BIG PINEY – The Big Piney Punchers started off last week with two duals on Tuesday versus Pinedale and Lyman. The Punchers fell to Pinedale, 54-24, and defeated Lyman, 42-36.  Putting the Punchers at 9-5 on the season.

I really felt that the team performed well with several still out due to illness. We had some young wrestlers step up and compete to the best of their abilities in these two difficult duals. 

While the boys were in duals in the Big Piney High School gym, the girls had their own meet in the Big Piney Rec Center, where they competed against the same teams in a scramble format. The girls each got two and some three matches that night. I really felt the girls showed some great improvement over last week and are coming along in their learning of the sport. 

Ron Thon!

Then the Punchers boys and girls attended the great Ron Thon meet in Riverton, where there were 42 schools there for the long two-day meet. This by far is the toughest meet we attend and is even tougher than State. It is really the true State championship. Only five programs in the state do not attend this meet. 

In all three division – varsity, JV and girls – I really loved how well our kids competed. Even facing stiff and difficult competition they did not back down. They went out on the mat and wrestled with pride and represented themselves and their school well. That was our goal going into this meet.

It was the deepest I have seen in several years; we knew it would be difficult and we wanted to leave everything on the mat. I could not be more excited or happy for this team in how they competed. I loved how aggressive we were and even when we were down we never gave up. We fought til the last whistle.

Highlights

We had one Puncher place in the Varsity and that was junior Caleb Brown, who took third. He had a great meet, going 5-1 with five first-period pins. He lost his only match in the semifinals in overtime. I loved how physical he was in his matches. He took control early and never let up.

We also had one winner in the JV division, where freshman Zavier Clifford was the 126-lb. Champion, going 6-0 on the weekend. 

Another key wrestler to highlight this week is senior Morgan Brown, who went 3-0 last Tuesday and 3-2 at the Thon. What a great week of wrestling to end up, 6-2. Her improvement is outstanding. She had figured out how physical you need to be in this sport and it has paid off in her wrestling. 

Junior Caden Clifford this week had a great week, going 4-2 at the Thon. His improvement this last week was fun to watch and see. He wrestled very smart in his matches and that lead to his success.

Senior David Farrington also had a great week at the Thon, going 3-2 and defeating some tough competition. He had the most exciting win this week getting a reversal with 2 seconds left in double OT to earn the win.

Sophomore Saki Meador had a great week of wrestling in the JV division, where he also went 3-2.  He has come so far in one year. We are very pleased with his growth.

Another sophomore Nate Brown had his best wrestling this week, going 5-3. He showed huge improvement and we are starting to see a confident wrestler. That will be huge for us going forward.

Probably our most improved wrestler this week was sophomore Kian Pelham. His movement has improved so much these last two weeks and we feel there is still more to get this year and we are excited for his growth.

This week the Punchers will compete in Jackson at the Bridgerland Invitational on Saturday, Feb. 3. It is a smaller meet and one with some strong teams there to challenge us and make us work. We are excited about where we are and what we have to do to catch the top programs in the state and hope we can finally get healthy and have our full team soon.