Post 6 reaching ALWS semifinals is Laramie County sports story of the year

Winning the region and advancing to the ALWS semis was certainly an accomplishment worth reliving and commemorating. It also is WyoSports’ Laramie County sports story of the year as voted on by Wyoming Tribune Eagle newsroom staff. The Sixers’ run to the ALWS semifinals garnered six first-place votes and a pair of second-place nods.

“This team kept showing its toughness all season long,” manager Ty Lain said after Post 6 returned home from Shelby, North Carolina. “They had a lot of belief in each other and what they could get accomplished.”

Cheyenne’s postseason run didn’t lack for drama.

The Sixers breezed through the Wyoming Class AA state tournament and opened the Northwest Regional in Gillette with a 7-1 win over Helena, Montana. They were dropped to the loser’s bracket after scoring six runs over the final two innings of a 7-6 loss to Pocatello, Idaho.

Cheyenne advanced to the regional’s final day with a 6-0 win over Bellevue, Washington, and a 10-6 win over Gillette. That victory over an in-state rival was somewhat inconsequential, as Gillette had clinched a spot in the championship of the modified double-elimination bracket by going unbeaten in the winner’s bracket.

Post 6 overcame a 2-0 hole for a 4-3 victory over Rocky Mountain High of Fort Collins, Colorado, in an elimination game. Left fielder Julian Romero — a college returner — doubled to right field with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning to score Mason Tafoya from first for the walk-off win.

Cheyenne punched its ticket to Shelby by beating Gillette 7-4 in a winner-take-all championship game.

The victory was all the more satisfying considering the Sixers were three outs from beating two-time national champion Idaho Falls, Idaho, in the regional title game on the same field the season before.

“Our whole goal was to get back to this position, and that’s what we’ve worked so hard for since last season ended,” Romero said. “Our whole schedule and our whole offseason was built to put us in this position, and we gave it all we’ve got.”

Cheyenne’s ALWS got off to an inauspicious start, as it was just the third team to be no-hit in tournament history. Post 6 shook off that 4-0 loss to eventual national champion League City, Texas, and won its next two pool play games in thrilling fashion.

Romero helped lift Cheyenne to a 2-1 win over Ellsworth, Maine, with a walk-off double. He also got the Sixers’ first hit of the ALWS with two outs in bottom of the first.

Senior right-hander Bradley Feezer struck out seven Ellsworth hitters and gave up just one walk in the seven-inning complete game effort.

Cheyenne rallied from a 2-0 deficit against reigning national champion Troy, Alabama, for a 3-2 win that propelled it to the semifinals.

Sophomore second baseman Kaed Coates hit a bases-loaded single through the right side of the infield that scored Hayden Swaen and Nolan Horton to put Cheyenne ahead 3-2. Horton slid head-first and got his left hand to home plate just before Troy catcher Matt Snell blocked the dish and applied a tag.

Troy went down in order in the bottom of the seventh.

In the semifinals, the Sixers capitalized on errors to scratch across one run in the third. Lincoln East used a walk, a hit batter, an error and its lone hit of the game to push across two runs in the bottom of the sixth in their 2-1 win.

Although Cheyenne fell short of its championship aspirations, simply getting to the ALWS was a big breakthrough for a program that had four Northwest Regional runner-up finishes to its name. The Sixers left Shelby with their heads held high, knowing they’d made the state, city and their program proud.

“Getting to that point meant so much to all of us players, to the coaches, all the younger kids in our program and all the guys who came before us,” senior Colter McAnelly said.

2. Girls grappling growth

Twenty-four years passed between the time when the family of Casper’s Sarah Tolin threatened to sue the Wyoming High School Activities Association if she was barred from wrestling for Kelly Walsh High and the state’s first season of girls wrestling as a sanctioned standalone sport.

It was well worth the wait.

Cheyenne Central’s Meadow King won the inaugural 145-pound state title, and Cheyenne East’s Gracin Goff was state runner-up in the 190-pound bracket.

More than 200 girls competed in the inaugural season, which far surpassed the WHSAA’s expectations. There are currently 250 girls listed on the WHSAA girls wrestling page on TrackWrestling.com. Most schools have seen their numbers grow now that the sport is established. Laramie County School District 1 hired head coaches specifically for its girls teams at all three Cheyenne high schools.

“I’m always going to think we should have had girls wrestling in Wyoming 10 or 15 years ago,” East girls coach Riley Stringer said. “But we’re taking steps in the right direction by adding separate girls and boys coaches. We’re doing the right thing by having the girls practice separately. We’re our own entity, and that’s great.

“It’s encouraged more girls to come out of the sport and give it a try. They’re not worried about wrestling in front of the boys and what they might think. They’re just having a good time, wrestling hard and learning.”

3. Getting his kicks

Cheyenne South senior Keelan Anderson snapped a nearly 41-year-old state record when he split the uprights from 61 yards out Sept. 22. The previous record of 57 yards was held by Natrona County’s David Browning. Anderson had matched that mark Sept. 8.

“I tied (the record) a few weeks ago and still had some distance,” Anderson said. “That’s why we decided to try 61.”

Anderson finished the season with four of the five-longest made field goals in Class 4A. He passed up scholarship offers from smaller schools and signed a letter of commitment on a preferred walk-on offer from the University of Wyoming earlier this month.

“I trust my ability to eventually bring me a scholarship,” said Anderson, who was a unanimous all-state selection. “I talked with my grandpa about it, and sometimes, you have to take risks in order to get the reward. It usually pays off if you have the grit, the grind and the talent.”

