Green River wrestles to second place

While the four winter sports teams at Green River High School have already started the 2014-15 season, the 2013-14 season had some strong individual and team performances.

The Wolves wrestling team wrapped up the 2014 season in March with the highest finish this year for a Green River High School team.

They ended the Wyoming 4A State tournament in Casper with a second-place finish.

Green River (211 points) finished second to Gillette (285) points) who has won 12 straight state titles. Sheridan finished third with 204 points.

“I thought the team wrestled hard this weekend, we were just about as good as we could be at this point. I am very proud of our wrestlers, they were tough and competed hard every time they stepped on the mat,” head coach Marshall Rhodes said after the tournament. “The Wolves fought hard in all of those and that is what really allowed us to earn second place. It is a long season but our wrestlers improved a lot, kept the injuries to a minimum, and kept getting better to the end.”

Individually, Cole Verner (113 pounds) and Shay McCurdy (170) pounds both won state championships for the Wolves.

Hunter Hanks also made it to the championship match at 160 pounds, losing to Jordan Fischer of Gillette for a second place finish.

Cyro Montoya (106 pounds), Shandon Welsh (126), Zeke Mamalis (145) and Bendan Hopkins (182) each came away from the tournament with third place finishes.

Gage Byers (120) finished in fourth place, while Jacob Olsen (138) and Austin Waters (152) ended the tournament with fifth place finishes.

Matthew Medina (220) also placed, finishing in sixth.

SWIMMING

The Green River High School swim team also had a successful 2013-14 season and finished seventh place at the state tournament in Gillette.

The 200-medley relay team of Chris Byrd, Ray Stocks, Paul Wright and Kyler Cochrane medaled with a third-place finish.

Green River head coach Colleen Seiloff said the four did not swim the relay as a group until the end of the year and said was really exciting to see how they finished.

She said they cut time at the 4A South Conference meet, and both the prelims and finals at state.

“It was an exciting race and I was happy to seem them get all state honors,” she said.

Cochrane finished fourth in both the 100 and 200 freestyle events. Byrd was fourth in the 100 butterfly and fifth in the 100 backstroke.

Seiloff said the two seniors worked really hard all year and it was great to see them both with multiple top six finishes.

“They did a great job,” she said.

The 400-medley relay team of Cochrane, Wright, Cody Baker and Byrd also finished high and ended up in fifth place.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

The Green River Lady Wolves season came to a dramatic end in March after a heart breaking loss in the opening round of the 4A West Regional Tournament in Casper.

A furious Green River rally was not enough in a 37-34 loss to host Kelly Walsh High School.

The highlight of the season for the Lady Wolves who finished the season 6-18 and 1-9 in the 4A West was picking up their lone conference victory of the season in early March over rival Rock Springs.

After falling behind 32-25 on a basket by Rock Springs, Green River went on a 9-0 run fueled by four points from Myka Ginestar, and baskets from Brandi Stout, Ferrell and Kasey Turnbull.

Green River would once again go on a tear in the third, this time an 8-0 run fueled by Aubri Schneider, Ferrell, Stout and Turnbull to take a 42-34 lead.

After a three-point play by the Tigers to cut the lead to 42-37, Ferrell would regain momentum with a basket and a 44-37 lead.

Rock Springs would go on a 4-1 run to cut the lead to 45-41, before Stout hit and layup, was fouled and converted a three-point play to put the Lady Wolves up 48-41 with 3:20 left in the game.

Taylor Stoeger hit four key free throws in the final minute to seal the 52-48 victory.

BOYS BASKETBALL

The 2013-14 season was a learning year for the Green River High School boy’s basketball team.

While it may not have shown in the win column, Green River High School boy’s basketball coach Dan LaRose witnessed a lot of growth during the campaign.

After he was hired prior to the start of the season, LaRose said he knew they would have to hit the reset button for the program and they would be rebuilding.

Despite an 0-23 overall record, he said this season was about building a foundation and then building on successes after that.

At the end of the season he said only a couple players in the rotation had varsity experience from the prior season, with a lot of the key players competing last year on the sophomore level.

He said those players were able to get needed experience on both the court and at practice.

“We had some huge growth,” he said.

During the course of the season he said the younger Wolves squad was competing against some seasoned, senior laden teams on the 4A level, but they came out and competed and grew as a team.

On of the biggest positives the first year coach saw was the players individual ability to stretch outside their roles as physical players and thinking more about the game.

“We are teaching the kids they need to play from the shoulders up and how that works,” he said.

 

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