Boreen wins state title for Rocky Mountain

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By David Peck

The small but mighty Rocky Mountain wrestling squad finished ahead of eight teams at the Class 2A State Wrestling Tournament Thursday in Casper despite having just five wrestlers battling on the mats.

Rocky scored 67 points to finish 12th in the 20-team field, outscoring Glenrock, Big Piney, Lusk, Greybull/Riverside, Dubois, Tongue River, Sundance and Hanna/Elk Mountain/Medicine Bow.

Three of the five Rocky wrestlers brought home medals from the tournament, and Burlington junior Nathaniel Boreen won the 126-pound championship for the Grizzlies.

“In total, it was almost as good as we were hoping for,” coach Daniel Robertson said. “We were a little bit short in a couple of instances. We expected Nathaniel to make finals and possibly win. Tonka (Lytle) had the potential to win a title, too.”

Lytle lost in the second round at 145 pounds, then won four straight matches to place third. Junior Aiden Henson placed sixth at 170 pounds, and Burlington senior Kolby Broederlow won two matches, Rocky sophomore Jackson Hanusa one.

Boreen went 4-0 at 126 pounds to finish his short season 15-0. He pinned Jessen Basse of Thermopolis in 3:16 in round one, then beat Trenton Sheehan of Moorcroft 8-4 in the quarterfinals.

“In the second match (Sheehan), he got taken down for the first time this year, and that really annoyed him,” Robertson said. “It was a pretty good match. It was like he (Boreen) was shaking off a little rust.”

Boreen pinned Talon Granaas of Glenrock in 1:35, then beat Gabe Emery of Kemmerer, a 30-match winner, 12-7 to win the championship.

In the finale, Emery managed to reverse Boreen twice, but Boreen had three takedowns and a near fall en route to 12 points and the victory.

“There were only a couple times in this match and once in the quarterfinal match when he wasn’t on top,” Robertson said, noting that both reversals against Boreen didn’t last long. “He did a great job breaking the kid down so fast that he landed in a bad spot and the kid reversed him…But he didn’t get held down long.”

Robertson said Boreen is quick and good on his feet, so the plan was to score a lot of points on takedowns.

“That’s our mantra,” he said.

Boreen rose to the occasion at State, Robertson noted.

“He was spot on,” the coach said. “He was not going to be stopped. He’s the ultimate teammate, too. He’s really glad when other people do well. He’s very gracious.”

Broederlow, meanwhile, almost reached the medal round at 160 pounds. The Burlington senior lost his opening-round match to Brant Fullmer of Lingle-Ft. Laramie/Southeast by a pin in 3:29, though he was leading 6-2 before getting reversed and pinned.

“He was winning but started getting a little impatient. Instead of just getting to neutral, he tried to fight from his back. That doesn’t last very long, generally.”

Broederlow came back to pin Weston Murdock of Cokeville in 2:07 and Casen Hiser of Lovell in 52 seconds but was then pinned by eventual third-place finisher Eli Linford of Cokeville (27-7) in 1:54.

“He was great to have on the team,” Robertson said. “We peaked at the right time. I hope other Burlington kids will look at the ones who came up and see there are some opportunities here.”

Robertson said Broederlow was disappointed he didn’t “make the podium” (for a medal) but he did win five matches over the last two weeks of the season that saw him wrestle for the first time.

Wright won the 2A team title in the one-day tournament, beating out challengers Kemmerer, Cokeville and Lovell.

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