EVANSTON — Dryden Menck doesn’t fall behind often during matches.

“Not really ever,” he said.

But that’s the position the two-time state champion found himself in on Saturday during the first-place match of the 220 division at the Evanston Invitational.

“It was a little iffy at the beginning, but I knew I had to do something,” Menck said. “I don’t know. A lot of my hard work paid off. As soon as he got the first throw on me, I was like ‘oh (shoot), he’s winning now and I’m down 5-2. I’ve got to get up on points before second period.’ I knew I had to get ahead of him.”

Menck ended up winning by fall (2:48) over Carson Bywater of Bear River to claim the 220 title.

“It was a humbling moment,” Menck said. “It was a good season opener. We get to see what we need to work on as a team and what I need to work on — perfect way to start the season. We had a lot of guys wrestle hard.” 

Spring Creek won the event with 288.5 points while Bear River (222.0), Rock Springs (173.0), and Green River (149.0) rounded out the top four teams.

Evanston finished fifth-place out of 13 teams after scoring 96 points. Lyman finished seventh with 82.0 points and Mountain View was 11th with 49.0 points.

“For as being as young as we are, I’m pretty happy with the score,” Evanston senior Gavin Simmons said. “The freshmen did a lot of good things. There’s some stuff we’ve got to work on, but that goes for all grades — myself included. We’ve got plenty of talent. We’ve just got to learn to use it.”

Simmons took second in the 195 division after Green River’s Payton Tucker claimed a 4-3 decision in the first-place match.

“There were a couple of small things that I’ve got to work on personally,” Simmons said. “I’ve just got to keep building from this, and I think I’ll be good.”

Evanston had multiple wrestlers compete in the place round.

Mason Yenney of Rock Springs won by decision (7-1) in the third-place match over Evanston junior Isaac Savadra in the 120 division. 

Bear River’s Easton Winward won by fall (1:48) over Red Devil sophomore Rigden Wagstaff at 145 pounds in the third-place match, while Evanston senior Setson Roundy won in sudden victory (6-4) over Gabe Huges of Bear River at 145 pounds in the fifth-place match. 

Evanston junior Saige Synan won by decision (3-1) over Caden Constable of Spring Creek  in the third-place match of the 152 division.

Evanston junior Rylie Griggs won by fall (1:17) over Gabriel Scipter of Spring Creek in the fifth-place match of the 170 division. Zach Miller of Bear Rvier won by decision (7-4) against Pablo Escalante in the third-place match of the 182 division.

“This tournament is a good place to start,” said Evanston wrestling coach Larry Wagstaff, who competed at the Evanston Invitational in 1971. “Our goal every year is to wrestle for a state title. That doesn’t always happen. In fact, it very seldom happens, but that’s our goal. We’re going to rely heavily on freshmen, a few sophomores and juniors and three or four seniors. We’re going to get after it and see what we can do. We’ll be competitive wherever we go.”

Lyman and Mountain View also had some wrestlers compete in the place rounds. 

“You have some first-tournament jitters,” Mountain View coach Brady Thompson said. “You have a lot of things to work on after this first tournament, but overall, I was pleased with my boys and how they wrestled.”

Added Lyman coach Travis Ayres: “For the first tournament, we did pretty good. The nice thing about this, is it’s a benchmark to see what we need to work on. There’s plenty to work on, but as far as our overall performance, I’m pretty satisfied.”

EVANSTON
INVITATIONAL FINAL RESULTS

(LOCAL TEAMS IN BOLD)

106 DIVISION

First-place match: Zackery Bingham (Bear River) won in a tie-breaker (TB-1, 17-6) over Clayson Mele (Green River) 

Third-place match: Cash Christiansen (Rock Springs) won by fall (4:33) over Chase Milligan (Spring Creek)

Fifth-place match: Thomas Coates (Grantsville) won by decision (7-5) over Keegan Gehlhausen (Pinedale)

113 DIVISION

First-place match: Scott Robertson (Bear River) won by fall (1:23) over Gerardo Lopez (Rawlins)

Third-place match: Dominic Martinez (Green River) won by decision (2-0) over Zach Vasquez (Rock Springs)

Fifth-place match: Cody Price (Green River) won by fall (2:12) over Bear Browne (Spring Creek)

120 DIVISION

First-place match: Josh Tripp (Spring Creek) won by fall (3:22) over Kade Knezovich (Green River) 

Third-place match: Mason Yenney (Rock Springs) won by decision (7-1) over Isaac Savadra (Evanston)

Fifth-place match: Kodis Campbell (Spring Creek) won by major decision (13-5) over Kamryn Rees (Bear River)

