DAYTON – The combined Lingle-Fort Laramie/Southeast (LFL/SE) boys’ wrestling team roared into the postseason, capturing second place at the 2A East Regional Tournament hosted by Tongue River High School on February 17.

Seventeen LFL/SE grapplers punched their tickets to the state tournament in Casper after placing in the top eight at regionals.

Five LFL/SE athletes advanced to the first-place match at Regionals and beat their opponents to earn regional championships – senior Wyatt Sylvester at 126 pounds, senior Kaleb Brothwell at 144 pounds, senior Tiegen Thompson at 175 pounds, junior Nathan Fish at 120 pounds and junior Louden Bremer at 150 pounds.

“I was extremely happy with how our wrestlers competed at regionals,” head coach Brandon Gifford said. “Our boys looked ready to go. We won some contested matches, which is something we will need to do next week at the state tournament in order to accomplish our goals. We are hitting on all cylinders which is where you want to be going into the last week of the season. We are looking forward to getting the opportunity to accomplish our goals next week.”

Fish opened the tournament with a pin in the semifinals at 120 pounds. Twenty-seven seconds into the match, Fish took down Sundance’s Lyman Halverson.

The first-place match pitted Fish against Landon Norman, of Upton. With 1 minute, 3 seconds remaining in the first period, Fish got a pin.

At 126 pounds, Sylvester won the quarterfinals by fall against Moorcroft’s Cade Williams. Advancing to the semifinals, Sylvester defeated Upton’s Jackson East by a 10-8 decision.

Sylvester battled Saratoga’s Tuker Carricato into the third period of the first-place match, with Sylvester getting a pin two seconds before the final buzzer sounded.

Brothwell made quick work of his quarterfinal opponent – Sundance’s Wyatt Flahaven – with a pin at 45 seconds.

Progressing to the semifinals, Brothwell pinned Tongue River’s Jack Melger at 1:06. Showing no mercy in the first-place round, Brothwell took down Moorcroft’s Trenten Gray in 57 seconds.

In the 150-pound bracket, Bremer pinned Alex Barker, of Tongue River, in the quarterfinals. Squaring off against Moorcroft’s Brady Garoutte in the semifinals, Bremer won by a 6-4 decision. The first-place round between Bremer and Moorcroft’s Riley DeHaven went into the third period with Bremer winning by a 14-6 major decision.

Thompson won the semifinals at 175 pounds by fall against Glenrock’s Lane Masopust at 1:49. Moving up to the first-place match, Thompson pinned Preston Sorensen, of Glenrock, 23 seconds into the second period.

Sophomore Gideon Boyd garnered second place at 106 pounds, pinning Eli Raymond, of Tongue River, 3:28 into the quarterfinals and felling Hulett’s Dylan Williams in the semifinals.

At 190 pounds, junior Carter Blevins secured second place with a pin against teammate and junior Alec DeMarce in the semifinals at 2:52.

DeMarce placed seventh in the 190-pound weight classification.

Sophomore Colter McFarlin snagged second place at 215 pounds, pinning teammate and junior Emmett Coxbill in the quarterfinals before defeating Atom Lindsey, of Saratoga, by a 9-2 decision in the semifinals.

Coxbill came in third at 215 pounds and pinned Glenrock’s Wiley Lesser with 28 seconds remaining in the first period of the third-place match.

Senior William Feyereisen took third at 138 pounds, winning the third-place match against Wyatt Cook of Moorcroft.

In the 165-pound division, senior Jaden VanGundy finished third, pinning Glenrock’s J.D. Holman at 2:51 into the third-place match.

Fourth-place finishes included senior Mason Sorensen (132 pounds) and senior Lance York (157).

Senior Wyatt Gladson  (144 pounds) and junior Colton Cutter (165) both took seventh place.

Sophomore Kurt Rodenberger secured eighth place at 175 pounds.