Jimmy Dees had a weekend to remember in Riverton on Jan. 26 and 27, as the senior 215-pound Panther wrestler won the Ron Thon Memorial while earning his 100th win in the process after a semifinal victory.

“It was something that I wanted to do last year. It was a difficult bracket last year, something that I went into this year’s Ron Thon and was like ‘I can win,’” Dees said. “To be able to accomplish that it means a lot to me, I had my first varsity win in Riverton so to win Ron Thon three years later is pretty special to me.”

Heading into this season, Dees has changed up his approach in matches after dealing with a shoulder injury that has lingered since the state semifinal match last February when he dislocated his shoulder.

“The biggest thing has been no double leg shots for me,” Dees said. “I have a brace that holds my arm in place, and all I can do is single legs and cradles. It has been a different gameplan, it’s been kind of hard to adjust but I have great coaches and a great team that support me. I think I’m doing alright with the cards I’ve been dealt.”

Heading into this season with his prior injury, Dees was uncertain the amount of matches he would be able to wrestle but had his eyes set on 18 victories this season to reach 100.

He defeated Ian Dickinson of Rock Springs in the semifinals with a pin in 2:23, earning win No. 100 before earning the title in the championship match.

“I looked at it last year and I thought I might be able to hit 100 wins in my career. Not knowing how much I was going to wrestle this year due to my injury and stuff I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to hit it. I saw that I needed 18 wins this season to hit 100 and it just so happened that my semifinal match was my 100th,” Dees said.

He said that the decision of where he has wrestled this year has been tactical — not wrestling much in Montana so not risking further injury while keeping everything steady so that he doesn’t get injured in any other way.

This year the Panther team has continually shown growth throughout the season, with Dees happy with the progress so far with teammates he has wrestled with his whole life.

“These are the guys I have wrestled with since I was really young,” Dees said. “They have done great to improve. I am really proud of them and I want to see us bring home some hardware at state because I think we really can.”