Grizzlies finish strong at conference tournament with 12 in the top two

The Rocky Mountain Middle School wrestling team wrapped up a successful 2023 season Saturday with a strong finish at the Big Horn Basin Conference Tournament in Thermopolis, placing sixth out of 10 teams behind only much larger schools.
The Grizz tallied 100 points on the day, just behind Lovell with 107.5 points and Riverton with 112. Powell won the tournament going away with 226 points, followed by Lander and Cody. Rocky finished ahead of Thermopolis, Worland, Greybull and Shoshoni.
Rocky Mountain had a remarkable day, with 12 all-conference (top two) wrestlers and seven champions. Eighth grader Alex Walker had no competition in his weight class, 275 pounds, so he won the title by default.
“We had 11 in the finals, depending on the divisions (A or B),” head coach Tim Jones said. “We did really well. It was a great way to end the season. We beat some kids that beat us earlier in the year, and even the kids that didn’t place wrestled well and fought hard in their matches. They gave everything they had.”
Seventh grader Benson Jolley placed first at 110 pounds in the A division with a record of 3-0, pinning Tevyn Bates of Cody in the championship match in 2:25.
“Benson had a record this year of 19-2,” Jones said. “He wrestles hard. He makes some mistakes, but he fights hard. He won a couple of tough matches in the semis and finals. He was down early in the finals but fought back to pin him.”
Eighth grader Zach Unruh won the title at 132A with a 3-0 record including a pin in 3:29 against Devan Clawson of Riverton in the finale.
“Zach wrestled well,” Jones said. “He had a kid in the finals that beat him in Riverton. He wrestled a solid match, with few mistakes. He really controlled the match.”
Eighth grader Cooper Ward placed second at 138A with a 2-1 record, falling to Ethan Ely of Powell in the finals.
“Cooper missed a lot of practices this year (due to injury),” Jones noted. “We moved him up to 138, and he was unseeded, but he pinned the number two seed and the number three seed (to reach the finals).”
Burlington eighth grader Mason Richardson wrestled to a record of 2-1 to place second at 155A, falling to Trevon Morton of Powell in the finale, 9-4.
“Mason came out (for the team) about halfway through the season,” Jones said. “He’s a physical athlete, but he didn’t have much time to clean up his technique. He wrestles hard.”
Remarkably, eighth grader Jesse Ganoung won three matches in Thermop but did not place at 98A, going 3-2 on the day.
“That was the biggest weight, a huge weight class,” Jones said. “There were some good kids. Jesse was seeded sixth and finished sixth. If they had wrestled a fifth- and sixth-place match, he would have been in it, same with Ethan Haslem.”
Haslem, an eighth grader, went 1-2 at 120A, plus a bye. Burlington seventh grader Michael Broederlow went 0-2 at 175A.
B Division
In the B Division, sixth grader Hudson Moore won the title at 77 pounds, recording a record of 3-0 including a pin in the finale against teammate Madden Cooley.
“Hudson beat a kid in the semifinals (Braxten Link of Greybull) who had beaten him a couple of times. He did a nice job,” Jones said.
Cooley went 2-1 in Thermop, losing only to Moore.
Seventh grader Rowan Hanusa won the gold medal at 98B with a 3-0 record, beating Blake Bessler of Powell 6-0 in the championship match, and eighth grader Cache Thompson went 3-0 at 110B to win the crown, crushing Callen Schubert of Cody in the finale.
“Rowan has improved 100 percent since last year,” Jones said. “He won a lot of matches and put it all together at Conference. I was really happy with his work and progress. Cache didn’t wrestle last year and was injured, so he came out late. He really wrestled well in a couple of A tournaments and placed. He has a unique style that is difficult to defend. He makes it work.”
Sixth grader Dally Malson won the title at 132B at 3-0, beating Jaxon Medow of Shoshoni in the championship match.
“Dally was up and down this year, but he put it all together Saturday,” Jones said. “He wrestled really well. He had to gut through some matches and wrestled solid.”
Sixth grader Brogan King went 1-1 at 155B to place second.
Sixth grader Brooks Brost went 3-2 to place fourth at 91B, pinning three opponents, and fellow sixth grader Jason Unruh won two of four matches at 91B.