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About six weeks out from a fight, Randy Speiser begins a transformation. Normally 220 pounds, the long-limbed Rawlins State Penitentiary Corrections Officer starts melting weight off by adhering to a diet and exercise regime he admits is "not pleasant." By weigh-ins, Speiser has become a new man: 185-pounds of tightly corded muscle, and not an ounce more. It's been close to five years since Speiser has been in a formal competition, but part of him still yearns for combat: "I'm not saying I'm...
As many of you know (word travels fast here, I’ve learned), this is my last submission as a columnist for the Sun. I’ve accepted another reporting job with the Cody Enterprise, and my girlfriend Michelle and I will soon be heading onwards and outwards together, to explore the opposite corner of this exquisitely empty state. I’ve walked away from a lot of people and places over the course of my life, and it’s never been an easy thing. There’s always loss and pain; a last-second appreciat...
Still reeling from the lingering effects of a flu epidemic, Panthers wrestlers had an underwhelming weekend at the Riverton Ron Thon Invitational. Senior Thomas Ingraham secured a fourth place finish at the prestigious tournament, and sophomore C.J. Boswell notched his first high school win at the junior varsity level, but the rest of the team didn't fare as well. "I have to take responsibility for the way that I felt we came in (Friday). I don't feel like we came in firing on all cylinders and...
Over the weekend, the Saratoga girls basketball team was on the wrong end of a pair of 4-point games. "It was a tough weekend. I mean, we were right there both games and had our chance to win," coach Heather Bartlett recalled of the home squeakers against Cokeville Friday and Farson-Eden Saturday. Against Cokeville, the Panthers were up several times but ended the night with a 43-39 loss. Bartlett said it was "a really close game all the way through. We were winning in the third quarter and...
The Saratoga boys basketball team split their weekend games, posting a 55-45 win over Cokeville Friday but falling 59-46 to Farson the next afternoon. Both contests took place on home hardwood for the Panthers, but coach Jason Williams described his lads as still being depleted by an illness that ravaged the school's basketball program the week before. Friday, "We came out with a lot of energy and finally put together, maybe not a full game, but a good three quarters, three-and-a-half...
The Saratoga Community Garden Board will continue operating as a branch of municipal government for the next year. On January 24, the board held a 100-minute workshop with the mayor and town council after a month of strained relations between Saratoga’s town government and garden board members. Dissolution of the garden board within months, originally suggested by council member Will Faust at a Dec. 20 town council meeting, was shelved for at least a year at the workshop. It is likely the board...
“There: lots of snow. Here: lots of wind.” That’s new Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) game Warden Jordan Winter, describing the differences he’s noted between his last post in Alpine, Wyoming and his new one in Medicine Bow. Winter arrived early in Medicine Bow last year–by August, in fact–and he plans to stay well-past when snow usually starts to melt and flowers begin to bloom. He replaced former Medicine Bow Game Warden Jake Kettley, who transferred to Casper after years in the Medici...
Illness, last minute schedule shifts and nocturnal travel in wooly Wyoming winter weather threw the Saratoga Panthers wrestling program into a loop-de-loop over the weekend. “In the end, it was crazy. I’ll just put it that way,” said coach Zach Schmidt of the draining but encouraging weekend wrestling in Rawlins Thursday and then in Big Piney Friday. Though only five of Saratoga’s nine wrestlers were healthy enough to compete (both basketball teams canceled games due to a flu outbreak), Schmidt...
At a Jan. 17 meeting of the Saratoga Town Council, mayor Ed Glode revealed long-awaited details of a gravel bar removal operation in the North Platte River upstream of the HWY 130 bridge. Dixon-based Ready Oilfield Service (ROS) won a town contract for the job, offering a price just north of $133,000–a third higher than the $100,000 cost Glode anticipated in November. Four other contractors offered bids for the work, and three (including ROS) were selected for further interview in the weeks l...
After my clothes had dried from the river and I'd eaten lunch, I remounted my bike and set off alone once again, the sound of strange birds riding a light breeze alongside me. Things started off well enough. This side of the river featured lots of prairie alongside the marsh and woods, and when I pedaled fast through the tall grass I felt like I was skimming the top of a green ocean. The little trails I followed were obviously seldom used, and though the monsoon-season flood waters kept me out...
A pair of weekend losses augured the start of poor health for the Saratoga Panthers boys basketball team, who were missing half their roster to illness by practice Monday. The Panthers fell 53-43 in Encampment Friday, then lost 66-58 to basketball powerhouse Kaycee at home the next afternoon. "I think it was maybe one of those games where we wanted to win so bad that we–especially the first half–just didn't play so well," said coach Jason Williams, referring to the Encampment game. "We sur...
Despite missing two players to illness and one to injury, the Saratoga High School girls' basketball team managed to split games over the weekend. While the Panthers lost 48-32 in Encampment Friday, they logged a comeback victory against Kaycee at home Saturday, ultimately taking that game by about 20 points. "I felt like the girls played really well in Encampment. I was really pleased by their effort even though it wasn't a win for us," said Panthers coach Heather Bartlett. "They just played...
Diminished by an illness that also swept through other Saratoga High School (SHS) sports teams, the Panthers wrestling program had a disappointing weekend at the Lander Invite. Though senior Thomas Ingraham took home a third-place finish, the other three varsity grapplers for SHS couldn’t place amongst tough 3A and 4A competition at the Jan. 20-21 tournament. With Ingraham’s third-place finish at Lander, “he put himself right there in terms of being one of the top-two 152-pounders in the State...
