Warriors finish second in silver bracket at Battle in the Big Horns

For their annual home dual tournament, the Worland Warriors wrestling team finished second in the silver bracket at the Battle in the Big Horns on Dec. 15-16 at Worland High School.

"Whether they're freshmen or seniors, or in between, the kids know that high level of expectation from our program. They weren't afraid and didn't back down from any competition. That definitely showed in some of those tighter duals. I couldn't be prouder of our kids," said WHS wrestling coach Josh Garcia.

In their duals on Dec. 14, the Warriors beat Riverton 42-39 but fell to Rock Springs 55-12.

The Warriors went 1-3 in pool play on Dec. 15, beating Rocky Mountain 63-0 but losing to Douglas (S.D.) 46-36, Kelly Walsh 45-12 and Douglas 43-33.

In the silver bracket on Dec. 16, the Warriors beat Glenrock 51-24 in the quarterfinals and Lander 48-24 in the semifinals but lost to Buffalo 36-33 in the first-place dual.

The Warriors had many standout wrestlers over the weekend. Seniors Wyatt Dickinson (126 pounds), Dawson Utterback (175 pounds), and freshman Kade Garcia (106 pounds) were among those Worland wrestlers to put together an excellent weekend of wrestling.

"When you have a wide range of ability and experience in your room, it's always fun. There were a lot of good moments, a lot of good learning moments there this weekend, too. Some of my favorite parts were having our kids wrestle well. Having our seniors do the things that they know how to do.

"Wyatt Dickinson had some great matches and got the crowd going. Dawson Utterback had great matches, too," said Garcia. "My son Kade, being a freshman and wrestling at a high competitive level, is really nice to see."

The Lady Warrior wrestlers also had a terrific weekends in the girls bracket. At 130 pounds Rivers Carrell finished first, pinning Jordan Nielsen of Lander in the championship.

Sabrina Gentzler (105 pounds), Rylee Anderson (125 pounds) and Rihan Rosario (120 pounds) finished second in their weight class for Worland.

"Another favorite moment was our girls side. Some of them got beat by a girl on Friday, but then, on Saturday, they came back around and beat those girls. Rihan Rosario beat a girl that beat her on Friday, and then she finds herself in the finals. Rylee Anderson does the same thing. Those are some of my favorite moments because our kids are able to walk off the mat after a loss, take some positive criticism and come back the next day and get a huge win. Things like that, as a coach, are super exciting for me."

"The experience has factored in tremendously between Riley and Rivers. They have that experience, but then also that swag about them. They're confident, and not only that, but they are leaders. That leadership carries on to those younger girls. As far as those two go, they're doing just a tremendous job with their leadership abilities and being able to carry that over to the wrestling mat," said Garcia. "When they look in the corner, if I tell him to go down, they don't question it. If I say we're going top, they know they're going top, and they're going to get the win."

On the JV side for the Warriors, picking up where he left off from the Rapid City Invitational on Dec. 8-9, Daniel Casdorph earned first place in the 132-pound JV division.

Warrior Taydren Niehoff finished first in the 106-pound weight class, and 144-pound JJ Espinoza took first in the JV bracket as well.

"Our JV kids wrestled really, really well. Our ongoing joke right now is Daniel Casdorph, we're calling him our JV All-American. He was another one that went undefeated on the JV side. Those younger guys like Casdorph, Sergio Cardenas, Kaden Sanchez, Jaims Fernandez, there are a handful of them that are getting a lot of good mat time on the JV side.

"That's really going to pay off for them and for us as a program in February when it's time to go into regionals. We have that high level of confidence, and we'll be able to hit the mat running there, and they'll have 30 to 40 matches under their belt," said Garcia.

Worland now heads into the holiday break confidently and knows what they need to work on.

Out of the break, the Warriors and Lady Warriors next contest is in Bozeman at the Bozeman Invitational Jan. 5-6. As they prepare for that next tournament, the focal points for the Worland wrestlers in practice are on technique and mindset.

"We need to keep sharpening our skills more. We're still getting into some of those situations where we don't quite feel comfortable in. Getting our younger kids to get comfortable with those positions, it's OK to sit out and hang out for a couple of seconds. We don't want to be there too long, but we need to feel comfortable and not just bail and sell the farm, so to speak.

"On bottom, my big thing for us is to clear that bottom and have that confidence that we can get all the way to our feet. We're getting halfway, and then we'll get broken back down. And then we'll get halfway back up again, and then we'll get broken down. Over the break, we're going to do some drills and work on, if you're halfway out, then our philosophy is we're out. There is no partial or halfway. It's, we're out, and we're back up on our feet and looking to score transition and another takedown," said Garcia.