Wyoming
Mason Walters making strides at Wyoming men's hoops
LARAMIE, Wyo. — While former University of Jamestown standout Mason Walters’ debut for the University of Wyoming men’s basketball team was delayed, it was worth the wait.
“It was more so, just soak it in and being grateful for the opportunity,” Walters said. “I wasn’t able to play for so long, I couldn’t do stuff for a while. So, having that taken away, makes you appreciate it that much more. … I’m just very blessed to be in the position I am. I am in a great program and I have great teammates and coaches around me. So, I’m just keeping that in mind.”
Walters committed to the Cowboys program for his final year of eligibility on April 12 and was forced to miss the first 11 games of the 2023-24 season due to a thumb injury. Walters said he was officially cleared to return to game action on Monday, Dec. 18, and made his debut on Wednesday, Dec. 20, against South Dakota State University. He said Cowboys head coach Jeff Linder told him he would be in the starting lineup on Dec. 20, during a shootaround.
“In the first game, just I was pretty excited, excited to be out there, a little nervous it being the first game obviously,” Walters said. “I was really excited, it’s been a long time since I’ve played. It was good to be out there with my teammates.”
In his debut against the Jack Rabbits, Walters scored 12 points while grabbing three rebounds and blocking one shot. While he started the game slowly scoring two points in the first half, he picked it up in the second half dropping 10 points on 3-for-4 shooting. Walters said his slow start was attributable to the fact that his last game was on March 14, a span of 281 days. During the second half of the 78-65 win over the Jack Rabbits, there was a stretch of just under a minute where Walters was fouled, hit two free throws, grabbed a defensive rebound and made a 3-pointer.
“I got that first bucket of the second half against South Dakota State, I hit that three and kind of got rolling,” Walters said. “I got a couple stops defensively and felt comfortable and back to normal. So, right in that second half, there was when I felt like I really settled in and was comfortable from there.”
Walters said his parents, Amy and Marty, came down and saw him play his first two games. He said it was special to have them come down to El Paso, Texas, and watch him play.
“We remember the first time he was tipping off for UJ and we laughed about it because he was like a deer in the headlights there as a freshman for the first couple minutes for the first game,” Marty said. “After a while, he started fitting in, got up to speed, he made a couple mistakes. So, it’s a vastly different feeling now. He’s played so long and we know he’s confident in how to play and knows what to do. It was more just pride, anytime you get to watch your kid step on a court like that and the history and teams and the level of talent that’s out there, we’re just so happy for him, all the work he’s put in, you’re just proud as a parent.”
Walters and the Cowboys faced off against the University of Texas at El Paso in his second game. Heading into that game, Walters said he had a more relaxed mindset.
“I mean, just going in, and the same mindset of the game, like I said, being a good teammate, being aggressive and being assertive,” Walters said. “Ultimately it didn’t end the way we wanted it to obviously but just playing my game and being smart, going in there and like you said, a business approach.”
During the game against the Miners, Walters had 16 points on 5-for-8 shooting with three rebounds and two steals.
“I felt like to start the game I was being aggressive and picking my spots,” Walters said. “I got a lot of dribble downs and was able to find my teammates for some open threes and some cuts. I was able to make a couple moves to the basket, seeing a couple go down was nice. Obviously, I got into foul trouble, wish I had been a little bit smarter, hadn’t picked up a couple dumb fouls but that’s the way it goes sometimes, just learn from it and get better as the season goes on.”
When he thinks about what he’s done well through two games, Walters said he has learned how to find his spot within the team and find his shots on the offensive side of the floor.
Through the months that he has been a Cowboy, Walters said he has grown a tremendous amount on and off the floor. He said he is continuing to learn how to play the game like a professional athlete as he chases that dream. During his time off, Walters was spending time with his coaches studying film preparing for his inevitable return.
“Just understanding what my teammates like to get to or how they like to space the floor just helps me that much more when it comes to getting double-teamed and passing out of it,” Walters said. “So I think to be able to watch those clips and film with coach (Linder) has helped me a bunch. I’m gonna keep doing that and keep learning as much as I can because I want to keep getting better, I just want to be a sponge and soak up as much information as I can.”
During his career as a college basketball player, Walters has now played in 119 games at the NAIA level and two at the NCAA Division I level.
“Size is and athleticism is one of the biggest ones (differences between the levels),” Walters said. “I mean, I’ve been able to get up and down and we played really fast at Jamestown so in terms of the pace, it’s similar. The D1 might be a little faster but not by a long stretch, so it wasn’t too fast out there for me. I guess, just in terms of size and athleticism, the guards are a lot bigger and the posts are bigger so the biggest things are just size and athleticism I’d say.”
