Wyoming
Cowgirls thrash Broncos 79-45
LARAMIE, Wyo. — The Wyoming Cowgirls put together a dominant performance Saturday afternoon, as they played arguably their most-complete game of the season in a 79-45 romp over Boise State.
Allyson Fertig and Emily Mellema both scored 22 points in the rout, and the 34-point margin of victory is the most for ever the Cowgirls against Boise State.
The two strong defensive teams flexed their defensive prowess to begin the contest as Wyoming got five of the first six hoops of the game to take an early 10-2 lead. Boise State responded, however, cutting the score down to 10-7. Following a timeout, Fertig scored six points and Kati Ollilainen added a spinning layup to fall to push the UW advantage back up to 18-7.
After a Mellema coast-to-coast steal-and-score, the Wyoming lead was 20-7 after one quarter of play. The Cowgirls’ first 24 points from field goals all came inside the paint Saturday.
After UW got the first hoop of the second quarter, the two teams started trading scores. As the quarter began to wear on, turnovers began to hurt Wyoming’s efficient offense. Back to back layups got the lead up to 15, at 32-17, with a little over three minutes left in the half.
The swarming Cowgirl defense and back-to-back 3-pointers from Malene Pedersen and Mellema forced a Boise State timeout with just under two minutes remaining in the quarter as UW’s lead grew to 38-20. Wyoming led 38-21 at the break.
The Cowgirls’ efficient offense continued to open the second half as they ogt up by as many as 21 to open the third quarter. After a McKinley Dickerson layup, Boise State called a timeout with about six and a half minutes left in the third as the Wyoming lead ballooned to 46-25. After the timeout, the Cowgirl onslaught continued as they led by 26 after a Dickerson 3-pointer.
The deficit remained relatively unchanged to open the fourth quarter as the Cowgirls led 63-36 with under seven minutes to play. After a pair of pull-up jumpers from Emily Mellema and then a three from the senior, the Wyoming advantage surpassed the 30-point mark.
Mellema’s personal run reached nine-straight, and was then followed by a Fertig layup that capped the incredible game for the Cowgirls. The Brown & Gold led 76-38 when the reserves came in for the final 3:45.
“I think this is one of the best games we’ve played as far as stringing together four quarters,” head coach Heather Ezell said. “I think that’s some of the best execution I’ve seen from us, defensive-wise. But really, on both ends, that was some pretty good basketball we put together for 40 minutes.”
Wyoming shot 55.6% from the floor and hit four of 11 from 3-point range. Boise State shot a season-low 30.5% and went just one of eight from beyond the arc.
In addition to their 22 points each, Fertig and Mellema combined to shoot 19-of-27 from the floor. Mellema had four steals defensively, while Fertig pulled down 17 rebounds in the win. Pedersen closed the game with 15 points and five assists, while Ola Ustowska and Tess Barnes had six and four assists, respectively.
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CASPER, Wyo. — High school athletics in Wyoming could see some drastic changes in the coming years following legislative changes to the state’s education budget, the Wyoming High School Activities Association recently announced in a statement.
According to the WHSAA, Wyoming school districts are facing a projected $3.9 million shortfall in activities funding, forcing officials to consider significant cuts to high school sports and extracurricular programs.
The WHSAA shared details regarding a new “silo” funding model implemented by the Legislature, stating that the recalibrated block grant model reduced funding for student activities and extra-duty responsibilities from $46.3 million to $42.4 million, an approximately 8.4% decrease statewide.
WHSAA Commissioner Trevor Wilson said the restructuring also restricts district access to an additional $76.2 million in previously flexible funding.
“A significant portion of the [April 28 WHSAA Board of Directors] meeting was dedicated to discussing the projected funding shortfall,” Wilson wrote.
The WHSAA is weighing several strategies to address rising costs with fewer resources. Proposed changes include eliminating regional tournaments and reducing the number of teams qualifying for state events from eight to four; limiting wrestling to two classes and restricting track and field state participants to the top 16 marks; making cuts to soccer, indoor track and field, Nordic and Alpine skiing, swimming and diving, spring golf and tennis; and reducing in-person speech and debate events by half and centrally locating All-State Music events to minimize travel. The board also recommended increasing gate admission or implementing student participation fees to offset costs.
