Pirates fourth at home tourney

POLSON — The Pirates hosted the Polson Invitational last weekend where it took fourth place, four points above fifth-place Corvallis.

All the Polson wrestling team needs now is experience.

“We just need some seasoning,” head coach Bob Owen said. “The whole team competed real hard.”

Four Pirates finished in the top-four in their weight classes. These grapplers all did really well, Owen said.

Junior Jacob Young won the 135-weight class. He got two pins and a tech-cfall to get into the finals, where he beat Superior’s Garrett Stephens 4-2.

“Up to that point, he was pretty dominant,” Owen said.

Last year, Young took third at divisionals and was one match away from placing at state.

Senior Ty Fouty came in second in the 152 class in a triple overtime battle against Glacier’s Riley Pisk on  a right out.

“The kid got away from Ty a couple times,” Owen said.

Fouty won his first three matches by ten points.

In the heavyweight bout, senior Kaden Thomas took third by pinning Glacier’s Joel Horn, going 4-1 in the tournament.

He won his first match by ten before winning his second and losing his third. He rallied to come back and won his next match by ten.

“He wrestled fairly well,” Owen said.

Freshman Craig Feistner also took third place, beating Flathead’s Jake Kinkle in the 105 weight class.

“We were really pleased with him,” Owen said.

Feistner won by 10 in his first match but lost 706 in his second.

“He lost a real tight one,” Owen said.

He wrestled his way into the consolation match and won 5-3.

Overall, Owen said the team is a little less far along than he would have liked at this point but he isn’t worried.

“We have some work to do,” he said.

The Pirates traveled to Libby on Tuesday night. Results were unavailable at press time.

“Libby is always tough,” Owen said. “It seems like we have a hard time winning in that gym.”

This weekend, Polson will compete at the Mining City Duels in Butte where many of the AA teams are entered.

“It is a difficult tournament,” Own said. “We’re doing it for the experience.”