Dowling, Alexander named outstanding wrestlers at the Battle in the Big Horns

Greybull-Riverside’s Gabby Dowling and Loomis Alexander turned in outstanding performances in their team’s final outing before the holidays, going undefeated, winning Best of the Best matches and earning special recognition for recording the most pins in the least time at the Battle in the Big Horns.

The dual tournament with singles matches at the end was held Dec. 20-21 at Worland High School.

Coach Rob Nuttall said injuries and illness hamstrung his team’s chances in the varsity boys division.

“We only filled five weights — 138 (Michael Bassett, 144 (Alexander), 150 (Reece Whisenant), 157 (Caiden Sorenson) and heavyweight (Curtis Strohschein) — and you don’t win a lot of duals when that’s the case,” he said. “We knew that rolling in, but that was OK. The only thing we cared about was outwrestling everyone in the matches we had, and I really feel like we did that.”

For the record, the grapplers lost all three of their Pool C duals, falling by scores of 39-30 to Glenrock, 42-24 to Cody and 36-24 to Buffalo.  But they regrouped to win the Bronze bracket, slipping by Wheatland 34-30 and Newcastle 30-29 while losing to Jackson 42-24. 

Alexander led the way, winning all of his matchups in the duals and then pinning Kayson Cahill of Rock Springs and Scott Larson of Newcastle in the Best of the Best.

“He had one heck of a tournament,” said Nuttall.

 There weren’t as many heavyweights in the field, but Strohschein was the class of the division, going 5-0 over the two days.  Nuttall credited him with “wrestling smart, heady matches” in his Best of the Best wins over Ray Rice of Worland and Lucas Giersberg of Douglas, S.D. 

Whisenant went 6-1 over the two days, doing “a lot of really good things,” according to Nuttall. Whisenant’s only loss came early on to Kelton Stewart of Glenrock, the eventual second-place finisher.

Bassett and Sorenson were making their season debut after sitting out the Powell tournament.

Bassett went 5-1 in the duals, made Best of the Best, and eventual finished second, losing to Cannon Boren of Thermop in the finals.

Sorensen went 3-2 in the duals.

“We’re still knocking the rust off both of them ... but for their first competitive weeks, they both wrestled really well,” said Nuttall.

“I can’t speak highly enough of where we (the varsity boys team) ended up before the break.”

Girls division

G-R was also shorthanded on the girls side, entering Dowling at 140 pounds and Elizabeth Holloway at 145.  Dowling went 4-0, cinching the Best of the Best crown with a first-period pin of Tessa Farnsworth of Moorcroft.

She also accomplished a career milestone, notching the 100-win of her high school career.

Holloway came within one win of matching her teammate, going 2-1 to capture second place. She needed less than minute to pin her first two opponents before falling to Andie Gibson of Lander in the final.

“Both of those girls wrestled extremely well,” said Nuttall. “What they’ve been doing is really encouraging — they’re in a good spot (heading into the final weeks of the season).”

JV action

Every G-R wrestler in the junior varsity division won at least one match.

Zack Kuntz, at 175, went 6-0 and was recognized as the JV wrestler who recorded the most pins in the least amount of time.

Levi Cochrane went 5-1 at 144.

Carter Peasley went 1-4 at 150B.

Ben Mendenhall went 3-1 at 157B

Nikoah Sorenson went 4-2 at 175.

Unlike the roundballers, G-R will be off this weekend.