Crawford wins 120-pound title in Powell

The small but mighty Rocky Mountain High School wrestling program opened up the season strong at the Powell Invitational Saturday.The team placed eighth at the tournament with 102 points, 30 points behind Lovell and 28.5 points ahead of Gillette. Casper Natrona won the meet with 295.5[caption id="attachment_11913" align="alignright" width="285"] Rocky Mountain senior Brian Crawford works to turn a Powell opponent before pinning him in the semifinals of the Powell Invitational Saturday.
David Peck photo[/caption]points.“The nice thing was they all wrestled hard and overall the team did decent,” coach Josh Collins said.Senior Brian Crawford won the title at 120 pounds as he went 5-0 during the two-day tournament. After going 3-0 in pool play Friday, Crawford defeated Maddox of Powell after a bye in the first round and Anderson of Natrona County to win the title.“It’s kind of nice to see that,” Collins said. “I’m excited to see what he does at more tournaments.”Senior Garrett Vezain went 4-1 at 220 pounds to take second. “He almost had (Flores of Cody) beat but got turned at the last second unfortunately,” Collins said. “But, overall he did great.”Burlington High School junior Malachi Cook went 6-1 to place fifth at 126 pounds.“He has great potential and I’m excited to see how he does this year,” Collins said.Other placers in Powell were sophomore Kyle Hoyt (second at JV 182 pounds), senior Trevan Lytle (fifth at 132 pounds) and BHS junior Danner Davidson (sixth at 145). Sophomore Travis Lytle went 4-1 at 145 and junior Austin Grohman also went 4-1 at 182.“A lot of them did really good,” Collins said. “I saw a few matches where they were down at one point but bounced back.”Next up for the Grizzly grapplers will be the Huntley Project Duals Saturday in Montana. Wrestling is scheduled to start at 8:30 a.m.“We are going to work on lots of wrestling and getting in better shape,” Collins said.

By Sam Smith