Walters and the Cowboys return to action on Saturday, Dec. 30, when they go to Brigham Young University. Walters said he is looking forward to coming home and seeing his family while still working out in town.
Wyoming
Opinion | Encampment River decision highlights the impact of climate change on Wyoming water law
Climate change has Wyoming industry maneuvering to guarantee access to water during dry years. An order issued by Wyoming’s state engineer, and challenged by Encampment River irrigators in a recent appeal, foreshadows how water law will respond as the planet gets hotter and drier.
The decision directly impacts the North Platte River basin but has statewide implications, particularly for the Green River and Little Snake River basins.
On Oct. 14, State Engineer Brandon Gephart approved the proposal of the Sinclair refinery near Rawlins to get water in very dry years from ranchland on the Grand Encampment River near the Colorado state line.
That new proposal is a response to climate change, which has had more drastic effects further west in the Colorado River Basin. Wyoming may have to reduce water consumption on the Green and Little Snake rivers to meet obligations to downstream Colorado River states. A trona company near Rock Springs has sent Gephart six requests like the proposal made by Sinclair.
The trona requests are on hold while awaiting Gephart’s decision in Carbon County. His decision there, with results on appeal, will set the guidelines for action on the trona proposals.
Sinclair bought an old ranch on the Encampment a couple of years ago and in 2023 filed its request to quit the ranch irrigation in very dry years and use the water at the refinery instead.
In June 2024 a crowd assembled at a public meeting with Gephart. Irrigators on the Encampment vehemently opposed the plan. Carbon County and Rawlins officials backed Sinclair, championing the economic value of the refinery and its need for a secure water supply.
The Encampment River is a tributary to the North Platte River, on which the refinery sits some 100 miles north. As on many streams in the Little Snake and Green River basins, Encampment irrigators’ water use is interdependent. Neighbors have developed a pattern of water use that largely works for them all, and they don’t welcome the change or new state supervision.
Neighboring ranchers on the Encampment complained to Gephart that under Sinclair’s plan they could no longer rely every year on using water that replenished the river in late summer. That water has returned slowly to the stream late in summer from the irrigated fields of the upstream ranch Sinclair now owns. The lost timing of that “return flow” is what the neighbors lamented.
Gephart’s decision makes it possible for that timing loss to occur only occasionally — in certain very dry years. If the oil company had simply sought to move the ranch water permanently to the refinery, the loss of “return flow” timing in late summer would have been permanent.
Starting 50 years ago, Wyoming water law has allowed permanent changes. An even older provision of state water law, encouraging “exchanges,” allows the refinery to use the Encampment ranch water in very dry years, Gephart ruled. That law requires the state engineer to avoid adverse effects on water users, harm to the public interest and exchanges too difficult to administer.
Gephart found the Sinclair exchange creates none of those problems. Yet three irrigators on the Encampment and North Platte claimed in their appeal that adverse effects and tough administration abound .
In an unusual move, Gephart wrote a public letter to accompany his official order, to explain the considerations that underlie his decision.
The very dry years he has defined as triggers for the Sinclair exchange have occurred in 20 percent of the years since 2002, he noted. In Wyoming’s “first in time, first in right” water right priority system, the refinery couldn’t use its own water rights in spring of those dry years and had to find older rights. The old water rights on the Encampment ranch that Sinclair bought now solve that problem and can serve the refinery in the very dry years under Gephart’s ruling, making refinery operations more secure.
Now, in the key dry years the refinery can still take water from the North Platte. In return the company would not irrigate its Encampment ranch at all in spring or summer. Encampment River water unused at the ranch would flow down the North Platte as “makeup” water, as required by Wyoming’s water exchange law.
An important factor Gephart cites is the company’s calculation of how much irrigation water the ranch has genuinely used — how much it has consumed — in the past. That dictates how much water must flow unused downstream from the Encampment in exchange years. It also allows an estimate of how much water the ranch has not consumed annually out of all the water it typically diverted from the river. In exchange years, Gephart ordered, that amount of water must be left in the Encampment River to mimic return flow for neighbors to use.
That does not fully address the neighbors’ complaints about losing the kind of return flows they have relied on. The water Gephart requires to remain in the Encampment River for neighbors approximates the amount of return flow water received in the past but does nothing for its timing. Most likely the volume he requires will be in the river in the early months of the irrigation season — but not late in the season.