Despite entering the fewest grapplers of any of the 20 schools participating in the Don Runner Wrestling Invite, Saratoga High finished in eighth place and sent two athletes to the first-place podium. Another Panther wrestler took home a fourth place finish from the weekend competition. Coach Zach Schmidt summarized, "I think as a whole, this is the best we've wrestled as a group all season." As they have routinely this winter, junior Jaxon King and senior Thomas Ingraham ended the weekend atop...
About five members of the public tuned into a conference call held by the Saratoga Airport Board at the board’s Jan. 11 meeting. The conference call, with representatives from the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Sage Civil Engineering, was meant to help the board plan logistics for improvements to the airport over the next two years. Winter weather kept the meeting’s most eagerly anticipated guest, Saratoga town attorney David Eri...
No petitioners approached the Saratoga Planning Commission at their Jan. 10 meeting, but the body made substantial progress on a number of long-term projects. Karl Smith was elected the commission’s new chair, adding additional oversight to the town building permit was discussed and the commission voted to send long-worked on alterations to Chapter 18.51 of the town code to the town attorney for review. Less encouragingly, the commission continues to lack a zoning officer and a Carbon C...
Over the weekend, the Saratoga Panthers boys basketball team held two third quarter leads, first against Farson-Eden Jan. 13 and the next day against Cokeville. Before the buzzer had sounded in each game, those leads had been surrendered and Saratoga was left holding an L. According to coach Jason Williams the losses taught his Panthers “the importance of not ever taking any plays off. That can come back and bite us in a close game.” Saratoga fell 61-51 to Farson-Eden and went down 47-38 to Cok...
A tough weekend featuring away losses against top 2A contenders Cokeville and Farson-Eden left the Saratoga Panthers girls basketball team bruised but unbowed. For senior Meredith Lincoln, who suffered a deep thigh contusion during a 43-37 defeat at the hands of Cokeville Saturday, the turn of phrase was no metaphor. Lincoln’s injury doesn’t appear serious, and she should be ready to practice at full-strength this week, coach Heather Bartlett said, but the incident came at an inopportune tim...
An imbroglio that began at a sparsely-attended Dec. 20 meeting of the Saratoga Town Council carried over into the New Year, drawing a crowd of about 35 to the council’s Jan. 3 gathering. Despite being sharply chastised by several members of the public for remarks he’d made at the Dec. 20 meeting, council member Will Faust continued to assert that the community garden board had improperly disbursed federal grant money. Those charges were denied by board members, and a review of the town’s annua...
Late-arriving wrestling mats over winter break made for a slow start for the Saratoga High School wrestling team at the Shane Shatto Invite Jan. 6 and 7 in Cheyenne. Representing Saratoga at the varsity level were junior Jaxon King and senior Thomas Ingraham, who both grappled well enough to be in contention during both days of the tournament but finished farther back than they’d aimed for. According to coach Zach Schmidt, Ingraham ended up taking fourth, while King lost in the consolation q...
After an extended break, sports teams can return to play rusty and out of practice, or rejuvenated and fresh of foot. In posting a dominant 39-17 Jan. 7 win over the Hanna Elk Mountain (HEM) Miners after the holiday vacation, the Saratoga Panthers girls basketball team made a solid argument for the latter case. "I think we came out pretty strong," coach Heather Bartlett said after the game. The Panthers leapt out to an early lead and never relinquished it, allowing Bartlett an opportunity to tin...
On Jan. 7, the Hanna Elk Mountain (HEM) Miners boys basketball team came to Saratoga, only to have a Panther eat their canary. Though Saratoga posted a 58-40 victory, the game's margin was much tighter throughout most of regulation, with a late Saratoga-surge providing the Panthers a buffer. Saratoga exited the first quarter up 15-11, and expanded that lead to 25-16 by half time. Trouble struck in the third, however, with Saratoga missing shots and HEM responding with a series of fastbreaks and...
When the Wyoming wind howls and temperatures dip below zero, library patrons will have a new treatment for cabin fever this winter. In October, the Wyoming State library signed up for the Total Boox e-book service, adding 50,000 titles to the library’s already substantial electronic arsenal. One of the big benefits of Total Boox is that there is no time limit attached to titles that are “checked out.” There are “no holds, no expirations, no limitations and no fines,” a press release from the...
On the opposite bank of the river, things continued in much the same vein, but the farms were more infrequent, and brief stretches of woods started to get mixed-in with the swamps and grasslands. Since it was now the hottest part of the afternoon, even those few farms I did come across featured vacated fields. An hour or so earlier, the families who worked the soil on those farms had probably eaten a sparse meal of rice or to (a starchy tuber mashed to a frankly snot-like consistency and served...
Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) may be winding down her long Congressional career, but one of the last bills she sponsored in office just took effect. On Nov. 28, President Obama signed into law the Lummis-Walz National Forest System Trails Stewardship Act (NFSTSA). Volunteering to the Rescue The act, which was co-chaired by Representative Tim Walz (D-MN), aims to help the Forest Service maintain the massive network of trails that crisscross National Forests, Grasslands and wilderness areas. "This bill...