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By Alex Kuhn
Sports Editor 

Warriors place third at the Pinnacle Bank Battle in the Big Horns

 

December 18, 2018

DAILY NEWS/ Alex Kuhn

Warrior Peyton Woffinden gets the upper hand on Wheatland's Cross Hernandez during the Pinnacle Bank Battle in the Big Horns at Worland High School Saturday afternoon.

WORLAND - The Worland Warriors wrestling team learned quite a bit about themselves during their two-day home tournament, the Pinnacle Bank Battle in the Big Horns dual tournament at Worland High School, finishing third as a team.

The Warriors fought off a pesky Wheatland team to do so, and had six wrestlers in the best of the best. While the victories were enjoyable, it was in defeats that the Warriors learned the most.

"Winning all three duals the first day was huge for us and that's something we expected from our kids," said WHS wrestling coach Josh Garcia. "Saturday, we opened up with Glenrock. I thought we wrestled well against them they have a couple of tough kids in their lineup.

"Sheridan, things went better against them compared to the last time we wrestled them. We scored a few more points and beat a few more kids. They're a tough 4A team and it's a good thing for us. We can learn a lot from a loss, more so than a win. Wheatland, we were down a little bit in that dual, but what hit me and something I took away. Was that some of our kids weren't quite used to wrestling six or seven matches in a weekend."

Wrestling in the Gold Bracket on Saturday, the Warriors defeated the Glenrock Herders 51-27 in the quarterfinals, lost to Sheridan 51-27 in the semifinals and beat the Wheatland Bulldogs 42-36 in the third-place match.

The Warriors also had 113-pounder Domanic Hartley, 126-pound Adam Bankert, 132-pound Daniel Weyrich, 138-pound Aaron Carver, 170-pound Peyton Woffinden and heavyweight Koby Tigner make the best of the best, which takes the four best wrestlers from each weight class to battle it out on the mat for tournament bragging rights.

Worland went 0-6 in the best of the best but getting an extra match, or two matches, was what Garcia wanted most for his wrestlers. Even the wrestlers that didn't make the best of the best put a lot of matches under their belt this weekend and with the Christmas break coming, they know what needs to be worked on.

"That's exactly why we run our tournament the way we do. Our kids need to know how to battle every single match for two days. Some of those tournaments where they go 0-2 or 1-3, being able to continue to wrestle through an entire weekend, is tough to do because it's grueling and long.

"If they were in the best of the best some of our kids walked away from the weekend with eight matches on the weekend," said Garcia. "We didn't have any win the best of the best but like I told the kids, that's OK with me. I know everyone wants to win those and go home with six champions, but it keeps those kids hungry and humbled."

Continued Garcia, "I'm OK with some of those kids walking away with a loss under their belt for the weekend. I think they'll come to practice eager to learn and ready to work on what we need to improve on. Overall, I'm super excited with our performance and where we're at, at this point in the season, I couldn't be happier."

The Powell Panthers won the tournament as they beat Sheridan 46-27, but Worland showed quickly they can improve during their semifinal match against Sheridan. Worland opened their season with a dual in Sheridan and lost 66-18.

On Saturday, the Warriors were far more aggressive and while they still lost to the Broncs, their aggressive mindset and willingness to try new tactics is what impressed Garcia the most.

"We did get better and the thing that stood out to me was that we weren't so timid. We came out more aggressive and took some tough kids down in the first of the period. A prime example is Daniel Weyrich, he gets taken down but gets a quick reversal but things like that make me think that we're coming along.

"Dom [Domanic Hartley] pinned his kid with something different, something he didn't use the first time. Things that we can take away from each match are huge because a lot of times kids stick to one thing and that's all they do," said Garcia. "Our philosophy is that we don't want to be a one-trick pony, we want to have multiple ways of getting off bottom and multiple counter-defenses, just things like that are important at this point in the season. What's worked once or twice may not work the next time, so we need to switch it up and run a bar and a wing and not a bar and a half."

The Warriors won't be in action until the Green River Invitational tournament on Jan. 4-5 at Green River High School. For the next three weeks in practice, conditioning will be front and center for the Warriors, but they also plan to take all the lessons learned from the weekend while perfecting their technique.

"Our main focus over the break is to continue to get into shape and work on our technique. We want to get a lot of reps in and really fine-tune our technique over the break," said Garcia.

 
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