The neighboring irrigators challenged the calculation of the amount of water that must remain in the river, and the failure to consider return flow timing. But the timing of return flows, and reliance on them, could be difficult to document, and Wyoming’s water statutes explicitly protect only the volume of return flows when water rights are changed. Nothing in water law says one neighbor can force another to continue irrigating.
Elsewhere in his order, Gephart required Sinclair to build specific infrastructure to ensure neighbors can get their water, regardless of activity on the Sinclair ranch. One neighbor (who has not joined the appeal) had complained that the company refused to commit to new infrastructure.
The appeal argues the Sinclair plan, analyzed as an unwelcome permanent change rather than an exchange, should go to the Board of Control. The board consists of the state engineer and the superintendents of Wyoming’s four geographic water divisions, people with considerable experience inspecting and assessing irrigation use. (The state engineer is recused from sitting on the board when a state engineer order is appealed, as in this case.)
Gephart earlier required Sinclair to file water right “cleanup” proposals with the Board of Control. Cleanup includes proof of past water consumption on the ranch — including proof of adequate past consumption to serve the new exchange. Cleanups are standard in places like the Encampment River, since actual use of old water rights in Wyoming often changes over decades, as streams move a little and ditches fall into disuse. Old water rights often require some work to be properly identified and nailed down to the current use, before new plans can be implemented.
Gephart provided that the Encampment cleanup must be done by fall 2029, and the exchange could be conditioned or revoked if past ranch water consumption is inadequate for the exchange.
Sinclair’s purchase of the old Encampment ranch and its exchange plan will, clearly, disturb familiar patterns of water use on the Encampment River. But it appears to avoid complete disruption of irrigation on the Encampment. Gephart apparently aimed to strike the right chord in the complicated balance between water users’ need for stable water access, and circumstances that demand change for the sake of all Wyoming’s society.
The irrigator appeal cast the exchange as major disruption and argued vehemently against the choice Gephart has made.
Wyoming water law has accommodated change over its 135 years as small cities and a significant minerals industry grew where irrigation once dominated water use. Refinery operations on the North Platte and irrigation on the tributary Encampment River have co-existed for some 100 years. Workers at the refinery include some from Encampment-area families.
Now, the climate is changing, and the old accommodation is challenged. The problem of balancing water rights stability and changing circumstances has come home to people on the Encampment. Gephart’s decision sought to set some guidelines for proposals made to handle climate change. Once the appeal is addressed, whatever balance is ultimately struck on Sinclair will next ripple into the Green and the Little Snake.
Wyoming
Cal State Fullerton’s comeback bid falls short against Wyoming
FULLERTON — The Cal State Fullerton men’s basketball team erased most of a 19-point second half deficit but could not complete the comeback in a 73-69 loss to Wyoming on Sunday afternoon at Titan Gym.
Fullerton (4-9 overall, 0-2 Big West) trailed 50-31 early in the second half before going on a 16-4 run to get back into the game. The Titans held Wyoming (7-5) without a field goal for nearly eight minutes during that stretch, and Zion Richardson capped the run with a 3-pointer to get Fullerton within eight points with 10:33 left.
The Titans chipped away from there.
A Richardson 3-pointer cut the visitors’ lead to 69-63 with 1:55 remaining, then followed a Wyoming 3-point miss with a layup to cut the margin to four with 1:16 left. After another Wyoming miss from behind the arc, Fullerton cut the margin to two points on a pair of Donovan Oday free throws with 37 seconds left.
Wyoming’s Obi Agbim was fouled driving to the rim and made a pair of free throws with 10 seconds left for a 71-67 lead, then Oday made two more free throws with 7.3 seconds left to make it a two-point game again.
Kobe Newton, a Portland, Oregon product who helped Fullerton College win a CCCAA state championship during his two seasons there, then made two free throws with 4.3 seconds left to help Wyoming hold on.
Oday led Fullerton with 18 points on 4-of-8 shooting while grabbing five rebounds. Kaleb Brown had 11 points, five rebounds and three assists, while Zachary Visentin added a career-high 11 points on 5-for-5 shooting and Richardson also scored 11.
Fullerton’s bench was a key factor all night, out-scoring Wyoming’s reserves 29-18.
Newton scored 20 points to pace the Cowboys. The senior shooting guard made his first six shots of the game and finished 6 for 9 from the field (5 for 8 from 3-point range) while making all three of his free throws. Agbim scored 16 points, and Touko Tainamo added 13 points on 5-for-6 shooting.
