourth-place finish in group A, advancing them into the gold bracket.

"The boys are tough and don't give up. It's just some early season stuff, we have six freshmen wrestling. So we're real young and like I've been telling them all season we're going to be the little brother, as compared to these bigger schools. We'll be the little brother that gets their shot in, runs around and might get beat up from time to time. Today we definitely got beat up and were out-physicaled, especially by Worland," said HSCHS wrestling coach CJ Scholl.

The young Bobcat wrestling team started the dual meet by defeating Wheatland 54-21. Picking up points for the team were 106-pound Austin Ireland, 113-pound Blake Williams, 138-pound Jeffery VanAntwerp, 145-pound Koy Myers, 160-pound Jon Harvey, 170-pound Cullen Becher, 182-pound Tyson Tobar, 195-pound Michael Harvey and 220-pound Andrew Yarbrough.

Against Lander Thermopolis lost 60-15 with Williams, Becher and Harvey picking up the team's points. Versus Worland the team lost 70-9 while Williams and Becher picked up the team's only points of the dual.

In their dual against Lovell the Bobcats bounced back with a 45-33 win. Bobcats contributing points in their team's effort were 120-pound Jonathan Hagen, 132-pound Aiden Ozmon, VanAntwerp, Myers, Harvey, Ireland and Williams.

For their final dual Thermopolis faced off against Kelly Walsh High School. The Bobcats lost 57-21 but each wrestler fought and scrapped and weren't going down without a fight. Hagen, 126-pound Chase White, Myers and Becher picked up points for the team.

"Overall I'm happy," said coach Scholl. "We saw some good things. It's that time of the year we're finding things to work on, there's a long list but hopefully tomorrow that list will be a little smaller. Then we'll be back to work on Monday to keep shortening that list. We were able to make it into the gold bracket for the second year in a row. It brings me some pride and I know the boys get pumped up for it."

Coach Scholl liked the effort from his team on Friday and praised the leadership of his two captains.

"My two captains Cullen Becher and Koy Myers had great days. They got after it and led by example. They're the ones building the team, coaches can do so much but when you have two kids like that they really build the team. Another senior Michael Harvey took a year off last season, regretted it, came back this year and has been wrestling out of his mind. For being a 182-pounder and wrestling at 195 he's getting after it and wrestling tough. I'm also happy with my freshmen that are in the lineup going against more experienced wrestlers with all their fight, that's what I'm happy with and that's why I coach," said Scholl.

Starting the gold bracket against Riverton, the No. 1 team out of group B, coach Scholl knows they have work to do and wants his wrestlers to start with an aggressive mindset.

"Tomorrow's mindset is to, as a coach of mine would say, be the junkyard dogs. We want to be the junkyard dogs that come for everything, three legs and all, we're still fighting. We want to be the fighters and we'll be going against the No. 1 of the other pool. So we're going to come out swinging, keep fighting and see if we can't come out with a surprise," said coach Scholl.

Both the gold and silver brackets will begin wrestling at 8:30 a.m. today, with gold bracket duals at Worland High School and silver at Worland Middle School.