Des Moines, Iowa – On March 28 two Niobrara County wrestlers, Nathan Fish and Colton Coffman boarded the bus for the AAU National Middle School Dual tournament in Des Moines, Iowa. The boys qualified for the national tournament during the middle school state tournament in Thermopolis. Each placed in the top two in their weight class in the state in order to make a spot on the Wyoming middle school team. As their parents, fans and fellow wrestlers from the Lusk Rawhide Wrestling Team waited back home these two young men weighed in on the evening of March 29 and both made weight into their brackets of in the 75-pound class for Fish and the 95-pound class for Coffman.

Saturday, March 30 opened with their first matches at 8 a.m. Both boys won their first round Wyoming vs. Tennessee. Coffman took his match with a pin and Fish in points for a 3-2 victory. Matches for the day played out with Coffman winning his other four rounds and finishing the day with a total of 4 pins, a point match of 4-8 for five wins, no losses. Fish came through the day with two pins and two point victories of 7-4 and 1-0. Each of the boys finished the first day of matches with a 5-0 record guaranteeing them a medal. Their matches Sunday would determine placing.

March 31 found both boys fighting hard for their medal placing. Fish won all three matches with pins for a final record of 8-0 for a Gold Medal All American placing. Coffman lost his first match of the day but didn’t go down easy taking it all the way to triple overtime. His next match was won on a pin and final match was a 9-0 point victory for a final record of 7-1 for a Silver Medal All American placing.