By DERRICK WELLS
Coach
The Alliance middle school grapplers competed very well this year. We started off the season with a duel against Gering on Nov. 9. Gering won the dual, but it was a close victory as your bulldogs split the matches. The following Saturday, Nov. 13 we headed to Douglas, Wyo. for a very tough tournament. We didn’t have a lot of medalists but we did gain valuable experience. Notable performances in Douglas include Keegan Nelson and Bryce Long bringing home a silver medal. After that the following Saturday we competed at our home tournament here in Alliance. Again showing great progress and competing very hard. Notable performances in Alliance were Drew Fancher Champion, and Keegan Nelson, E.J. Garcia second place. From there it was a quick turn around to go to Ainsworth on Nov. 23. In this round-robin tournament each wrestler had two or three matches. The AMS bulldogs came to compete at this meet with almost every wrestler bringing home a medal. We tied for 1st place, but only one team could bring home the trophy. The tie-breaker was the number of champions each of the teams had. We had five champions, but Winner, SD had seven so they got to take the trophy home.
After Thanksgiving break we competed in a mad flurry of tournaments. First a guard-duel tournament in Sidney on Dec. 2 between ourselves, Sidney, Ogallala and North Platte. In the battle of the bucket as it is called we didn’t perform our best, but a number of the boys that had been struggling to get a “W” were able to get wins and it provided us with valuable mat time against good competition to gain experience. The bucket of sweet treats went back to North Platte for the second year in a row. Two days later we were in Torrington for their tournament. Again tough competition, but the boys all supported each other and Andrew Benzel really came into his own and competed hard to earn second place. Keegan Nelson came home with the gold medal and Bryce Long, Drew Fancher, with second place medals.
Two days after that we were in Mitchell for our final tournament of the year. All of the boys competed very hard and they brought home a bunch of medals. Several second place medals and one champion Trace Sherlock.
I am very pleased with the progress all of the boys made this season. We had a team with a little bit of experience but mainly first or second year wrestlers who picked things up very quickly and worked their tails off. I’d like to thank Coach Girard and Coach Benzel for their hard work and dedication this season. They really helped make all of the boys progress much better this season. I’d also like to thank the parents of the wrestlers for their support and encouragement.
AMS Wrestlers and their records this season.
Name/wins – losses
Keegan Nelson 16 – 6
Jaxon Poss 6 – 13
Silas Fancher 6 – 13
Rylan Thompson 7 – 10
Cooper Hicks 1 – 12
Antonio Valdovinos 10 -10
Trini Trejo 9 – 9
Keeton Swift 7 – 12
Ayden Digmann 5 – 12
Andrew Benzel 13 – 11
E.J. Garcia 10 – 4
Mikey Johnson 8 – 8
Trace Sherlock 8 – 6
Drew Fancher 11 – 7
Travis Gassling 3 – 14
Lucas Weber 7 – 10
Cole Stoike 8 – 9
Bryce Long 11 – 8
Managers this season: Abrianna Caudell, Harper setter, Serena Perez, Pearl Mayhew and Smiley Valdovinos
Coaches: Derrick Wells, Madeline Girard and Jeremy Benzel