126 DIVISION

First-place match: Ashton Dupape (Rock Springs) won by fall (5:34) over Dawson Schramm (Kemmerer) 

Third-place match: Riley Fuchs (Spring Creek) won by decision (3-2) over Colter Julian (Kemmerer)

Fifth-place match: Cole Seymour (Rock Springs) won in the ultimate tie-breaker (10-9) over Cristian Sanchez (Bear River)

132 DIVISION

First-place match: Cameron Metcalf (Rock Springs) won by fall (5:03) over Trevor Allred (Rock Springs)

Third-place match: Jace Saxton (Spring Creek) won by decision (4-1) over Carson Carlson (Kemmerer)

Fifth-place match: Austin Wirth (Spring Creek) won by fall (4:40) over Najib Madbauhi (Mountain View)

138 DIVISION 

First-place match: Donny profit (Kemmerer) won by fall (3:12) over Dyllan Fuchs (Spring Creek)

Third-place match: RJ Stassinos (Rock Springs) won by fall (2:31) over Colten Ellison (Lyman) 

Fifth-place match: Lee Woolsey (Weber) won by decision (7-4) over Justin Flores (Green River)

145 DIVISION

First-place match: Anthony Chavez (Spring Creek) won by fall (4:47) over Nathan McCann (Green River) 

Third-place match: Easton Winward (Bear River) won by fall (1:48) over Rigden Wagstaff (Evanston)

Fifth-place match: Stetson Roundy (Evanston) won in sudden victory (SV-1, 6-4) over Gabe Hughes (Bear River)

152 DIVISION

First-place match: Beau Chacon (Spring Creek) won by major decision (11-0) over Tristan Profaizer (Rock Springs)

Third-place match: Saige Synan (Evanston) won by decision (3-1) over Caden Constable (Spring Creek)

Fifth-place match: Paxton Smith (Bear River) won by decision (3-2) over Adam Willoughby (Big Piney)

160 DIVISION

First-place match: Wyatt Johnson (Bear River) won by decision (6-2) over Clay Campbell (Spring Creek)

Third-place match: Koby Johnson (Grantsville) won by fall (0:57)over Dustin Kolste (Bear River)

Fifth-place match: Tyler Long (Big Piney) won by fall (0.41) over Hayden Julander (Kemmerer)

170 DIVISION

First-place match: Tyler Long (Weber) won by fall (3:23) over Xzavier Edson (Spring Creek)

Third-place match: William Petrovich (Rock Springs) won by fall (1:06) over Wyatt Larsen (Bear River)

Fifth-place match: Rylie Griggs (Evanston) won by fall (1:17) over Gabriel Scripter (Spring Creek)

182 DIVISION

First-place match: K-Ci Slade (Spring Creek) won by fall (1:40) over Lochlan Peare (Weber)

Third-place match: Zachary Miller (Bear River) won by decision (7-4) over Pablo Escalante (EVANSTON)

Fifth-place match: Zachary Durbano (Weber) won by fall (4:00) over Justin Seeman (Big Piney)

195 DIVISION

First-place match: Payton Tucker (Green River) won by decision (4-3) over Gavin Simmons (Evanston)

Third-place match: Colter Freeze (Bear River) won by fall (1:45) over Jeff Guthrie (Spring Creek)

Fifth-place match: Dakota Stuart (Mountain View) won by fall (3:28) over Hunter Hood (Spring Creek)

220 DIVISION

First-place match: Dryden Menck (Lyman) won by fall (2:48) over Carson Bywater (Bear River)

Third-place match: Chandler Hill (Spring Creek) won by fall (1:42) over Logan Pond (Bear River)

Fifth-place match: Kadar Criddle (Pinedale) won by injury default (inj. 1:18) over Justin Rubalcaba (Green River) 

285 DIVISION

First-place match: Brady Briskey (Weber) won by fall (0.59) over Laramie Strong (Bear River) 

Third-place match: Cutter Foster (Rawlins) won by fall (2:13) over Asencion Pelham (Big Piney)

Fifth-place match: Braxton McGraw (Weber) won by fall (0.59) over Roy Collins (Lyman)

TEAM SCORES

1. Spring Creek 288.5

2. Bear River 222.0

3. Rock Springs 173.0

4. Green River 149.0

5. Evanston 96.0

6. Weber 91.0

7. Lyman 82.0

8. Kemmerer 80.0

9. Rawlins 60.0

10. Big Piney 52.0

11. Mountain View 49.0

12. Grantsville 37.0

13. Pinedale 30.0