MEEKER | The second full weekend of wrestling and the Meeker Cowboys had two wrestlers battling head to head for first place and one wrestler bringing home the Outstanding Wrestler award from the tournament in Delta.
The varsity traveled to Cedaredge to dual Buena Vista Friday, followed by the Panther Invitational in Delta all day Saturday.
“It was a great tournament,” said head coach JC Watt. “The boys wrestled really well and there was a lot of improvement from last week.” Meeker took home sixth place out of 13 teams.
At 106 pounds Ty Goedert and Trae Kennedy were placed on opposite sides of the brackets and they wrestled their way across to meet up in the championship. Goedert, in a 7-2 decision, beat Kennedy to take the bracket.
Scoring points for the Cowboys was senior Charles Curry (126) who placed fifth, Connor Blunt (138) placing fourth, Dax Sheridan (170) fourth, and Ridge Williams (220) sixth.
The top Cowboy was Colby Clatterbaugh who “had a really great weekend,” according to Watt. Clatterbaugh had a first round bye and moved into the second round to pin Jim Gabriel of Buena Vista and move on to the semifinals. In a match that went nearly the entire three rounds, Clatterbaugh pinned Jace Peebles of Hotchkiss, who beat Clatterbaugh the previous year in the state tournament.
In the championship he then took on the class 3A, 2018 Colorado State runner-up, Amos Wilson of Glenwood Springs, for another win and the championship at 182 pounds. Clatterbaugh was named Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament for his efforts.
The JV was also on the mats on Saturday. Rifle hosted a JV tournament and four out of five Cowboys placed in the top three. Owen Hanneman (106) and Kaleb Neilson (132) placed third, Tyson Portwood (132) placed second, and Tanner Musser (220) placed first.
This weekend is the Warrior Invitational in Grand Junction for the varsity and JV will be at Kremmling participating in a varsity tournament there.
By Tiffany Jehorek | Special to the Herald Times