May 10

Blazers defeats Buffalo, Newcastle – THS locks up No. 2 seed for state

TORRINGTON – By the end of the game on Saturday afternoon, it was clear Torrington had played three games in the span of five days.

The result was three wins.

On the heels of Tuesday’s home win over Rawlins, Torrington made the drive north to Newcastle on Thursday only to find themselves in a close battle with the Dogies. 

It took a shootout for the Blazers to pull a 4-3 shootout victory over Newcastle.

The next day, the Blazers returned home for the final home match of the season.

Torrington picked up a 1-0 victory over the Buffalo Bison.

May 19

Six area athletes sign to continue sports careers

GOSHEN COUNTY – Six area high school seniors signed to continue their education and athletic careers at the next level on Monday in Lingle and Yoder.

On Monday morning, Lingle-Fort Laramie senior Brian McCoid was the first of the six to sign his name to the dotted line. That afternoon, Southeast seniors Shelby Ekwall, Kealy Carson, Austin Short, Sydney Anderson and Brenna Herring all signed together in front of family, friends, teammates and coaches in Yoder.

May 26

School records fall at state meet for LFL track teams

CASPER – Members of the Lingle-Fort Laramie track and field team broke four school records at the Wyoming State Track and Field Championships last weekend.

The Dogger boys broke three, while the Lady Doggers broke one.

Louden Bremer bettered his own 300-meter hurdle school record time, while the 4x800 relay team of Myles Wilson, Nolan Spears, Brayden Posten and Brody Roberts and the sprint medley relay team of Spears, Brady Cook, Bremer and Roberts also set new fast times. The Lady Doggers – Grace Gibson, Kenzie Wilkins, Emma Walker, Hadley Wilkins – broke the schools’ sprint medley relay team of record.

June 2

EWCs Rayhill set to return to the CNFR

TORRINGTON – The 2023 edition of the College National Finals Rodeo will be the fourth trip to the college rodeo’s season finale for Eastern Wyoming College’s Karissa Rayhill. It would be her fifth trip had it not been for COVID in 2020.

Rayhill is treating this year’s competition in Casper a little bit differently.

“I’ve made it in barrels and goat tying three times,” she said. “I’ve always prepared super hard, and knew I deserved to be there, but I treated it like it was a once-in-a lifetime opportunity.”

This year though, she is treating the event like any other  rodeo.

June 14

Campbell cherishes Shrine Bowl experience

CASPER – Following the 50th annual Shrine Bowl, Southeast High School graduate Wyatt Campbell didn’t want to take his pads off.

He knew when he did, it would be for the last time.

“I want to keep these things on as long as I can for all these guys. It all comes to an end and moves on, but football was one of the best things in my life. I cherish this game, and I cherish my team back at home too.”

June 21

Goshen County trio qualify for NHSFR in July

GOSHEN COUNTY – Kyler Cark, Hadley Thompson and Baliegh Lane punched their tickets to the National Finals High School Rodeo with a strong showing during the 2022-23 high school rodeo season.

The trio placed in the top four of the final state standings at the conclusion of the recently held state finals in Rock Springs, qualifying them for NHSFR which will be held July 16-22 at the Camplex Event Center in Gillette.

It won’t be the first trip to nationals for Clark and Lane, while it will be the first trip to the high school finals for Thompson.

Thompson, of Yoder, will be the busiest of the trio, qualifying in goat tying, breakaway roping, barrel racing and pole bending. 

July 12

Tigers win Bolln Tourney

DOUGLAS – The Torrington senior American Legion baseball team have lost 11 games this season. Of those 11, five of them have been by one run.

Over the weekend, the Tiger ‘A’ team reversed those fortunes, winning two one-run games en route to the Bolln Wood Bat Tournament championship on Sunday afternoon in Douglas.

“Inside our dugout, we know we can compete with anyone in the state,” Tiger coach Jackson Jones said. “We knew we needed to make some adjustments in closing out games. This weekend, we were able to do that. It’s huge for our momentum going into the last week of the season. We did what we needed to do to win games no matter how it was done.”

July 26

All-Stars bound for state

DOUGLAS – Both the Torrington 11-12-year-old All-Stars and the 9-10-year-old All-Stars capped off the weekend Little League District Tournament with wins, securing both teams the No. 1 seed for this week’s Wyoming Little League State Tournament in Rock Springs.

