Cheyenne East junior 132-pounder Blaze Cress will be making his third consecutive championship appearance tonight. He’ll face Sheridan’s Clay Carter, who was second at 125 pounds a year ago and has spent most of this season ranked No. 1 at 132. Carter bested Cress 5-2 in the 4A East Regional final last weekend.

Cress was the state runner-up at 119 pounds last season and 103 pounds as a freshman. Both of those losses came to Gillette’s Lukas Poloncic, who will wrestle for the 138-pound title tonight.

Cress is 25-10 after Friday, but this hasn’t been the easiest season for him.

He’s spent parts of this season on the shelf due to a pair of left leg injuries. He injured his left during practice his freshman year, then he re-aggravated the injury riding saddle broncs this past summer. The injury required surgery. To make matters worse, he also sprained his left ankle during practice early on this season.

Those injuries kept him in and out of the lineup. While the injuries sidelined him, there were times when first-year East coach Thad Trujillo would sit Cress for a dual or tournament here or there just to give him some rest. The injuries and time off cost Cress his usual level of fitness and he often found himself exhausted near the ends of matches and suffered a few uncharacteristic losses as a result.

“It was really frustrating because we have such a good team and everyone was doing so good, but I was stuck watching from the sideline,” Cress said. “I tried to take advantage of my opportunities when I could. I think I’ve been wrestling my best since (Riverton’s) Ron Thon tournament.”

Let’s get it over with
If it was up to Cheyenne Central senior 220-pounder Rafer Cooley, the finals would be wrestled first thing in the morning.

“I hate waiting,” he said. “The wait (Friday) between the quarterfinals and semifinals was horrible. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like (today). I’d much rather wakeup, weigh in and just get it over with.”

Familiar face
Central sophomore Bryce Meredith will be going for his second state championship tonight. He’ll be doing it against a wrestler he’s fairly familiar with — East junior 113-pounder Tanner Wickham.

Meredith has pinned Wickham in both of their meetings this season.

“It’s pointing toward me, but anything can happen at state and I have to be on my toes,” said Meredith, who was the 4A champ at 103 pounds last winter. “I’m still pretty nervous for it.”

Added Wickham: “I’m just going to lay it all on the line and see what happens.”

Up from the bottom
Cheyenne South sits last in the 12-team Class 4A field after the first day of the state tournament. The Bison — who are making their first appearance in 4A after two seasons in the 3A field — have nine points, while 11th-place Laramie has 23.5.

The good news for South is that it still has nine of its 12 entrants alive in the wrestlebacks. The Bison were fifth out of six at the 4A East Regional last week. I wouldn’t be surprised if they find a way to get out of the cellar today.

That’s what coach Howard Wakkinen is hoping for.

“We expect to go out and win some matches first thing (today) and try to get some momentum going,” he said. “We’re noticing a pattern: When the first one or two guys win, the other guys see it and they have confidence going into their matches. When those first couple of guys lose, it puts doubt in our other guys’ minds.

“We just want our kids to go out and wrestle hard and wrestle the way they know how.”