Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Wrestling coach sees good times ahead

WRHS holds awards dinner


"We're a work in progress but we're growing as a team and getting better," said first-year Wood River High School wrestling coach Tyson Young during Wednesday's 2006-07 awards dinner in Hailey.

Young, assisted by Kim Orchard and Josh Alstrom, saluted wrestlers in Wood River's high school and middle school program during the dinner held in the commons area.

He said, "I've seen growth in these kids. They've done everything I've asked."

Coach Young reserved special mention for three Wolverines who qualified for the 50th annual Idaho State High School Wrestling Tournament Thursday through Saturday, Feb. 22-24 in Pocatello's Holt Arena.

Senior Jordan Vert (21-4) won three of his five 160-pound matches at state and captured fifth place. He was the Great Basin Conference champion and "Outstanding Wrestler" and champ of his weight class at the Bear Cat Invitational.

Vert, the team's "Most Inspirational" wrestler, led Wood River in near falls (18 two-pointers, 16 three-pointers), technical falls (2) and reversals (13) and had seven pins.

Junior Collin Hand (29-11) went 3-3 at state for sixth place in the tough 189-pound class. He was the Great Basin Conference runner-up and Challis Invitational champion. Hand led the team in takedowns (67), escapes (39) and total points (121). He recorded nine pins.

Freshman Tanner Orchard (16-18) won a match during his first-ever state tournament at 135 pounds. Orchard led the Wolverines in pins (10) and accumulated 84 team points, third to Hand and Vert (97).

"Most Improved" was Nick Chase (7-20), the fifth-place conference wrestler at 119 pounds who just missed a state tournament trip. Chase had 22 takedowns and seven pins.

Coach Young was proud of the fact that the varsity finished with 15 wrestlers this year, quite an improvement over the previous year.

Other varsity awards were: "Ironman" was Jon Diem (6-13); "Never Satisfied" was Alex Jones (4-15 with 12 escapes); "Breakout Awards" to Spencer Bailey (3-22), Bo Zak (1-17) and Tyler Jaramillo (1-7);

Wolverine "Devil Bear" Awards to Matt Libert (3-19, 21 takedowns), Ricky Maxwell (5-8, 4 pins); "Sportsmanship and Determination" awards to Matt Lichtenberg (2-17, 3 pins), J.J. Thomson (0-20), Brandon Baertschi (1-15) and Juve Ruiz (2-14, 2 pins).

Accepting manager awards were juniors Dakota Orchard and McKenna Murphy.

Young singled out middle school and grade school wrestlers during the dinner, including Zach Trautwein, Teague Ruhter, Ben Diem, Brandon Van Horn, Robbie Trautwein, Christian Gravenmier, Auden Ruhter, Zach Brown, Jose Ruiz, Connor Bennett, Willy Dugger and Jake Anderson;

Also mentioned for their promise and hard work were Kasey Barker, Mason Kluge, Alex Thomas, Andrew Orr, Storm Anderson, Andrew Tranbarger, Tommy Bailey, Tom Boyle, Cooper Bailey, Cody Richmond, Kyle Clark and Quinn Guthrie.

Camps this summer

Coach Young spelled out the details of two wrestling camps he is asking the Wolverine matmen to attend, if possible, during June.

The Chadron State College Wrestling Team Camp is June 17-20 in Chadron, Neb. and the Tri-State Team Wrestling Camp is June 22-23 at Greybull, Wyo. Total cost for both camps is about $300, he said.

Generally the kids will be gone nine days, from June 16-24, he said. The Nebraska camp is for grades 8-12 and the Wyoming camp for 6-12.

Final informational meeting and sign-up session for the camps is Wednesday, May 16 at 6:30 p.m. in the high school commons area. All registrations are due by June 2.




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