SUBLETTE COUNTY – Big Piney Puncher boy and girl wrestlers started their Friday with road closures and the team not able to get to our planned event in Wind River. Due to the hard work of Jess Nugent and Lori Green, we were able to get entered in the last minute into the Green River tournament.

The Green River tournament on Friday and Saturday was a large dual tournament. There were a lot of the best teams in the state at this event. 

The Punchers girls’ wrestling team ran a bracket-style format in their meet. We had four place winners in that tournament.

Charlie Smith had a great tournament, losing only once and placing third. Charlies is an ultra-aggressive wrestler who is exciting to watch. I love how physical she is on the mat.

Kamia Runyan also had an outstanding weekend of wrestling. She was able to place fourth in her bracket. She keeps on getting better and better each week. Morgan Brown had her best meet all year, placing fifth. She showed so much improvement since her last time on the mat. Addison Statham placed sixth in her bracket. She too is a very aggressive wrestler who is always attacking. She will just keep getting better as the season progresses.

For the boys, we had five duals on the weekend. We went 1-4 in our duals this week, dropping to 7-4 on the season.

We started out against the host team Green River. I really felt that was our best dual match of the year. We lost that dual, 24-57. But we had three matches where we lost leads at the very end of the match. Then we competed against Salem Hill, a school out of Spanish Fork, Utah. We lost that dual, 30-49. We finished up the day wrestling against Roosevelt, Colorado, and lost, 34-42.  This was a very physical dual but I liked how we fought back in this dual.  

For the first day of competition, I was very pleased with how well we completed and how well we did against stronger teams. I felt that we where able to push and compete against these stronger teams. I felt we wrestled at a high ability and found out things that we need to work on to improve and to make ourselves better.

On Day 2, I felt we did not come out very strong. It was a challenging day with a lot of down time between our two remaining duals. The way we wrestled was a coaching mistake and one I need to improve on.

We did not get in a very good warmup for either match. It was difficult to find space and to find time and to figure out when we would wrestle. We came out a little slow versus Laramie and lost that dual, 22-58. 

Then we finished up the week with a win versus Wheatland, winning, 48-27.

For the varsity boys, I really like how well Zef Zuniga wrestled, bumped up to heavyweight. He was able to go 4-1 this week. That was a huge step to bump up that much weight and perform that well.

I also like the performance of two of our junior varsity kids. Kian Pelhma wrestled to win the Heavyweight JV meet. He just keeps working hard each week in practice and his athletic ability keeps improving. Brogan Staley also had a great meet, taking second in his JV pool. Another young athlete that gets better each week in wrestling.

Positives this week – I feel we learned that we can compete with some of the best programs in the state. I really like how well we did on Day 1 and how physical we were. I also really like how well again we did on our feet. We were also able to get in a lot of falls that helped build up our score.

I do feel that we need to improve coming out on a Day 2 and that is an improvement I need to make. I also feel we will spend a lot of time this week working on escapes and reversals. That is the area we really need to work on this week.

This week, the team dualed on Tuesday in Cokeville and then headed to a large 3A tournament in Lander, another tough meet for the Punchers. It is one of my favorite tournaments because of its top quality, how it is run and with a great JV tournament so all athletes get a lot of wrestling.