Two varsity champs pace G-R at home invite

Rhianna Gaytan and Curtis Strohschein won individual titles on their home mats in Greybull-Riverside’s final outing before the Class 2A West Regional.

The team was missing several regulars and consistent point scorers for its annual Friday night duals and Saturday invitational, both of which were held at Buff Gym.

“Between sickness and nagging injuries, it felt like we only had about a third of our squad,” Coach Rob Nuttall said.  “Obviously we didn’t have a lot of our hammers , but we had a few. 

“There are a few things here and there that we need to clean up, but we saw some good things from kids who need to come along to make us competitive in the team races at regionals and state.”

Greybull-Riverside entered just nine wrestlers — seven boys and two girls — in Saturday’s invitational and placed sixth in both the boys and girls divisions.

The Moorcroft boys, with 214.5  points, and the Powell girls, with 64.5 points, captured the team titles.

Gaytan and Bertolini produced G-R’s 35 points in the girls division.

Wrestling at 125 pounds, Gaytan went 3-0, pinning two of her three opponents to improve to 12-4 in her first year as a high school wrestler.  

“It was probably the best we’ve seen her wrestle,” said Nuttall. “She’s getting her confidence back and doing the things that make her competitive — like shooting shots and creating opportunities to score.”

Bertolini, at 140, went 2-1 with a pair of pins to capture third place.

Four of the six G-R boys who wrestled varsity placed.

Strohschein went 3-0 at heavyweight, pinning all his opponents to improve to 33-3. Two of his three victories were against ranked opponents from the 2A classification.

“He was dealing with a little sickness, so it was nice to see him come through strong,” said Nuttall.

Along the way, Strohschein racked up the 100th win of his career.

Reece Whisenant made finals at 144, but lost to Braydnn Terry of Moorcroft, 10-9, and finished second.  The previous night, Whisenant beat Terry, who entered as the top-ranked 144-pounder in 2A.

Bennett Sanford went 3-1 and placed third in his return to the lineup at 126.  His only loss was 5-3 decision to Brody Shepard of Shoshoni in the semis. “It was his first time wrestling in a tournament in two to three weeks ... there may have been a little rust,” said Nuttall. “He’ll come up big for us in the postseason.”

Nikoah Sorensen was G-R’s other placer, going 2-2 and placing fourth at 165.

G-R wrestlers who competed but did not place in the varsity tournament included Jesse Brown, 1-2 at 138, and Garrett Wiggins, 0-2 at 150.

G-R had one wrestler in the 150-pound JV division. Carter Peasley made the most of the opportunity, going 2-0 with two pins to win the division.

“Good for him,” Nuttall said, adding, “He needed to come out and get a few wins under his belt to get his confidence back and get him back to doing what he does well, which is shooting shots and going 100 miles per hour.”

G-R is off this coming weekend and will next compete at the regional tournament, which is Feb. 21.  The boys will compete in Big Piney, the girls in Evanston.