Rangers, Lady Rangers shine at Aimone Invite

Six Rangers win individual titles; Runnion wins girls' title

Don Cogger, For the Gazette
Posted 12/20/22

The Kemmerer High School wrestling teams hosted the Joe Aimone Invitational on Friday, and made the most of its home-mat advantage, coming away with seven individual champions and 27 total visits to the podium.

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Rangers, Lady Rangers shine at Aimone Invite

Six Rangers win individual titles; Runnion wins girls' title

Posted

The Kemmerer High School wrestling teams hosted the Joe Aimone Invitational on Friday, and made the most of its home-mat advantage, coming away with seven individual champions and 27 total visits to the podium.

“I think it went pretty well — we had seven undefeated kids altogether,” said KHS head coach Darrell Bullington. “I thought our youngsters wrestled really well. It was good to see our kids get a lot of matches, and I think we’re getting better each week, from top to bottom.”

Individual champions included, on the boys’ side: Roany Proffit at 126 pounds, Karl Haslem at 132 pounds, Gabe Emery at 145 pounds, Bridger Anderson at 145 pounds, Riggen Walker at 152 pounds and Derek Hagler at 160 pounds. For the Lady Rangers, Nadia Runnion won the title at 235 pounds.

Wrestling to a second-place finish were Rangers Bryce Brown at 120 pounds, Michael Banta at 126 pounds, Grason Kelley at 152 pounds and Dylan Hagler at 195 pounds. Lady Rangers Laynee Walker (125-130 pounds) and Lynsie Julander (155 pounds) finished runners-up in their respective classes.

Third-place finishers included Austin Christen (113 pounds), Ayden Kelley (145 pounds), Gabe Platt (145 pounds), Braxton Pope (160 pounds), Landon Heaps (182 pounds) and Aaron Despain (170-182 pounds) for the boys; Kylee Batista (125-130 pounds), Kaylie Julander (155 pounds) and Jentrie Lacey (235 pounds) for the girls.

Moises Herrera (5th, 120 pounds), Kyle Fox (7th, 152 pounds), Brace Vickrey (5th, 160 pounds, Tanner Schramm (4th, 170 pounds) and Rayden Black (5th, Heavyweight) rounded out the Rangers’ podium placers.

Bullington said he was pleased to see the Lady Rangers do well, in just their second-ever tournament.

“That was their second meet, and some of them are really starting to put things together,” he said. “They’re feeling a little bit better than that first week, wrestling with more confidence. They’re getting aggressive, and starting to use the stuff we’re working on with them in practice.”

The KHS wrestling teams will close out the 2022 portion of their schedule on Thursday, Dec. 29, with a home dual against Pinedale.

“That will be a meet that helps keep us going, keep us out of the holiday rut,” Bullington said. “We’ll have practices during that week-and-a-half that we’re on break, but some kids will be traveling with their families, that kind of thing. But the kids are hard workers, so we expect them to pick up where they left off when they get back.”