East's Whitright shines after moving up

Trujillo had other reasons for moving Whitright. The Thunderbirds had seniors Lucas Mizel and Cade Happold waiting in the wings at 182 pounds, junior Blaise Ronnau (170 pounds) and freshman Keagan Bartlett (195) were excelling at their respective weights, and an injury created a vacancy at 220.

The move was meant to be.

Whitright didn’t skip a beat at the heavier weight.

He pinned his way through four matches at the Class 4A state tournament to earn his first individual title. Those efforts also earned him Prep Athlete of the Week honors from WyoSports’ Cheyenne staff.

“For me, the decision to move (Whitright) up was because we weren’t getting any points at 220 because of an injury,” Trujillo said. “We knew he could excel wherever we put him.”

In order to wrestle at 220, Whitright had to weigh at least 185 pounds every time he weighed in for a tournament or dual. Not having to make sacrifices in his diet was a welcomed change, but there were things he had to get used to.

“I had to learn that it was OK to not score points in the first or second periods,” he said. “A lot of those guys were stronger than I was, so it was really hard to score on them early in matches.

“I just had to be patient and wear them down. As the matches went on, I was able to start moving guys around and doing what I needed to do.”

East volunteer assistant Tevis Bartlett helped Whitright get used to competing against bigger wrestlers. Bartlett was a four-time state champion and a National High School Coaches Association national champion before playing football at the University of Washington.

At 235 pounds, he was the perfect practice partner for Whitright.

“Tevis is really good about helping kids and not just going out there and throttling them,” Trujillo said. “He is all about helping guys get better, and did a good job of helping (Whitright) learn what it was going to be like wrestling against heavier guys.

“The only thing that really concerned me was if (Whitright) ended up under somebody. He is pretty good on bottom, but 40 pounds is a lot of weight to give up. But he never had a problem at 220.”

Whitright wrestled Kelly Walsh’s Phoenix Buske smart during the championship bout.

Buske tried to throw him late in the first period, but Whitright was able to slip out of the hold, get behind Buske and score a takedown for a 2-0 lead.

“I like to throw, so I had the awareness I needed to get out of it and get some points of my own,” Whitright said.

The match was tied 2-2 heading into the third period. Whitright pulled ahead 4-2 with a quick reversal.

Buske tallied an escape to close the margin to 4-3 and then went on the attack. He forced Whitright out of bounds with 1 minute, 30 seconds remaining, which drew a stalling warning on Whitright. Buske tried to capitalize on that momentum by taking a quick shot off the restart, but Whitright caught him, threw him to the mat and notched the pin seconds later.

“That match really defines Bradley as a wrestler,” Trujillo said. “He is so smart and has a lot of mat awareness. The way he wrestled at state is the way we hoped he would wrestle when we moved him to 220.

“He was never more tired than the other guy late in the match. He wrestled really smart and did what he needed to do.”

Whitright spent Sunday enjoying his state championship. Although he was still basking in the afterglow Monday, he was starting to turn his attention to his senior campaign.

“I want to repeat,” he said. “Winning state was an unreal feeling. I really have something to look forward to.”

Others recognized for their efforts include:

– Ben Banville and Lincoln Siebert, wrestling, Burns-Pine Bluffs: Banville, a senior, went 3-1 and placed second in the 195-pound weight class at the Class 3A state tournament.

Siebert, a junior, went 4-1 and placed third at 285 pounds.

– Keagan Bartlett, Jackson Hesford, Lucas Mizel, Blaise Ronnau, Amos Solano, David Stice, and Landon Trujillo, wrestling, East: Hesford (160 pounds), Solano (120) and Trujillo (113) all finished as state runners-up in their respective weight classes.

Bartlett (195), Mizel (182), Ronnau (170) and Stice (113) all placed third.

– Ky Buell and Kaiti Castle, girls basketball, East: Buell, a senior, scored 19 points to help the No. 2-ranked Lady Thunderbirds to a 62-43 win over Cheyenne Central.

Castle, also a senior, added 15 points in the win.

– Andrew Johnson, boys indoor track and field, Cheyenne Central: The junior won the 200-meter dash in 23.93 seconds at the Laramie Last-Chance meet. He also was second in the 55-meter dash (6.75) and tied for third in high jump (5 feet, 8 inches).

– Calysta Martinez, girls basketball, Cheyenne South: The junior scored 15 points during the Lady Bison’s 34-33 victory over Laramie.

– Johnathan Vroman, wrestling, Central: The senior 145-pounder went 4-1 and placed third at the Class 4A state tournament.