Mission-Charlo wrestlers ready to make impact in Billings

The co-op group finished fifth as a team at the Divisionals, and according to Cronk, given the competitive landscape of the tournament, he felt his team “did well.”

“You know, we had a lot of good matches,” Cronk said. “Some would like to re-wrestle and the Divisional tournament never disappoints. It’s always good competition and it was supposed to be as advertised. There are five or six out of the top 10 schools in the state in our Divisional and that says a lot especially, for our younger wrestlers. Our team got 5th and they wrestled really tough.”

Mission-Charlo qualified five individuals for the Class B-C state tournament that will be held Thursday through Saturday in Billings. Robert Dempsey (103-pounds), Bailey Wieble (120-pounds), Trent Dennison (160), Gus Bosley (182), and Chris Anderson (285) all qualified to wrestle at the next level.

Cronk said his team has battled through multiple adversities all season with injuries, illnesses, and personal issues.

“We’ve had kids miss three out of the five weeks and when kids miss that much competition, that hurts,” Cronk said. “Recently, we’ve kind of gotten healthy and that has helped us the last two weeks of the season.”

Cronk said he is “looking forward” to the state tournament in Billings.

“The state tournament was really exciting and it’s a really neat state tournament that they host in an all-class tournament,” Cronk said. “The Metrodome is just about the perfect sized venue and has 12 mats. It’s big and not so big. That kind of keeps track of what is going on in each classification. You can see pretty well and it’s a good tournament. It’s a lot of fun and we are all looking forward to that.”

The following are wrestlers that qualified for the Class B-C tournament and Cronk’s assessment of how they qualified to advance to the tournament at the Western B-C Divisionals Saturday at Arlee High School.

Cronk said he felt his team just needs to “stay focused” as they prepare for state.

“We just wanted to focus on being in the best shape we possibly could be and they worked really hard on the conditioning and intensity,” Cronk said. “The kids worked really hard and I think it has paid off. It looks like we are in pretty good shape. We won some matches this weekend, and overcame adversity to show up and wrestle well. Even some of the wrestlers that didn’t make it through did a great job and wrestled hard. I am really proud of our team.”

Robert Dempsey, 103-pounds: 103-pounder Robert Dempsey was able to qualify for the finals and that allowed him to qualify for the Class B-C state tournament.

“When he made the finals that was a real high point for us,” Cronk said.

Bailey Wieble, 120: Mission-Charlo wrestler Bailey Wieble was able to qualify for the Class B-C Western State championship by taking fourth in Divisionals at the 120-pound division Saturday at Arlee High School.

According to Cronk, Wieble did a “good job” in what he referred to as a “tough classification.”

Darwin Adams, 132: Adams was able to place at the 132-pound division and qualify for the Western Class B-C state that begins Wednesday in Billings.

Trent Dennison, 160: Mission-Charlo’s Trent Dennison wrestled one of the most anticipated matches of the Divisionals against Plains-Hot Springs’s Kane Lawson.

“Trent wrestled a nearly perfect match and ended up beating him,” Cronk said. “Lawson hasn’t wrestled all season and ended up defeating him in the final.”

Gus Bosley, 182: Mission-Charlo wrestler Gus Bosley has been one of the team’s impact wrestlers all season and continued to be one of the top wrestlers in his weight class at Divisionals.

“Bosley wrestled outstanding and he has a pretty tough road in front of him,” Cronk said. “Going into the match, Graves (Eureka) was 33-0 and Gus had to make some changes in that match in order to beat him. You almost have to wrestle perfect and he made some mistakes in that match.”

Chris Anderson, 285: 285-pound wrestler Chris Anderson was able to avenge an early-season loss in the Western Class C-B Divisionals Saturday at Arlee High School.

“He beat a kid he lost to earlier and got his opportunity to go to state,” Cronk said. “That was outstanding for Chris. He finished fourth and he wrestled his best tournament of the year. That is pretty exciting for him.”