Plant, Rubel place in top 4 at Cascade

CASCADE — Arlee sent five wrestlers to compete at the 20-team Cascade Invitational on Friday and Saturday, putting together a solid show with two placers and three coming just one win away from placing.

CASCADE — Arlee sent five wrestlers to compete at the 20-team Cascade Invitational on Friday and Saturday, putting together a solid show with two placers and three coming just one win away from placing.

Competing at 160 pounds for the Warriors, Albert Plant wrestled his way to the championship match before being pinned by Choteau’s Cole Werdal in 4 minutes and 32 seconds, giving him a second-place finish on the day.

“He had some really good matches,” Arlee head coach Ken Hill said.

The team’s other top four finish came from Austin Rubel, who brought home a fourth-place finish in the 145-pound division.

“He wrestled good all the way through,” Hill said.

However, an injury prevented Rubel from being able to face off against Fairfield’s Joel Graf, who captured third place by default.

While the injury wasn’t serious, Hill said he didn’t want to risk anything in just the first tournament of the season.

“He tweaked his knee a little bit and its too early in the season, so I pulled him out of the consolation match,” Hill said.

Meanwhile, Daniel Dunlop (130), as well as freshmen Alex Bertollt (160) and Calvin Hendren (285) needed just one more win to place in their respective weight classes.

Dunlop went 2-2 on the day, as did Hendren, while Bertollt finished 3-2.

Though the Warriors did not have their whole team competing due to some wrestlers not having enough practices, Hill said he was pleased with what he saw from his team in their season-opening tournament,

“I thought the kids wrestled really well,” Hill said. “It was the first weekend out of the gates and they were tough.”

Hill wasn’t just watching his wrestlers at the tournament, however, as most of the competition was from Class B-C schools that they might encounter later on.

He said he was able to do what he calls “active scouting.”

“We got to see a lot of the teams from the Northern division and the Southern division at the tournament,” Hill said. “It gave us better idea of where we need to be as an individual and as a team to wrestle those guys.”

Arlee will next host Noxon, Florence and Deer Lodge in a dual meet on Dec. 6. The meet will start at 6 p.m.