Pirates battle for third-place finish at state

Torgison, Morigeau and Picard win titles

Zach Urness, Leader Staff

Bryce Picard won his second state championship in as many years and Ted Morgieau and Logan Torgison won their first, as the Polson Pirates pounded their way to a third-place finish at the state championships in Billings last weekend.

“I was really happy with how our season ended,” said head coach Bob Owen. “We really peaked at the right time. We had trouble in duals because of all the forfeits, but I knew when we could add four wrestlers for the tournament we’d be on par with the teams that beat us in duals.”

Billy Johnson (145), Jared Champion (152) and Pat Dellwo (171) also took home titles as the Northwest A divisional champions finished with 147.5 points overall, finishing just 10 points behind second-place Frenchtown. It was Polson’s first top-three finish since 2005.

The Pirates bested Northwestern A foes Libby (5th place) and Ronan (6th place) and put the exclamation point on a season that was up and down for a large portion of the regular season. The battle in the A division was essentially for second place as Havre, considered the best team in the state in class A or AA, sprinted out to a very large lead and ended up with 239 points (second place Frenchtown had 157.5).

The Pirates were led in Billings by their three champions — Picard, Morigeau and Torgison. For Picard, a graduating senior, it was deja vu, although at a different weight class, as the former 189-pound champion earned another title at the 171. He beat Sidney’s Josh Moore with 4-1 decision win in the championship match.

“That was really nice to see,” said Owen. “He dominated the whole tournament, and then got a little conservative in the finals, but he did enough to win though. Getting two state championships is an outstanding accomplishment.”

Torgison, the only junior of the bunch and a runner-up at state last season, did not lose a match against a class A opponent all season. He didn’t exactly cruise through the competition at state, however, and many of his matches in the 135 class came with hard-fought wins, Owen noted.

“He actually had a rough tournament,” commented Owen. “All of his matches were tight. I think he might have been a little worried about making a mistake, and the competition was steeper as well.”

For Morigeau, who dominated his opponents all season in the 160 class, and came within striking distance of the Polson all-time pins record, a state championship seemed almost inevitable. Morigeau was a runner-up last year at state and was one of Polson’s senior leaders.

“I think that he established himself as one of the best wrestlers in the tournament,” said Owen of Morigeau. “He beat a very tough opponent {Libby’s Steve Bertelsen} for the third time which is very tough to do.”

Billy Johnson, also a senior, won a very closely contested match to get into the finals. Against Havre opponent Josh Hyde, Johnson found himself down 9-4, but in literally the last second of the match, Johnson pinned Hyde to advance to the finals.

“He was a little lucky to be in the finals,” commented Owen. “He got into trouble early in the finals though because of an illegal move that cost him five points.”

Jared Champion, another of the group of seniors, took home fifth place.

“He wrestled the best he has all season,” said Owen. “It was really nice to see him do well.”

Pat Dellwo rounded out the group of placers at state with a sixth place finish.

“He wrestled very well to get into the semi-finals,” said Owen. “He had an outstanding tourney.”

Conlin Benson didn’t place at this year’s state tournament, although he had been one of the best in his weight class all season.

“He got in a hole in his back match,” Owen said. “The matches were shorter and he just didn’t have time to get caught up.”

Graduation will be hard on the Pirates as they will lose Picard, Morigeau, Johnson, Champion and Dellwo. They will also bid farewell to Conlin Benson.

“We have a pretty good group of eighth graders coming up too, which should help us out,” Owen said.