by nathan oster
Greybull-Riverside topped all 2A schools at last weekend’s Ron Thon Memorial Invitational in Riverton, finishing with 93.5 points after getting four of its wrestlers through to the placing rounds.
Wes Ridgway, who wrestles at 215, notched the highest finish, a second, while Clay Cundall and Bob Anderson contributed fifths at 171 and 189, respectively, and Chayce Goton placed sixth at 160.
Coach Mark Sanford was pleased with the ninth-place finish.
“I thought we could have maybe been a spot higher, maybe seventh or eighth, but overall, it wasn’t bad,” he said.
With 93.5 points, the Buffs trailed Rock Springs, which finished eighth, by just a half-point.  Worland, a 3A power, placed seventh, two spots above the Buffs with 117.5 points.
Cheyenne Central won the meet with 193 points.
Sanford said he entered more kids, 12, in the varsity tournament than at any other point in his tenure as the G-R coach. The kids didn’t let him down, surpassing all their 2A rivals, including Hulett, which was 12th with 79 points, and Cokeville, which was 13th with 70 points.
Ridgway, a junior, entered the tourney knowing that if he won out, he would likely get his first shot at Hulett’s Leland Pfeifer, who defeated him in the 215-pound final at last year’s state tournament and had yet to lose this season.
The two did, in fact, meet in the final, but Ridgway had some tense moments along the way.
“He was thinking about one thing and that was how to beat Pfeifer — and as a result, he almost lost his first match,” said Sanford.  That was against Jarad Asay, a wrestler he had beaten soundly in every other meeting this season.  This time, Ridgway had to sweat out an 8-7 win.
Ridgway proceeded to win his quarterfinal match, over a wrestler from Campbell County, and his semifinal match over a tough Trent Boner of Douglas, 9-7, in a tilt that went down to the wire.
With those wins, Ridgway advanced to the final, and a date with Pfeifer. The Hulett standout dominated the match, scoring five takedowns en route to an 11-3 victory for his second straight Ron Thon title.
“He’s a tough customer to deal with,” said Sanford. “Next time, we’ll have to do some things differently.”
Cundall, who wrestles at 171, also had a good tournament. He won his first match, dropped a 5-4 “heartbreaker” in the quarterfinals “that he really should have won,” according to Sanford. But then he worked through the wrestlebacks, defeating a Wheatland wrestler 7-0 and pinning a Kelly Walsh opponent before running into the No. 2 seed, Hayden Jones of Cheyenne Central. He lost that one, which dropped him into the fifth-place match. In it, he decisioned Kody Brown of Gillette 8-0. “A good tournament for Clay,” said Sanford. “I’m very pleased with him and his progression.”
As he looks ahead, Cundall may ultimately have to deal with Cokeville’s Ryne Baier, who went on to claim the 171-pound title in Riverton.
Anderson was the top 2A finisher at 189 pounds. He outpointed his first two opponents to advance to the semifinals. In that encounter, he was up at one point before ultimately giving up a takedown and losing 3-2.  “He had every right to be in the finals,” said Sanford.
Instead, with the loss, he dropped down to face Monte Nickles of Powell, and lost that one, too, this time by a 7-6 count. Anderson finished on a high note, however, pinning Lucas Hart of Natrona County to claim fifth place.
“Bobby seems to do better when he knows nothing about his opponent,” Sanford said. “The level of competition he saw here was better than he had been seeing.”
The 160-pound class was loaded, and as the reigning 2A champ, Goton entered as one of the contenders. The tournament started well for the Greybull senior, who won his first match by pin and his second match 10-4 to earn a spot opposite Natrona’s Ab Brown in the semifinals. That matchup was tight throughout. With about 30 seconds left, Goton was clinging to a 1-0 lead when Brown rallied, scoring six straight points to pull it out.
Goton went on to drop his next two matches — the first, after he failed to adequately warm up, on a 10-4 decision to Dustin Finnerty of Wheatland, the second on a 4-1 loss to Scott Verner of Green River.
“Not the tournament that Chayce wanted to have,” said Sanford. “The weight was pretty loaded. Chayce wrestled his first three matches very well … then it kind of went downhill for him.”
While no other Buffs placed, several had good tournaments, according to Sanford.
Levi Kelly and Matt Grovenstein each picked up wins at 103.
Grovenstein, who had been wrestling at 112, won three times, including a pin of Kelly, and finished one round out of placing. Kelly went 1-2, his only win coming at the expense of a Cheyenne wrestler.
Blaine Gossens went 1-2 at 119, with one of his losses coming in a match with Big Piney’s Max Vichi.
At 125, Nate Gossens opened with a win by technical fall, but then fell by pin to No. 1 seed Jordan Osbon of Worland.  Gossens proceeded to defeat his next two opponents, one of whom was Jackson Basset of Lovell, before being ousted in an 8-6 loss to a Lander opponent in a match that he led late. “If Nate wants to finish the season the way I know he wants to finish it, he needs to be mentally tougher and focused at the end of matches,” Sanford said, pointing out that he was two rounds out of placing. “He needs close his matches out.”
At 130, Nate Hetzel got off to a rough start, losing to a Riverton opponent in overtime, and never recovered. “With the exception of one match, he started every other match behind,” Sanford said.
Hetzel rebounded to post three straight wins, including a pin of a Cokeville foe in 22 seconds, to move to the brink of the placing rounds. But he couldn’t get past Gillette’s Chris Barnish, losing by tehnical fall.
“We wrestled that kid a lot closer earlier in the year,” Sanford said. “But overall, Nate did a good job. If he could have turned that first match around, he’d have had a good opportunity to place.”
Luke Zeller, at 135, picked up a nice 16-6 win over a Natrona wrestler who had beaten him in the semifinals. His weekend also included a win over a Wheatland opponent and losses to Worland’s Matt Osbon, the eventual champ, on a 3-1 decision, and Trent Gillette of Powell, 6-2.
At 140, Payton Vigil went 2-2, beating wrestlers from Evanston and Wheatland but falling to Rocky Mountain’s J.R. Vezain by technical fall and to a wrestler from Natrona.
Ben Anson went 1-2 at 145 pounds, losing to eventual third-place finisher Devin Reilly of Sheridan as well as to Trevor O’Dowd, who went on to capture fifth place. “He didn’t wrestle badly at all,” Sanford said.

Junior varsity
Sanford entered three of his wrestlers in the junior varsity competition in Riverton.
Jesse Chestnut, a freshman, notched the best finish, winning all four of his matches to take the 145-pound crown.
“He wasn’t feeling well, and we almost scratched him going into the semifinals,” Sanford said. “But we gave him the opportunity. He had to go a full six-minute match, but he toughed it out and got the win. Then he faced a Riverton kid in the finals and got a pin in the second period.”
In other JV action, Rob Nuttall went 2-2 at 140 and Stephen Kerr went 2-2 at 119, although neither placed.

This week
The Buffs will dual Cody tonight (Thursday, Feb. 11), with wrestling action set to begin at 6 p.m.
After that, the focus will be the Class 2A West Regional, which the Buffs will host Feb. 19-20 at Buff Gym.