After dominating the opening two rounds of the Little League District Tournament, the Torrington 11-12 All-Stars suffered their only loss of the weekend in the semifinal round against the Laramie All-Stars.

The loss dropped Torrington to a must-win against tournament host Douglas on Friday.

The All-Stars jumped on Douglas early in a 9-3 victory.

The younger Torrington All-Star team ran the tables and finished the weekend undefeated at the District No. 2 Tournament.

After the team’s win on Tuesday, the Torrington 9-10 All-Stars had their second bye round of the week. On Thursday, they picked up an 11-2 win to advance to the championship game.

Hudson Hoffman and Gunner Werning combined to strike out 10 Douglas batters enroute to victory.

July 28

Day one sweep ñ Torrington All-Star teams pick up wins at state

ROCK SPRINGS – The Torrington Little League All-Star teams picked up wins in the opening round of the Wyoming Little League State Tournament on Wednesday evening.

The 11-12 All-Star squad defeated the Green River All-Stars 3-2.

All of Torrington’s three runs came in the first three innings as the older All-Star team fended off a late charge by Green River.

In the Torrington 9-10 All-Star game, the defending state champions picked up an 11-2 victory over tournament host Rock Springs.

August 2

State Champs – All-Stars bound for Little League Regional Tournament

ROCK SPRINGS – For only the fifth time in Torrington Little League history, the 11-12-year-old Torrington All-Stars are state champions and are bound for the Little League Mountain Regional in San Bernardino, California.

It will be the team’s first trip to the Little League Regional Tournament since 1994. Torrington will be joined by Boulder Arrowhead Little League out of Billings, Montana, Henderson Little League based out of Henderson, Nevada, and Snow Canyon Little League out of Santa Clara, Utah.

The possibility of a return trip to regionals have been a topic of discussion for a couple of years now with this group of players, and they made it happen.

August 2

State Champions ñ Younger All-Stars defend title

ROCK SPRINGS – The Torrington 9-10-year-old All-Star team successfully defended the 2022 championship with an undefeated weekend at the Wyoming Little League State Tournament in Rock Springs.

With both the Torrington 9-10s and 11-12s winning state championships, it was only the sixth time in Wyoming Little League history both the Majors and Minors swept the state titles and the first time in Torrington Little League history.

“The kids are such a good group of boys. They played together so well. Honestly, they didn’t make a lot of mistakes for 9-10-year-old boys. They hit the ball. They never feel like they are out of the game,” All-Star coach Kevin Evans said. “All the way down our lineup, someone made a difference. It didn’t matter where they were position-wise or lineup-wise, somebody influenced the game. They just played solid baseball all week.”

August 4

Bullington inducted into WCA Hall of Fame

CASPER – Southeast High School coach Mark Bullington had been bugged for years about applying to the Wyoming Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

However, he didn’t feel like  the timing was right.

That changed recently, and on July 21 in Casper, Bullington was one of 10 other coaches from around the state to be inducted in the WCA Hall of Fame.

“It’s quite an honor,” Bullington said. “Like most hall of fames, it’s based on a points system, winning percentages, state championships, doing all-star games. It’s a combination of everything put together.”

August 4

EWC volleyball gets new coach

TORRINGTON – Through a friendship with Western Nebraska Community College head coach Binny Canales, George Hamilton heard about the sudden opening of the head coaching position of Eastern Wyoming College volleyball program.

As a result, Hamilton reconsidered retirement and reached out to EWC and ended up with the position.

“He talked with me and thought they had the backing and administration to be successful and be able to be one of the top programs in the country,” Hamilton said. “I contacted the school before I saw it posted.”

August 25

Meredith set to visit youth wrestling camp in Torrington

TORRINGTON – On September 16-17, former University of Wyoming All-American wrestler now Bellator MMA fighter Bryce Meredith is scheduled to attend Torrington Wrestling Club’s Fall Pre-Season Camp.

“The wrestling club has always tried to put on some kind of camp together,” Ashley Albaugh said.“ Jared Hatley is pretty close with Bryce, and he reached out to Bryce. We looked at a few different dates, and they came up with the agreement for September.”