SARATOGA – Seven Cyclone wrestlers finished in the top-five in their weight class over the weekend, propelling Southeast to a fifth-place finish at the Carbon County Invitational in Saratoga.
Hunter Woodruff had the best finish for the Cyclones, taking the top spot in the heavyweight division. His day started with a pin in the first period over Big Piney’s Ryan Keiter, advancing him to the semi-finals.
Wyoming Indian’s Leslie Fool Bull took Woodruff to the third period, but the Cyclone got the pin at the 5:09 mark. In the first-place match, Woodruff pinned Connor Sullivan (Pinedale) with less than 10 seconds left on the clock in the second period to take first.
At 145 pounds, Chase Lovercheck took second place in Saratoga.
Jacob Perry (Wyoming Indian) proved to be no match for the Cyclone in his first match of the weekend. Lovercheck got the technical fall win, 25-8. He then went on to pin Ahren Vezina (Wright) in the second period to advance to the semi-finals.
Lovercheck went the distance in his final two matches of the weekend, beating Cokeville’s Braydon Johnson, 10-9, to advance to the finals. He lost to Big Piney’s Kaden Kranendonk by decision, 20-10, to finish second.
Bryan Baker was the final Cyclone to reach the finals at the Carbon County Invite. He was seeded at the top of the bracket and received two byes to open the weekend. In the semi-finals, Baker pinned Rawlins’ Desmon Martinez with only 16 seconds remaining in the match. In the finals, the Cyclone was pinned by Burns/ Pine Bluffs’ Roman Delgado in the second period, placing him second.
Southeast had three wrestlers finish fourth over the weekend. Brady Tosh (170) won his first match over Wright’s Phoenix Buske by decision, 10-4, before losing to Big Piney’s Ben Banville by pin in the first period, dropping him to the lower bracket.
Tosh received a bye and then rattled off a win by technical fall over Blaynne Rohde (Big Piney), 17-0, and pinned Cole Mellott (Lusk) in the second period to reach the third-place match. In the finals of the lower bracket, Buske got his revenge by pinning Tosh in the third period.
Four of Tanner Hort’s (152) five matches went the distance in Saratoga. He won his first two matches by decision, beating Kyle Thurin (Big Piney) 8-4 and Chantz Albrecht (Pinedale) 11-5. In the semi-finals, Hort lost by an 18-3 technical fall to Cokeville’s Antheny Peterson.
After the loss, Hort dropped to the semi-finals of the lower bracket, where he won by a 15-2 major decision over Rawlins’ Colby Rodriguez. Hort took on Austin Butler (Hulett) in the third-place match that went to overtime. Butler got the win by decision, 8-2.
Tate Carson (160) was the final Cyclone to place fourth. He pinned Cade Sparks (Dubois) in the second period and Noel Aguirre (Big Piney) in the first to reach the semi-finals, where he was pinned in the second period by Cordell Viehweg (Cokeville).
In the lower bracket, Carson went to the third period against Shoshoni’s Tristen Boysen, but pinned him at the 4:52 mark. In the third-place match, Burns/ Pine Bluffs’ Ruger Lewis pinned Carson in the first period.
Southeast’s lone senior, Elijah Boyd (132), took fifth at the Carbon County Invite. His first match of the weekend resulted in a loss via pin in the second period against Lingle-Fort Laramie’s Zane Rising. Boyd’s next match was also decided by pin, but he came out with the win over William Carpenter (Wyoming Indian) in the first period.
Boyd went the distance in the semi-finals of the lower bracket, but lost by a 10-4 decision against Garrett Strohschein (Wright). The Cyclone dropped to the fifth-place match, where he had a rematch against LFL’s Rising. Boyd exacted his revenge and got the win by technical fall, 19-3.
Kaden Brothwell (106) and Connor Smith (220) both competed for the Cyclones. Neither of the two were able to pick up a win in Saratoga over the weekend.
The Cyclones ended the weekend with 122.5 team points, finishing fifth. They came in behind Burns/ Pine Bluffs (160.5), Rawlins (153), Kemmerer (133.5), Big Piney (127.5). Southeast finished one spot above Cokeville, who is ranked fourth in 2A in the most recent WyoWrestling rankings.
The action in Saratoga closed out the regular season for the Cyclones. They return to the mat for the regional tournament in Moorcroft Friday and Saturday.
