By Jim Thoeny
• The Kemmerer Rangers wrestling team just missed winning its first ever state wrestling championship this past weekend. Moorcroft won its seventh straight state title, even tho
Kemmerer was powered to it second place finish by four individual champions. Colter Julian won his first title at 126 pounds. Junior Dawson Schramm won his third state title with a pin in the 132 pound weight class. Hayden Walker completed a 49-0 season with his third title at 195 pounds. Donny Proffit joined an elite group by winning his fourth state high school championship at 145 pounds. Kemmerer had two wrestlers take third place at state. Carson Carlson at 138 pounds and Josh Thatcher at 152 pounds. Rangers Conner Vickrey, Matt Jones and Jaydon Boyd each took fifth place.
Cokeville, who finished fifth in the team standings, had three individual champions. Lochlyn Teichert at 138, Ammon Teichert at 152, and Brayden Johnson at 170.
In spite of winning just two games during the regular season, the Kemmerer Rangers boys basketball team surprised everyone by qualifying for the state tournament by finishing fourth at the west conference tournament at Riverton last week. The Rangers, as expected, fell to the northwest conference’s second-place team Tongue River in their opening game last Thursday. The Rangers then jumped out to a 14 point first quarter lead against Riverside in a loser out game Friday morning as they coasted to a 69 to 40 win. Caden Bowen poured in 27 points for the Rangers. Kemmerer then faced Wind River in the consolation semi-final on Saturday morning. The Cougars had beaten Kemmerer twice during the regular season.
Wind River raced out to a 17 point lead after one quarter, and looked like they were on their way to the consolation final and a berth in the state tournament. But the Rangers slowly chipped away at the big lead. They closed to within eight points at halftime, and five points at the end of the third quarter. The Rangers took the lead with less than 20 seconds to go on a Caden Bowen lay-in.
The Cougars’ Julien Guina tied the game with a pair of free throws with eight seconds left that sent the game into overtime. It didn’t look good for Kemmerer in overtime as Wind River made a three point basket seconds into the extra period, and Bowen became the third Rangers starter to foul out of the game just a few moments later. Relying on senior Tanner Plowman, and a group of younger players, the Rangers tied the score. Then with two seconds to go, sophomore Clayton Moyles drained a 12 footer to give the Rangers a 71 to 69 upset victory. Bowen led Kemmerer with 20 points, and Plowman had 19.
The Rangers then matched up again with Tongue River in the consolation final. Kemmerer trailed throughout the game. But they outscored the Eagles 14 to 6 in the fourth quarter to close the lead to just two points. Colter Brunski’s desperation half court shot fell short at the buzzer, and Kemmerer lost 57 to 55. Bowen again led Kemmerer with 22 points. The Rangers will now face class 2A east conference champion, and defending state champion, Pine Bluffs in their opening round game at the state tournament at Casper College this Thursday afternoon. You can listen to Kemmerer basketball games during the state tournament live on The Spur, 105.3 FM and 940 AM.
The Kemmerer Lady Rangers saw their season end at the conference tournament. The southwest conference fourth seed Rangers fell to northwest conference champion Greybull 66 to 39 in their opener. They came back last Friday to beat Tongue River. After being tied at 22 at halftime, the Lady Rangers outscored the Lady Eagles 25 to 11 in the second half. The Lady Rangers stayed with Rocky Mountain on Saturday morning for a half, but the Lady Grizzlies pulled away to 47 to 29 win in the second half. Sophomore Madelyn Gregory led Kemmerer by averaging 13.5 points a game over the three games. The Lady Rangers had no seniors on their team, so everyone will be back next year.
