Pirate wrestlers throw down

The Polson wrestling team sent varsity athletes to Bozeman while JV wrestlers stayed local to compete in the Mission Takedown Tournament in St. Ignatius. In Bozeman, the wrestlers placed two and took 13th as a team. At St. Ignatius, Polson placed three and no team score was awarded due to technical difficulties in scorekeeping.

At Bozeman, Polson placers were juniors Brock Picard and Kaden Thomas.

Picard took third at 171 pounds by beating a wrestler in the third/fourth place match he was plenty familiar with. The last time Picard met with Phillip Sutherland was in a match for the state championship. Picard won in Bozeman by a good margin of 9-4.

Polson head coach Bob Owen said Picard wasn’t satisfied with that win alone, as no previous state champion would be in a Montana tournament. Picard had wanted it all but was cut short when he lost in the semi-final overtime to a wrestler from Glasgow. Owen said Picard felt he hadn’t wrestled aggressive enough and believed Picard should have won the match in regulation.

But if Picard wasn’t going to take shots, his opponent did, and in the last seconds of the first overtime period that’s just what it happened. One takedown was all it took to beat Picard and cancel his hopes at a tournament title.

Thomas, coming an injury, was finally about 100 percent, Owen said.

This meant the former Alaskan third-placer would get his first healthy shot at a big tournament in the Big Sky state.

He ended up taking fourth for the heavyweight class.

Thomas also lost to a Glasgow competitor in the semi finals and then to another Glasgow wrestler in the third/fourth place match. Both losses came by pin in the second period.

Besides that Glasgow wrestlers had the Pirates’ number in Bozeman, Owens said another regret was that junior Ty Fouty didn’t take a prize.

“We were really hoping Ty would place,” Owen said.

Fouty went 3-2 at 145 pounds, with a loss to Ronan’s Micky Cheff, who had beat him before in the state tournament, and another to a state placer from Belgrade.

One wrestler who finished with the performance of the season was junior Logan Clay, who went 3-2, Owen said.

“Logan really wrestled the best he has all year,” Owen said.

Owen said he was pleased with the way his team handled what he called the “toughest tournament we’ve seen in the state this year.”

“We’ve made some progress. I’ll put it that way,” he said.

In Mission, his placers were: junior Jacob Browne, who took second for 125 pounds; freshman Brock Bleazard, who took third for 135 pounds; and sophomore Jose Quinonnes, who placed third for 160 pounds.

Owens was pleased to see Bleazard place after he just took third the Eureka tournament before the break.

The success of his JV wrestlers gives hope for the long run, especially since he’ll be able to take a couple extra guys into divisionals.

“It’s exciting that we have those JV’s placing in those tournaments. So hopefully we’ll have some of them scoring points for us in divisionals,” he said.

Polson wrestled against Whitefish on Tuesday and hosts Libby 6 p.m. tonight in Polson.

Then the team heads down to the Western Montana Duals tournament in Ronan on Friday and Saturday. Wrestling starts at 1 p.m. on Friday and 11 a.m. on Saturday.

Owen said it depends on the schedule, but he looks forward to meeting Ronan on the mats if it happens.

“We really do have a good rivalry. It’s good health y sport when we hit each other,” he said.

He also said the tournament format provides plenty of wrestling. Each wrestler should get at least four or five matches over two days, he said.