Fullerton led 22-20 with seven minutes left in the first half, but Wyoming finished the half on a 12-2 run for a 39-29 advantage at the intermission. The Cowboys then used an 8-0 run to open their 50-31 lead with 17:07 left in the second half.
Fullerton finished with a 34-22 advantage in points in the paint and a 13-5 advantage in fast-break points.
UP NEXT
Fullerton will host NCCAA program Nobel (of Los Angeles) on Saturday at 2 p.m. in its final nonconference matchup.
Originally Published:
Wyoming
Inside The Making Of Wyoming Whiskey’s Tribute To Yellowstone National Park
Each year since 2021, Wyoming Whiskey has released a special edition bottle to highlight America’s national parks, and naturally, particularly those in the state of Wyoming.
The company recently announced the release of its fourth limited edition whiskey in the brand’s annual National Parks Series: the National Parks No. 4 Straight Bourbon Whiskey—Mammoth Hot Springs. This bourbon honors Yellowstone National Park and aims to support its preservation efforts through a collaboration with the official nonprofit partner, Yellowstone Forever.
“The straight bourbon whiskey celebrates Yellowstone, a place of natural wonder boasting half of the world’s known hydrothermal features, including Mammoth Hot Springs,” says David DeFazio, Wyoming Whiskey’s co-founder and National Brand Ambassador in a Zoom interview. “This ever-changing system of travertine terraces has been formed over thousands of years, and the National Parks No. 4 release is a tribute to the park’s unique and evolving landscape.”
Whitney Brunner, partnerships manager at Yellowstone Forever Partnerships Manager, emphasizes the importance of this collaboration, which has so far resulted in $150,000 in donations to support conservation initiatives within the park.
“The work is multi-faceted, scientific and dependent on philanthropic funding,” says Brunner.
Climate change presents serious challenges for the American whiskey industry, impacting weather patterns and the availability of raw materials. Rising temperatures and unpredictable rainfall affect the growth of essential grains like corn and barley, potentially leading to shortages and higher costs. Additionally, warmer conditions can speed up the aging process in barrels, altering flavor profiles and reducing the ideal maturation time. As these environmental changes affect the landscape and local wildlife, whiskey producers may need to adapt by sourcing grains from new regions or adjusting aging techniques to maintain product consistency.
The already extreme climate of Wyoming plays a crucial role in the maturation process of Wyoming Whiskey’s products. During the summer, temperature swings of over 55 degrees within a single day influence the maturation of each cask. The barrels breathe in and out dramatically during these temperature fluctuations, allowing the whiskey to interact more intensely with the wood. This process shapes the final character of the spirit, making it uniquely reflective of Wyoming’s climate.
“Wyoming’s environment is tough on the people, but good for the whiskey,” DeFazio says.
One of the key projects funded through this partnership is the restoration of Yellowstone’s native fish species, such as the Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout. Brunner explains that native fish are vital to the park’s ecosystem, serving as a crucial food source for many species, including bears, otters and birds of prey.
Brendan Cook, Wyoming Whiskey’s master blender, draws a parallel between the formation of the park’s natural terraces and the bourbon aging process.
“Mammoth Hot Springs, with its tiered formations and layers of mineral deposits, mirrors the aging process of bourbon, where time and nature intricately shape the final character,” Cook says.
The complex interaction between spirit, wood and the surrounding environment during the aging process contributes to the bourbon’s distinct flavor profile. Like the hot springs, the bourbon evolves over time, developing layers of flavor as it matures. Aged for a minimum of five years, the National Parks No. 4 whiskey offers a blend of flavors such as vanilla, candied ginger, crème caramel and honeysuckle.
Over 70 barrels were carefully selected for the National Parks No. 4 release, with each barrel chosen from specific areas within the warehouse to create layers of flavor. The team’s attention to detail in the blending process ensures that each bottle of National Parks No. 4 bourbon captures the essence of Wyoming’s natural landscape and the park it honors.
In addition to the Mammoth Hot Springs release, Wyoming Whiskey has also launched a new expression called Old Faithful. This marks the first-ever release of a 10-year wheated bourbon from Wyoming Whiskey. DeFazio explains that while previous 10-year editions included rye bourbon, this release pays homage to the vision of the founders and the original master distiller, who aimed to create “the next great wheated bourbon.”
Looking ahead, Wyoming Whiskey intends to continue its focus on conservation efforts through future projects in the National Parks Series. DeFazio emphasizes the importance of these releases in shaping the brand’s legacy.
“National Parks No. 4 reflects Wyoming Whiskey’s commitment to the people, efforts and foundations that help protect and maintain our national parks,” he says.
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