Guest Posts on County 10 are provided by contributors and the opinions, thoughts, and comments within are their own and may not necessarily reflect those of County 10.
It was a monumental week for Fremont County athletes in wrestling, basketball and indoor track.
Dozens will never wear their school uniform again on the mat or the court, while a handful of Wyoming Indian players have one more week to compete, beginning this Thursday at Casper College.
Fremont County wrestlers fared well at the all-class wrestling tournament at the Ford Wyoming Center in Casper last weekend.
Four champions emerged with Lander’s Ty McWilliams celebrating a Class 3-A championship at 106 pounds.
The lightweights did well in Class 2-A too. Sammie Cyrus took the 106 crown in the 2-A division with Wind River senior Landon Rhyne scored an upset gold medal at 126 pounds. Shoshoni’s Wiley Philleo rounded out the county champions, finishing a solid season with the 157-pound gold medal.
The fastest growing sport in America over the last two years and into the foreseeable future is girl’s high school wrestling.
A slew of Fremont County girls from Riverton, Lander, Wind River and Shoshoni reached the semi-finals, but only four girls advanced to the finals: Wind River’s Molly Bornhoft, Aleah Marquez of Riverton, and Harlie Velarde and Andie Gibson from Lander.
Not a bad showing for the girls in our county when you consider they’re wrestling against the largest schools in the state in Kelly Walsh, Rock Springs, Natrona County, Cheyenne East, Central, and Sheridan, among others.
Riverton and Lander enter regional tournament play this weekend with the Wolverines playing Kelly Walsh Thursday at 6:45 pm in Rock Springs and the Lady Wolverines opening against Green River at 3:30.
Lander has the home court advantage with the Tigers hosting the Class 3-A West Regional at Bob Carey Memorial Fieldhouse.
The third-seeded Tigers open with Mountain View at 5:30 pm on the main floor while the fifth-seeded Lady Tigers play the fourth seed, the Powell Panthers in the previous game at 4 pm.
Wyoming Indian’s boys surprised the West 2-A, rolling through the competition for the second consecutive year in winning the regional title.
They open at Casper College, the traditional opening day venue for Class 2-A basketball, with the late game against fourth-seeded Big Horn from the East 2-A Regional. A win by the Chiefs sends them to a Friday semi-final against either Wright or Thermopolis.
The Wyoming Indian girls are young this year, very young, but they’re back at the state tournament where anything can happen. Venerable head coach Aleta Moss is flirting with 700 wins but won’t reach that until next season.
Her girls open the tournament against the 2-A East runner-up Pine Bluffs Lady Hornets, a tall, physical team that likes to pound the ball inside.
If basketball wasn’t enough, indoor track comes to an end this week as well.
At the Simplot Games, generally considered the national championship venue for high school track athletes, Lander’s Adelyn Anderson won the shot put and Riverton’s outstanding hurdler, Addison Alley was fifth.
These two stellar athletes will begin the outdoor season next week along with hundreds of other county athletes.
The arrival of soccer and track and field heralds the end of the school year, and the welcome approach of summer.
Riverton and Lander Babe Ruth and Legion baseball will begin practicing soon as well. It’s a rite of passage.
A not so gentle reminder to behave in the stands. It’s not about you, or your rabid fanaticism for your child, it’s about the men and women coaching the teams, the officials guaranteeing fair play and the kids on the floor, some playing organized basketball for the last time in their lives.
Fan behavior has been a bit better this season, not because of some societal change, but because of the tendency of officials to take no nonsense approach and send them packing when they’re out of hand.
There has been an impressive increase in officials stopping games, contacting law enforcement or crowd control, and having the perpetrators thrown from the gym.
It’s not how we want it to work, but if it does, let’s applaud the officials when they toss the Philistines from the stands.
The outdoors awaits us.
We’ll have a few more storms, some cold weather, and a bit of wind and snow, but we’re about to leave the confines of the gym.
Come on, summer.