Miners compete well this week

On Thursday the Hanna, Elk Mountian, Medicine Bow (HEM) Miners wrestlers traveled to Saratoga for a Triad meet with Laramie JV and North Park . The HEM Miners had been scheduled to go to an invite in Lusk the week before, but the weather forced the Miners to cancel the trip.

For their first outing, the wrestlers did well according to Head Coach Robert Riddle. 

"Anthony (Solaas) was 2-1," Riddle said. "McKaylee Widdison was 0-2, but she wrestled out of her weight class for both matches."

The other HEM wrestlers were able to get wins in their matches.

"Jared Nelsen was 1-1,  Howard Bame was 1-2 and Thomas Wagner was 1-2," Riddle said. He liked what he saw at the Triad, but saw room for improvement. "All looked good but conditioning and technique are areas that  continue to be worked on."

The Saratoga Triad was not the only event attended by the Miner wrestling team.

"HEM wrestlers traveled to Kremmling, Colorado on Friday for duels Friday night and stayed over for the West Grand Tournament on Saturday," Riddle said. "All the wrestlers did well, all advanced in the tournament."

There were 12 teams which attended the tournament and HEM, with five wrestlers, placed 10th. The team scored 37 points total.

"Thomas Wagner wrestled to a 2nd place finish in the 145 weight class and Jared Nelsen placed 4th in the 138 weight class," Riddle said. "McKaylee Widdison wrestled in an all girls 110 weight class and won 2 out of 3 matches."

HEM's other wrestlers showed Riddle some good things too.

"Anthony Solaas wrestled well but giving up 10 pounds is still a struggle for him," Riddle said.  "Howard Bame wrestled well and got to the semi-final round where he was put out by Jared Nelsen."

Given that some high school teams fielded as many as 14 wrestlers at the tournament, HEM did not disappoint their fans or their coach.

"The team wrestled well," Riddle said. "We still need to work on strength training and getting into wrestling condition. The team needs to work on the fine points of wrestling, improving their technique, to increase  their win-loss record." 

The Miner wrestling team's next scheduled meet is January 6 in Walden, Colorado for the North Park Quad.