Three Southeast Cyclones place at state tournament

Erick Starkey
Posted 3/1/17

The Southeast Cyclones came away with two fourth-place wrestlers and a sixth-place wrestler at the state tournament in Casper over the weekend.

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Three Southeast Cyclones place at state tournament

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CASPER – The Southeast Cyclones came away with two fourth-place wrestlers and a sixth-place wrestler at the state tournament in Casper over the weekend.
“Any time you can go up there and get kids medals it’s good,” coach Matt Bullington said. “Everybody wrestled right about where we thought they would.”
At 145 pounds, Chase Lovercheck took fourth. He rattled off two wins to open the weekend. His first win came by a 17-2 technical fall and second was a win via decision, 6-5. In the semi-finals, Lovercheck lost by a 17-9 major decision to Big Piney’s Kaden Kranendonk.
Lovercheck was dropped to the consolation semi-finals, where he picked up a win via major decision, 15-4, over Glenrock’s Skyler Ford. In the third-place match, Lovercheck went the distance, but lost via decision, 7-4, to Cokeville’s Antheny Peterson.
“Chase ran into pretty tough kids right at the end,” Bullington said. “He ran into a kid who we didn’t have answers for when he was on his feet.”
Hunter Woodruff (285) took the same path to his fourth-place finish as Lovercheck. Woodruff had a first-round bye and won via fall in the second period in the quarterfinals. Glenrock’s Jadon Williams pinned Woodruff in the second round of their semi-finals match, sending the Cyclone to the lower bracket.
Woodruff pinned Glenrock’s Elias Orozco in the second period of consolation semi-finals to advance to the third-place match. In his final match of the season, Woodruff was pinned in the first period by Lovell’s Jaret Collins.

“(Collins) was probably one of the better heavyweights in all classes so it was just the luck of the draw for Hunter,” Bullington said.
Both Woodruff and Lovercheck finished fourth at the state level and will be looking for more next season as seniors.
“It was a bitter sweet moment for them – happy that they placed, but it still left them wanting more,” Bullington said. “It’ll add to that drive this offseason.”
Southeast’s only senior, Elijah Boyd, was the final Cyclone to place, taking sixth at 132 pounds. He picked up an opening win over Wright’s Garrett Strohschein via pin in the third period. Boyd was pinned by Donny Proffit (Kemmerer) in the first period of the quarterfinals, sending the Cyclone to the wrestle-backs.
In the lower bracket, Boyd picked up two wins by decision, including a win over a fellow Goshen County wrestler, beating Lingle-Fort Laramie’s Zane Rising by a 12-2 major decision. Boyd lost by technical fall in the consolation semi-finals to go to the sixth-place match, where he faced a familiar face. Strohschein got his revenge on Boyd, pinning him in the second period.
“One of the wild cards of the weekend was Elijah. It was his last outing on the mat as a senior and he put it all together,” Bullington said. “Each match could have been his last and he got it done.”
Greg Logsdon (106) and Bryan Baker (182) both reached the third round of the consolation bracket. Logsdon was pinned in the first period of his opening match. In the wrestle-backs, he had a bye and then picked up a win via pin in the first period. Logsdon reached the third period in the third round of the consolation bracket, but was pinned, ending his competitive action in Casper.
Baker had the same path as Logsdon. He went the distance in his opening match, but lost by a 2-0 decision. The Cyclone received a bye in the consolation bracket, before picking up a win via pin in the first period. Baker again went the distance in the third round of the lower bracket, but lost by a 15-13 decision.
Tate Carson (160) and Brady Tosh (170) had similar weekends. They both started their weekends with losses via pin. In the wrestle-backs, both Carson and Tosh pinned their opponents in the first period. Carson and Tosh were both pinned in the second round of the consolation bracket.
Kaden Brothwell (106) and Conner Smith (195) competed for the Cyclones at the state tournament, but were unable to pick up a win. They each reached the second round of their respective consolation brackets.
As a team, Southeast finished 13th in 2A, racking up 54.5 team points. Moorcroft captured their fifth-straight 2A team title with 271 points.
“I was hoping we would be a little higher. It didn’t help us at all losing Tanner Hort the week of regionals,” Bullington said. “Instead of looking at the team total, we want to look at the individuals and we did about exactly how we thought we would.”