(Riverton, WY) – Wrestlers Santiago Piplica and Esai Littleshield brought home the Triple Crown from Powell for the Riverton USA Wrestling club this past weekend.
Piplica and Littleshild with ten other Riverton wrestlers represented the club at the March 12-13 tournament that had all three wrestling styles: Folkstyle, Freestyle, and Greco.
Wrestlers are named a Triple Crown winner by winning in all three styles – a feat Piplica and Littleshield accomplished.
“Piplica wrestles hard and smart. Tiago is very disciplined,” said Jamey Kirkland, an assistant Riverton USA coach for the 10U wrestlers. “What he puts out in practice is what he earns in tournaments and it shows.”
“Esai is a leader for our club mentoring our younger wrestlers,” said Keith Smith, head coach.
The twelve wrestlers represented Riverton in the age divisions 6U-14U, male and female. The team took 7th in Folkstyle, 6th in Greco and 5th in Freestyle.
Folkstyle placing, in individual weight brackets, as follows:
- 6U: Merritt Evans (62-66#) 1st, Salvidor Piplica (36-40#) 3rd, Emmitt Coughanour (36-40lbs#) 4th
- 8U: Owen Coughanour (49#) 4th
- 10U: Santiago Piplica (56#) 1st, Collin Thompson (63#) 5th, Aiden Apodaca (93#) 2nd
- 12U: Lexington Kirkland (92#) 2nd
- 14U: Esai Littleshield (250#) 1st, Ares Smith (92#) 3rd, Autumn Osborne (106#) 3rd, Weston McLaughlin (110#) 3rd
Greco placing:
- 6U: Santiago Piplica 1st
- 10U: Collin Thompson 2nd, Aiden Apodaca 2nd
- 14U: Esai Littleshied 1st, Ares Smith 3rd
Freestyle placing:
- 6U: Salvidor Piplica 1st, Merritt Evans 1st
- 10U: Santiago Piplica 1st, Collin Thompson 2nd, Aiden Apodaca 2nd
- 14U: Ares Smith 4th, Esai Littleshield 1st
The Riverton USA Wrestling club continues to have nightly practices Monday-Friday in preparation for the upcoming tournaments.
The team looks forward to another three-style tournament “King of the Rock” in Glenrock this coming weekend.
