With one individual champion, one runner-up, two third-place finishers and 13 total placers, the Lyman High School wrestling team placed fifth as a team at the 3A West Regional Tournament over the weekend at Pinedale High School.

Powell finished in the top spot with 220 points, followed by Pinedale with 195.5 points. Cody wrestled its way to third with 187.5 points, while Lander and Lyman rounded out the top five with 135 and 104 points, respectively. A total of 13 Eagles placed in the top eight of their respective classes, earning them a spot at this weekend’s 3A State Wrestling Tournament in Casper.

“Overall, I am really happy with how we wrestled at regionals,” said LHS head coach Travis Ayres. “We entered with the expectation to have everyone make it to state, so it’s tough for the couple kids that came up short, but definitely excited with the number that earned the opportunity to wrestle at state.”

Two Eagles advanced to the championship finals in their respective weight classes, with Max Gregory winning the championship at 215 pounds; Timber VanGieson at 144 pounds finished as runner-up.

Gregory went 4-0 for the tournament, winning all four of his matches by pin. After dispatching Kyler Mickelson (Lovell) and Levi McCann (Pinedale) in a combined 48 seconds, Gregory squared off against Boone Aimone (Mountain View) in the semifinals, pinning his Bridger Valley rival in the second round. Gregory made short work of Anker Stewart (Cody) in the championship match, winning the title with a first-round pin.

“Max has been our leader, and wrestled great all season,” Ayres said. “He’s been dealing with some minor injuries the past few weeks, so to see him dominate at regionals makes us confident we will have another state champion next week.”

At 144 pounds, VanGieson pinned Chase Visocky (Powell) in the semifinals to advance to the championship match. Squaring off against Landon Jones (Lander Valley) for the title, VanGieson lost a close 13-9 decision to finish runner-up.

“Timber’s style and intensity is hard for most kids to handle,” Ayres said. “Unfortunately, his finals match didn’t go our way – which makes for a tougher path at state — but we’re hoping for another finals match for Timber next weekend, but with a different result.”

Finishing third for the Eagles were Treysen Henderson at 106 pounds and Marshall Hatch at 175 pounds. After losing to Talon Nuss (Powell) 7-5 in the championship semifinals, Henderson won by tech fall over Bobby Hernandez (Cody) in the third-place match.

Hatch pinned Rudy Hall (Lovell) in the consolation semifinals, then squared off against a familiar foe in the third-place match, Levi Jones (Mountain View). Hatch won by major decision, 21-10.

Also placing in the top eight and earning a trip to state were: Braxton Hinton at 132 pounds (6th place), Cash Platts at 150 pounds (6th place), Lucas Chandler at 175 pounds (Lucas Chandler, Preston Maxfield at 215 pounds (6th place), Rorke Stierle at 285 pounds (6th place), Jasper Allen at 126 pounds (7th place), Jaxon Tillotson at 138 pounds (7th place), Boston Busskohl at 190 pounds (7th place) and Xakery Aleman at 285 pounds (7th place).

The Eagles will now turn their attention to state, scheduled to begin Thursday at the Ford Wyoming Center in Casper.

“As for the state tourney overall, we plan on working on a few things this week and make that final push,” Ayres said. “Marshall Hatch wrestled real well at regionals, and should be able to keep that momentum going into state.  We have a lot of athletes that are wrestling real well, and have a good chance to accomplish their state goals.”