Plainsmen Wrestling Flattens Bulldogs, 60-21

The first home dual was a successful one on Thursday night for the Laramie Plainsmen wrestling team, who beat Wheatland 60-21.

Laramie (7-4) won five matches by fall and took advantage of five forfeits to beat the Bulldogs. In addition, the two schools had several exhibition matches after the ‘official’ dual was finished.

Head coach Stuart Brinkman said we need the mat time.

“We haven’t had a lot of matches this year, so some of our guys getting two or three matches in and being able to work on some technique we’ve been working on in practice, and seeing them make improvements, makes me pretty happy.”

The Plainsmen received wins by fall from Liam Knerr at 106 pounds, Connor Hobbs at 126, Ben Ruckman at 170, Gavin Kopp at 182, and Adam Beauvais at 195 pounds.

Ruckman used a quick take down for a quick pin, in 27 seconds.

Brinkman added, “Wheatland’s middleweights are pretty tough. Those guys are all ranked top three. We knew it’d be kind of tough with the middleweights, but our tougher weights are our upper-weights and our lighter-weights, too, so I kind of knew we’d be battling at some of those weights, and I was ready to see what happened.”

After a practice day on Friday, Laramie is back on the mat for three duals in Torrington on Saturday against Burns, Saratoga-H.E.M., and Torrington.

Brinkman said, “We’re wrestling some smaller schools. Torrington doesn’t have as many guys, so what I’m really looking for is our guys working on moves we’ve been working on in practice. Not going out there and getting a quick pin but making sure we’re getting our tilts going, getting near-falls on all our moves, and also working on bottom. I just want to see big improvements on that, and hopefully, that’s what we see.”

The wrestling starts with round one at 10 a.m. on Saturday.