4. Changing of the guard

Craig Bohl had said the University of Wyoming would be the final stop of his coaching career, but never gave any indication he was ready to ride into the sunset anytime soon.

That changed as this season progressed, and Bohl announced Dec. 6 he was retiring from the profession after the Cowboys (8-4) take on Toledo (11-2) in the Arizona Bowl today.

“As I began to look at this team, and I look at where we’re at, I think we’re in a really good place — a really good place,” Bohl said. “I also think it’s time for new leadership. I think it’s time for new leadership to elevate our program to a higher level.”

Bohl has an overall record of 164-92, including a 60-60 mark at UW. He previously guided North Dakota State to three Football Championship Subdivision national titles.

Defensive coordinator Jay Sawvel was announced as the Cowboys’ next head coach within minutes of UW announcing Bohl’s retirement. Sawvel has spent the past four seasons as the Pokes’ defensive coordinator.

UW ranked in the top three of the Mountain West in both scoring defense and total defense this fall.

“We just have to find a way to move the needle slightly higher and get back into that Mountain West Conference championship game,” athletics director Tom Burman said. “After thinking about it and visiting with coach Sawvel and kind of working my way through this, it was clear to me that the fastest way to do that was right here internally, because we had the best coach we could hire with (Sawvel).”

5. Broncs shock 2A

Few people gave the Burns girls basketball team a chance of winning the Class 2A state championship. After all, the Broncs entered the tournament with an 11-15 record after an up-and-down regular season.

They left Casper with a 14-15 mark and the school’s first girls hoops state title.

Burns coach Barry Ward knew his team was going to be saddled with the Cinderella label because of its unlikely title run, but he wasn’t buying it.

“We always believed we were destined to be good,” Ward said. “When you manifest stuff like that out there, and they all believe, crazy stuff like this happens. We started 1-7, and the majority of our losses were to 3A schools. Playing at that level all the time was an advantage for us.”

Burns won its first two state tournament games by an average of 11 points, but needed to overcome 38 turnovers and a 12-point deficit to grab a 48-36 win over Lingle-Fort Laramie in the title game.

6. T-Birds on top

Thunder Basin bested Cheyenne East in the Class 4A East Regional final to clinch a No. 1 seed at the state basketball tournament. That loss ended up being a good thing for the Thunderbirds. They had spent the season ranked No. 1, but entered the state tournament with a renewed focus.

East won its three state tournament games by an average of 16.3 points to claim its first state title since 2006. The T-Birds outscored Laramie 42-31 in the second half to secure a 68-59 win in the championship game.

The win was especially sweet considering the majority of East’s roster had comprised the previous season’s state runner-up squad.

“It feels 100 times better, no question,” senior forward Kysar Jolley said.

7. East ends drought

The Cheyenne East boys golf team thought 2022 was going to be the season it claimed its first state title since 1986. That squad picked a poor time to play its worst tournament after winning every regular season event, and finished seventh out of eight teams.

The T-Birds got redemption this fall. They put four players in the top 11 to finish with a two-round score of 625, which was 19 strokes better than runner-up Jackson.

Junior Daniel Meyer — who was dead last individually as a freshman in 2021 — won the individual championship by carding a 7-over-par 151. Coach Todd Oswald was voted 4A boys golf coach of the year.

“There were a lot of tears shed by the coaches and players (in 2022), because we all knew what we were capable of,” Oswald said. “To go perform like we did was a huge letdown, but it also lit a fire under them. They were determined to not make the same mistakes.”

8. Nightmare season

Expectations couldn’t have been higher for the UW men’s basketball team entering the 2022-23 season. The Cowboys lost just one significant contributor from a team that secured an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament, and they added three transfers from Pac-12 schools.

UW appeared to have the recipe for a dream season. It ended up being a nightmare instead.

The Cowboys went 9-22 overall, the three highly-touted transfers left the school midway through the season, and all but four of the remaining players entered the transfer portal.

Coach Jeff Linder rebuilt the roster with a mixture of high school players and transfers from the junior-college, NAIA and NCAA Division II levels. UW is 7-5 entering its final nonconference game this afternoon at Brigham Young.

9. High five

The Cheyenne Central girls outdoor track and field team used a mixture of standout individual performances and overall depth to capture its fifth consecutive 4A state title.

Senior Sydney Morrell won the 800-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs and placed fourth in the 400-meter dash. Classmate Madisyn Baillie claimed titles in high jump and the 100 hurdles while taking third in the 300 hurdles. Senior Brinkley Lewis won pole vault, and sophomore Karson Tempel took the top spot in triple jump.

While the seven state titles were nice, other athletes finishing where they were expected to and some finishing better than expected helped the Lady Indians finish with 131 team points to runner-up Natrona County’s 113.

“This was beyond what I had hoped going into the weekend,” Central coach Sean Wilde said. “I score it so many ways before we get here. I score the best-case scenario, the worst-case scenario and a lot more.

“I didn’t have us getting that many points. We overperformed. We have big dogs that can go out and get us 10 points for an event win, but we also have second and third kids in events who go out and get us points.”

10. Maiden voyage

Lugo Arenas was well aware of the expectations for the Laramie County Community College women’s soccer team when he was hired as its coach. Arenas watched the Golden Eagles become a perennial national tournament team when he was suiting up for Cheyenne East and later LCCC.

The 13 National Junior College Athletic Association tournament berths were part of the reason Arenas left Waldorf University to take the reins at LCCC. His first Eagles team added to the legacy by shaking off an 0-3 start to the season and reaching the NJCAA tournament.

LCCC finished the season 10-5-3 overall and also claimed the Region IX championship.