CASPER – Of the seven Torrington High School wrestlers who qualified for state, only one – senior Michael Sandusky – made it through to the second day of the Class 3A State Wrestling Championships in Casper.
Sandusky picked up a pin over Rawlins’ Lucas Phipps in the opening round in 1 minute, 28 seconds before being pinned by eventual 138-pound state champion Cody Phelps of Pinedale in the quarterfinal round.
Sandusky kept his medal hopes alive with a 33 second pin of Lyman’s Paxton Garner to advance to Saturday.
On Saturday morning, Sandusky saw his weekend come to a close with a 49 second loss to Worland’s Kyle Anderson.
Sophomore Bryce Hager was the only other Blazer to win a match at state.
After dropping a first-round match to Collin Lindemann of Cody, Hager pinned Green River’s Jakob Lloyd in only 45 seconds. Hager’s weekend ended with a loss to Newcastle/Upton’s Jacob Prell by fall in the third period.
At 120 pounds, Barrett Eichenberger lost to Kale Knezovich of Green River and and Garrett Madole of Pinedale by technical fall and pin, respectively. At 126 pounds, Reece Grubbs lost to Cameron Kendall of Star Valley and Conner Todd of Green River, both by pin.
In the 138-pound bracket, Kaden Romig lost to Christian Johnson by injury default and was pinned by Garner. At 170 pounds, Matthew Hellus was pinned twice by Koby Case of Douglas and Zach Weipert of Green River.
At 182 pounds, Sam Birdsall also suffered two pins, losing to Grayson Beaudrie of Cody and Wyatt Hatch of Lyman.
Torrington scored 10 team points, finishing 17th in the team standings.
