The Douglas Bearcats of Douglas, Wyoming hosted the Natrona County HS Mustangs of Casper in a dual at the Douglas HS gymnasium. 4A Natrona has several wrestlers ranked in the Wyoming poles, however the defending 3A state champs of Douglas were too tough tonight for the Mustangs. Douglas won the dual 44-23.

Bryce Leonhardt, (the number one ranked 103 pounder in the state) started off with a Technical fall over Douglas’s Aaron Temple. It was a pretty exciting match regardless of the final score. Douglas answered with three wins. Brady Shatto (112), Bohlander (119), and Tyson Shatto (125) recorded wins before Roberts of NCHS scored a decision over McCullough of Douglas at 130. Then another Shatto, Shane this time (135), and Clint Eberspecher (140) both received wins by fall. NCHS’s Mick Novotny won a tough match over Wilkinson with a last second take down. The final was 9-7 in that 145 lbs match-up. The next Douglas grapplers, Beau Burnham (152), Shawn Lehnen (160) and Trent Kirchefer (171) dominated their matches with a fall, and 2 major decisions, respectively. At 189 lbs, Keller of NCHS scored a fall in 2:42 over Smith. Bearcat wrestler Casey Haldeman at 215 lbs. managed a fall over Fuimara in the second period. Wyoming’s number 2 ranked heavy weight, Jon Haass of NCHS met Zac Helgeson for the final match of the evening. Haass eventially was too much for the much smaller Helgeson and won by fall in 3:43.

The Douglas 152 lbs. Beau Burnham is now undefeated with the count at 21-0. He is on a mission for the state title next month. Burnham is wrestling very well and wrestles very smart. He seldom makes a mistake out there and is always on the offence.

Both these teams will compete at the Riverton Tournament on February 4-5. Green River (ranked 18^th nationally) and most of the 4A teams will converge on Riverton for this pre-state championship match-up.

103 lbs; Leonhardt, NCHS T.F. Temple, Dou
112 lbs; Shatto, Dou pinned Schauff, NCHS 4:54
119 lbs: Bohlander, Dou dec Barella, NCHS 4-2
125lbs; Shatto, Dou dec Puettman, NCHS 9-2
130 lbs; Roberts, NCHS dec McCullough, Dou 7-3
135 lbs; Shatto, Dou pinned Wilkinson, NCHS 3:23
140 lbs; Eberspecher, Dou pinned Gurkin, NCHS 1:02
145 lbs: Novotny, NCHS dec Wilkinson Dou 9-7
152 lbs; Burnham, Dou pinned Malone 3:13
160 lbs; Lehnen, Dou MD Fuimara, NCHS 9-1
171 lbs; Kirchhefer, Dou MD Swiger, NCHS 17-6
189 lbs: Keller, NCHS pinned Smith, Dou 2:42
215 lbs; Haldeman, Dou pinned Fuimara, NCHS 3:44
Hvy Wt; Haass, NCHS pinned Helgeson, Dou 3:43