Miner grapplers gain expeience

The Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) wrestling team went to Rawlins to gain some experience on the mat on Saturday.

Head Coach Robert Riddle was happy to see his kids more time against different wrestlers.

“Tom (Wagner) and Anthony (Solaas) went with some other teams to get matches,” Riddle said. “Tom looked really good and strong. Anthony had a little more struggles against his opponents but he wrestled well and looked good.”

Wagner wrestles at 145 and Solaas at 106 although he is several pounds lighter.

Riddle said HEM did not have enough wrestlers for a team, so Wagner, Solaas and McKaylee Widdison, Jared Nelson and Howard Bame went to other teams that needed filling in. The teams got no points if the wrestler won and neither did HEM.

Riddle said it was for the experience that the kids went to the Rawlins Duals.

McKaylee and Jared had matches were they were a little overpowered but both looked good,” Riddle said. “Howard had been out sick for some time, and he looked pretty good too.”

Duals have 14 matches to a team. Riddle said with two wrestlers at 106 (Solaas and Widdison) and two wrestlers at 138 (Nelson and Bame) it has to do a dual.

“We were kind of farmed out, as it were,” Riddle said. “Tom was on Lyman filling in for their 145 and Anthony was with West Grand. My other three found some matches.”

Another challenge the HEM team faced, was that they were the only 2A/1A team there. This means that the HEM wrestlers were going against 4 A and 3 A JV teams.

The next chance for the HEM grapplers to get on the mat will be the Carbon Invite that will be held on January 11-12 in Saratoga.

“This tournament will be a pretty good indicator on where we are regionally and what we have to do to get the kids ready for State,” Riddle concluded. “It will be full-on tournament and there will be 13 teams there.”