CASPER — It was a bit of a rough weekend for the Evanston High School wrestling teams at the 4A State Wrestling Championships in Casper, with the Red Devils finishing 10th overall; the Lady Devils finished 21st.

“I thought we as a team kind of underperformed,” said EHS head coach Garth Wagstaff. “I thought we were actually doing well, then all of a sudden – I don’t know if it’s just a big stage, or maybe part of it is the move to 4A; 4A, it’s a different beast. I thought we underperformed, I was a little bit disappointed by that. I thought we could have done better and competed a little better in quite a few matches.”

That said, the weekend wasn’t without some great individual performances. Senior Caden Marler capped off his high school career with a third-place finish at 132 pounds. Fellow senior Kolby Hamilton placed fourth at 138 pounds, as did sophomore Tayson Moon, who placed fourth at 106 pounds.

The Lady Devils placed two wrestlers on the podium, with Marty Dick placing fourth at 190 pounds, while Sidney Liechty placed sixth at 110 pounds.

“I thought the girls represented us very well,” Wagstaff said. “Marty was their highest finisher — she’s a fierce competitor that gets after it. Sidney, she’s kind of the leader of the group — I had the pleasure of coaching both of them when they were freshmen, and Sidney is just a hardworking girl that loves the sport and loves to get after it. She absorbs everything, and is a kid that — if she can get in the wrestling room — she’s going to get in the room as much as she possibly can.”

Red Devils

After pins over Maxwell Jirak (Star Valley) and Rylee Browen (Thunder Basin) to open the tournament, Caden Marler squared off against Lincoln Young (Rock Springs) in the semifinals, losing to the eventual 138-pound runner-up by a 9-1 major decision.

Marler rebounded with a 6-0 decision over Kaden Kimzey (Central) in the consolation semifinals, then won a close 7-5 decision in a rematch with Rylee Browen (Thunder Basin) to finish third.

“My main goal was to just leave it all on the mat and leave no doubt in my mind that I tried my hardest,” Marler said. “I didn’t want to leave any room for excuses to blame failure on.”

Wagstaff called Marler a “Monster on the mat,” praising the senior for working hard all season, especially in areas that weren’t his strongest.

“Caden’s very, very good on the mat, but one of his weak spots — one that he put a lot of time and effort into getting better at — is on his feet,” Wagstaff explained. “Then he goes out and wins the 3rd-place match with two takedowns. He won it on his feet, so it was kind of neat to see that the work he’s been doing on his feet, trying to get better, paid off.”

“He had a great state tournament,” Wagstaff added. “The kid he wrestled in the semifinals, he wrestled three times over the course of the season, and we just kept closing that gap — it just wasn’t quite there yet. But he’s come a long way, it’s great to see his success; he’s worked hard in the off season, and it paid off.”

At 138 pounds, Kolby Hamilton recorded pins over Jonathen Serrano (Cheyenne South) and Kaleb Henne (Central), before losing a 4-1 decision to eventual state runner-up Andrew Gonzales (Central) in the semifinals. Hamilton won a 410-6 decision over Caden Polson (Laramie) in the consolation semis, but lost an 11-5 decision to Omar Bautista (Thunder Basin) in the 3rd-place match, to finish fourth.

“Kolby — he’s come a long way in a lot of aspects of the sport,” Wagstaff said. “He’s another one to put a lot of time in during the offseason. I tell you what — if there’s a mat or the room is open, he’s on it. He just found a love for the sport, stepping into that leadership role as kind of our captain and I thought he did a really good job. I thought he represented us well.”

Like any senior competing in his last game, match or event, the moment you realize you’ve just competed for the last time hits hard.

“You could tell after the last match that Kolby knew he was walking off for the final time,” Wagstaff said. “He didn’t get off too fast — it hit him that it’s over.”

Red Devil sophomore Tayson Moon also advanced to the semifinals at 106 pounds, by way of pins over Garrett Withrow (Riverton) and Braxton Keith (Cheyenne East). After losing a 7-0 decision to Shaiden Casner (Cheyenne East) in the semis, Moon battled back in the consolation rounds, pinning Tayvin Campbell (Kelly Walsh) in the consolation semis to advance to the 3rd-place match.

And that’s where the day went off the rails.

Squaring off against Chi Simmons (Sheridan) for the Top 3 finish, the match was contentious from the start. Moon kept his composure until late in the third round, when — while holding on to a sizeable lead — he retaliated against Simmons for a perceived cheap shot with one of his own, resulting in the Red Devil’s disqualification.

“That’s something we also gotta look at, get under control,” Wagstaff said. “We were 20 seconds away from winning the match, all we had to do was finish it. Things got a little bit out of hand, kind of got away from us. It cost us a placing.”

Despite the loss, Wagstaff praised Moon for a successful season, where the sophomore emerged as one of the top wrestlers in the state at 106 pounds.

“Tayson’s had a great year,” Wagstaff said.”He’s beat kids in all the classifications — 4A, 3A and 2A. He beat those kids that were in the finals of the other classifications, so he’s one of the top 106-pounders in the state.”

Other Red Devil wrestlers who scored points at state included Keith Shelton at 120 pounds (1-2, 4 points), Grey Hamilton at 144 pounds (1-2, 4 points), Karter Moore at 150 pounds (1-2, 3 points), Bridger Roberts at 157 pounds (1-2, 3 points), David McCoy at 170 pounds (1-2, 3 points), Daniel Watson at 190 pounds (1-2, 3 points) and Taiton Mills at 215 pounds (1-2, 3 points).

“My takeaway is that our kids grew a lot during the season; we just need to finish a little bit better,” Wagstaff said. “I think we have the kids that can do that, we just gotta go to work and do it. I thought our seniors represented us very well, set the tone very well for us throughout the season. They ended the season as great leaders. We have a lot of young kids coming up, which should be exciting.”

Lady Devils

Two of the five Lady Devils who competed at state over the weekend earned a spot on the podium of their respective weight classes, led by a fourth-place finish by Marty Dick at 190 pounds.

“Marty’s undersized — she can actually wrestle a weight class lower, but she goes up and she feels more confidence with going up a weight class,” Wagstaff said. “She does very well and is a force — she goes out and competes very well.”

After pinning Ava Zellmer (Laramie) in the 190-pound quarterfinals, Dick fell to Joci Davis (Cheyenne East) in the semis to fall to the consolation rounds. Squaring off against a familiar foe in Kamia Runyan (Big Piney) in the consolation semis, Dick pinned Runyun to advance to the 3rd-place game, where she lost to Ava Zellmer (Laramie) to finish fourth.

At 110 pounds, Liechty opened the tournament with a pin over Daniela Lopez (Rawlins), though she lost in the quarterfinals to Kyonna Gustafson (Hulett). Shaking off the loss, Liechty won back-to-back matches in the consolation rounds — pinning Allison Rodriguez (Pinedale), and winning a 4-2 decision over Hallie Robertson (Star Valley) — to advance to the consolation semis.

Back-to-back losses to Sawyer Arnhold (Shoshoni) and Kyonna Gustafson (Hulett) ended Liechty’s tournament, but not before she earned a spot on the podium with a 6th-place finish.

Other Lady Devils who contributed team points included Charli Bybee at 120 pounds (2-2, 7 points) and Harlee MacDonald at 155 pounds (1-2, 1 point).