Mining sliver linings

HEM coach finds positives from state tournament

Robert Riddle, head coach of the Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) miner wrestlers, left the State Tournament pleased with the outcome.

“Tom (Wagner) ended up placing 5th in the 145 division,” Riddle said. “He did really well. He lost to the kid who ended up taking 1st place. Tom wrestled that kid really tough. He just didn’t quite have the experience this boy did and there were moves Tom hadn’t seen before and didn’t know how to get out of them.”

There was also a tough break for MacKaylee Widdison in the 106 weight class.

“She won her first match and then MacKaylee had to go into injury default after the 2nd match,” Riddle said. “Her shoulder got hurt in the 2nd match and she couldn’t continue. I haven’t seen pain like that on a kid’s face in a long time. It was a true injury and not like she was trying to wimp out or anything like that. Her draw was really good and if she had been able to continue, I think she had potential to place.”

Unlike Widdison, Anthony Solaas did get a tough draw. He also wrestles in the 106 weight class.

“The first wrestler was the number two seed from the West side and although Anthony wrestled well, he just didn’t have quite enough muster to get by him,” Riddle said. “The second match was with the number one seed from the West side and again wrestled very well. He looked better against this kid because they had met before where Anthony lost pretty quick. This time Anthony lost by points and his effort was strong. He went out of the tournament and this wrestler went to place 2nd in State.”

The Miner coach did note the HEM wrestlers ended up grappling with most of the same opponents they had at Regionals.

“It is not really supposed to go like that,” Riddle said. “The first couple of matches were against kids we had already seen at Regionals. It was when Tom went into the 3rd round that we had seen someone new. Then he wrestled a boy from Riverside for 5th or 6th and that was someone we hadn’t seen before.”

Riddle noted Wagner’s last match had his opponent being a full head taller.

Overall the season was successful in Riddle’s opinion.

“We had our struggles and we had our issues,” Riddle said. “In the beginning of the season we started off a bit weak, but after a little time the kids started getting more aggressive on the mats and getting wins.”

He was sorry that Jared Nelson hadn’t made it to State.

“Jared was kind of on a roll to make it to State and then went out at Regionals by one round early,” Riddle said. “We had injuries with Howard (Bame) being out for most of the season and Joe (Borah) not being able to wrestle at all, but we were able to still work through it all and have a great season.”

Riddle looks forward to next year.

“I feel overall there is a good reason to feel we had a successful season and hope to build off of it next year,” Riddle concluded.

 

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