While the WHSAA release states that no plans have been finalized and the various changes are currently just possibilities, Natrona County School District 1 Board of Trustees member Mary Schmidt criticized the WHSAA’s handling of the news at Monday’s board meeting.
“I take some issues with this, [including] the sheer fact that we as Board of Trustees members have not talked about that at all,” Schmidt said. “It is not our intent and it has not been brought to us to cut our athletics or activities budget for the upcoming school year. … I take issue with them picking sports and getting the community upset and ginning them up to be upset that this is all going to be cut when that hasn’t been discussed.”
Later in the meeting, Superintendent Angela Hensley clarified that Natrona County School District 1’s athletics and activities budget saw a reduction of roughly $550,000 in the coming year’s budget, but said the local school district does not plan to cut any sports.
“Thank you, Trustee Schmidt, for saying this, because I think people are wondering — we are not planning to cut athletics and activities for next year,” Hensley said. “We do have to take a look at our entire budget as we have talked about, as we learn more about these new rules that come in.”
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Republished with permission from Wyoming News Now, a TV news outlet covering the Cheyenne and Casper areas.
Cheyenne City Council has introduced a temporary moratorium, or pause, on new data center construction.
“The end goal is to actually have regulations in place, to have really heavy public involvement with this with data centers,” said Councilman Mark Moody.
The proposed ordinance is not a permanent ban on data centers and would not affect data centers currently under construction.
Councilman Moody says this is a bipartisan issue.
“I just want to make this clear, I’m not against data centers. We do need them from a national security perspective,” he said.
He said there needs to be more public input and regulations regarding data centers in Cheyenne.
The ordinance would require city staff to study data center impacts such as electricity usage, electricity tariffs, closed-loop cooling systems, groundwater impacts, agricultural impacts, and land value.
Cheyenne LEADS, the economic development corporation for Cheyenne and Laramie County, reported in November 2025 that there are 12 operational data centers in Wyoming, five under construction and plans for 43 data centers announced across the state.
“There needs to be more public input with this, and also to see how many we can sustain here in this community, cause there are talks of 43, and then another day 70. How many can we sustain here?” said Councilman Moody.
The proposed moratorium will now go to the Public Services Committee on Monday, May 18 at noon in the Municipal Building.
Sheridan will play in the North Regional Tournament at Gillette, while the South Regional Tournament will be played at Rock Springs.
North Regional Tournament at Gillette:
Checking record vs. highest team in the quadrant not involved in the tie, Thunder Basin gets the #1 Northeast seed over Campbell County, because the Lady Bolts went 3-1 vs. Sheridan, whereas the Lady Camels went 2-2.
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 NE) Thunder Basin vs. (#4 NW) Jackson – 11am
(#2 NW) Natrona County vs. (#3 NE) Sheridan – 11am
(#2 NE) Campbell County vs. (#3 NW) Kelly Walsh – 1pm
(#1 NW) Cody vs. (#4 NE) Worland – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Thunder Basin/Jackson winner vs. Natrona County/Sheridan winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh winner vs. Cody/Worland winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Thunder Basin/Jackson loser vs. Natrona County/Sheridan loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh loser vs. Cody/Worland loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
South Regional Tournament at Rock Springs:
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 SW) Laramie vs. (#4 SE) Torrington – 11am
(#2 SE) Cheyenne East vs. (#3 SW) Green River – 11am
(#2 SW) Rock Springs vs. (#3 SE) Wheatland – 1pm
(#1 SE) Cheyenne Central vs. (#4 SW) Cheyenne South – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Laramie/Torrington winner vs. Cheyenne East/Green River winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Rock Springs/Wheatland winner vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Laramie/Torrington loser vs. Cheyenne East/Green River loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Rock Springs/Wheatland loser vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
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