Burns-Pine Bluffs’ Clayson is late bloomer on the mat

Clayson wrestled in the 170-pound weight class, which is typically loaded with upperclassmen.

“It was pretty rough at the beginning of the season,” Clayson said. “The guys I was wrestling were older than me and quite a bit stronger than me.

“They were also bigger than me. Not necessarily heavier, but just bigger overall.”

Clayson took his lumps early, but he put together a strong postseason run.

It started when he beat Moorcroft’s Tommy Schlater 5-4 in the Class 2A East regional championship.

Clayson backed that with a fourth-place finish at the 2A state tournament. Clayson won his first two matches at state in convincing fashion (15-2 and 6-0) before losing to Rocky Mountain’s Nathan Hatch in the semifinals 15-8.

Clayson rebounded by pinning Moorcroft’s Logan Husted in the consolation semifinals. Schlater exacted revenge from the regional tournament by pinning Clayson in the third-place bout.

“By the end of the season, I had started to figure out some

of the technique I should have been using all year,” Clayson said.

“Everything started to come together.”

Clayson is one of three returning state medalists for the Broncs. Senior Darrell Goeckeler placed fourth at 195 pounds, while sophomore Zach Cudney was fifth at 106.

Burns wrestling coach Dan Clayson tried to ease his son into high school wrestling by entering him in junior-varsity tournaments to start the season.

The younger Clayson wrestled at 160 pounds in those events before moving up to 170 at the varsity level.

“It takes a little while to get used to wrestling in high school and facing guys that big, that strong and that fast,” Dan Clayson said. “It took him a while to get it figured out, but he fired on all cylinders when he did.”

The most important thing Boe Clayson had to learn was how to succeed when the action went to the mat.

“I had to be able to start standing up when I was on the bottom, or turning kids over and pinning them when I was on the top,” he said.

Simple moves that worked at the junior high level don’t often work at the high school level.

“In junior high, you can do rolls and things like that to get away from guys who aren’t very experienced,” Dan Clayson said. “He had to find ways to get off the bottom and get guys turned when he was on top.

“He found a couple of things he really liked, and that really worked later in the year. That’s when he really started having some success.”

Clayson hasn’t stopped having success. He earned all-conference honors on the football field this fall.

Now, he is loaded with confidence and experience and is ready to start his sophomore campaign.

“I’m really excited,” Boe Clayson said. “I’m going to be wrestling in the same weight class, so I’ll see a lot of the same kids.

“I’m pretty confident this could be a good year.”