Green River finishes fifth at Utah meet

The Green River High School varsity wrestling team finished fifth last week at the Tournament of Champions in Vernal, Utah.

The tournament featured 28 teams from Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah.

“As a team, we didn’t wrestle very well this weekend, we lost too many close matches and many of our leaders didn’t compete like they need to,” head coach Marshall Rhodes said. “We haven’t been working as hard as we should in practice and we still need to get in better shape.”

Leading the way for Green River was defending state champion Cole Verner, who finished in first place.

Rhodes said Verner didn’t have his best weekend, but still had the toughness to win a close finals match at the end.

Cyro Montoya finished third for Green River at 106 pounds. Rhodes said Montoya continues to be solid with his 3rd place finish and is a very hard worker.

Gage Byers and Brendan Hopkins both finished in fifth place, Shandon Welsh placed sixth, and Austin Waters and Jordan Tucker both finished in eighth place.

“Gage Byers and Shandon Welsh have been improving a lot and wrestled very well, both placed in the two toughest weight classes in the tournament,” Rhodes said.

The junior varsity wrestlers competed at the same tournament in Vernal. Rhodes said all of the wrestlers got a lot of matches and some good experience. He added Caleb Nathan, Zach Orr, and Gabe Bunderman had very good tournaments, and they are getting better each week.

“These are wrestlers that will be wresting varsity matches near the end of the year and they are improving all the time, people we will be counting on at the end,” Rhodes said.

The junior varsity team will also be competing at the Thoman tournament.