Arlee grapples Holiday Classic in Great Falls

GREAT FALLS - The Arlee Warriors competed this past weekend at

the 40 Team CMR Holiday Classic Wrestling Tournament in Great

Falls. Arlee's Cole Rice finished the tournament in third place in

the 145 pound weight class as the only placer for the Warriors in

the 32 man bracketed double-elimination tournament.

GREAT FALLS - The Arlee Warriors competed this past weekend at the 40 Team CMR Holiday Classic Wrestling Tournament in Great Falls. Arlee's Cole Rice finished the tournament in third place in the 145 pound weight class as the only placer for the Warriors in the 32 man bracketed double-elimination tournament.

Rice pinned his way into the semi-final match by defeating Chase Costello of Bozeman with a 1:05 pin.

He then defeated Ethan Reich of Anaconda with a 35 second pin, and in the quarter-final match pinned Ben Clark of Helena Capital in 1:47. Rice's only loss in the tournament came in the semifinal where he match-up with Dylan Mendenhall of Great Falls High. In this match Cole was leading the match 1- 0 until the last few seconds when Mendenhall got a takedown and two points near-fall to win the match 4-1.

Cole then rebounded from the loss to defeat Dilan Starkle of Dillon (previously of Ronan) in a 10-1 major decision.

Then in the consolation final match he defeated Grant Tafoya of Glacier High School with a technical fall 15-0 decision.

Other wrestlers who almost made the medal round in the tournament were Clayton Trimble at 171 pounds. Trimble lost his first match, received a bye, then came back to defeat Sam Smith of Glasgow High School in a 8-6 decisions before losing his next match to Matt Merenz of Dillon in a 14-13 decision.

Cameron Dominick of the Warriors wrestling at 130 pounds also lost his first match to No. 4 seed Tate Morgan of Billings Sky View, then in the Consolation he defeated Tanner Erickson of Helena High School in a 10-8 decision before being eliminated from the tournament. Curt Seidel of Arlee at 215 pounds defeated Tyler Wanner of CMR in the first round with a 3:24 pin in the second round, then was defeated by Shea Schlosser of Helena High School by fall in the first round and Bryce Watterud of Conrad.

The Warriors then sent everyone who had been eliminated from the CMR Holliday Classic tournament over to the Great Falls High School field house to participate in the junior varsity tournament. It sounds easy, but it was a 16 man double elimination tournament.

There are past state champions and state placers in the junior varsity tournament because they have been beaten in the Varsity tournament.

Wrestling well on the other side were Cameron Dominick 2nd, Zach Tameler 2nd, Carter Clinkenbeard 3rd, Albert Plant 2nd, Clayton Trimble 2nd, and Curt Seidel 3rd.

The Warriors will wrestle on Tuesday evening in Thompson Falls this week, then take a break until after Christmas.