SUBLETTE COUNTY – The Big Piney Puncher wrestling teams made huge strides in the Marsh Valley Invitational this week, in preseason competition against 26 other boys’ varsity, junior varsity and girls’ teams.

Girls’ wrestling

The top Puncher scoring in the girls’ tournament was Addison Kinnamon, who grabbed third place, said head wrestling coach Cole Clifford.

“Addison did a great job of moving on her feet and earned a lot of takedowns,” Clifford said. “She finished the week, 5-2, over the two days.  What a great way to start off your High School career.”

He also touted two more athletic Puncher standouts.

“Kamia Runyan was 3-2 and Addison Statham was 4-3 to start the year,” Clifford said. “Kamia did a great job of trying to incorporate the holds we learned in practice and showed a lot of promise. Addison Statham was probably the most aggressive female Puncher this week.  Getting in a lot of shots and being able to finish them allowed her to have a successful start to the year.

In a different setting, kudos to sixth-grader Bell Bennett, who to rose to the top win the Wyoming Middle School State title on Sunday, finishing the season undefeated.

This week the Punchers travel to Evanston on Thursday, Dec. 14, for a Girls’ Only meet and then they end the week joining the boys at the Kemmerer Invitational on Saturday, Dec. 16.

Boys’ varsity

Puncher Dominic Sanchez led the way, going 6-1 over the two-day invitational.

“Dom was aggressive in his matches earning a lot of first takedowns to get to leads early in matches,” Clifford said. “Dom earned a first-place finish in his pool.”

Clifford gave a shoutout to other varsity wrestlers showing promise this week. David Farrington went 5-2 over the two days earning a third-place finish. David wrestled under control in all of his matches. I really liked how he controlled in all phases of wrestling.

“Zach Murphy I felt probably learned the most out of anyone this week.  Zach has dropped a weight and learned very quickly he needs to be more active on his feet wrestling at the lower weight. He made those adjustments as the meet went on and he ended up going 3-2 this week. I also liked what Zef Zuniga was able to do this week going 4-3 as well.  He is just a strong competitor and works very hard on the mat.”

Boys’ JV

For the Punchers’ JV boys, Zavier Clifford had a very successful week “by being very active and very strong on his feet,” earning a first-place finish in his pool going 4-0 for the event.

Second place went to Brogan Stayley, with a 4-1 score.

“What a start for a young man who has come back from injury and missed the last two years of wrestling,” Clifford said. “He had a great week and a great start. Kian Pelham also showed great improvement over last year. He has worked very hard and that is starting to show in his athletic improvement on the mat.”

All in all

Clifford said of the Marsh Valley Invitational, “This was a great opportunity for us to start the year off with great competition in all three levels. Our athletes had several learning opportunities to improve and learn in each and every match. What I was impressed with was how well we performed on our feet. It was our best offensive category this meet. I also liked how well we competed in earnin escapes and reversals.”

“But most of all,” he added, “I loved how we improved from the start of the meet to the end. We got better as the two-day event wore on.”

Coming up, Clifford said the wrestlers will have several places to focus.

“I feel we will need to work on controlling our opponents once we take them down. We got a little excited and out of position and lost a lot of opportunities to score and gave up a lot of easy escapes. We will spend time working on that this week to tighten that up.”

Up next

Clifford looks forward to “another strong tournament with great composition” when Punchers join the Lady Punchers at the Kemmerer Invite on Saturday, Dec. 16, to wrap up the preseason before heading into the Christmas holiday break.