Chiefs take home ninth-place finish at CMR Holiday Classic

GREAT FALLS — Competing against over 30 other schools, the Chiefs left the CMR Holiday Classic in Great Falls on Saturday with a ninth-place finish at the two-day event.

GREAT FALLS — Competing against over 30 other schools, the Chiefs left the CMR Holiday Classic in Great Falls on Saturday with a ninth-place finish at the two-day event.

Class AA Great Falls took home the the tournament title with 243 points. Of the Class B-C programs in attendance, Ronan finished with the third-highest point total (112.5) behind Forsyth (179, fourth) and Choteau (133.5, eighth).

The Chiefs had two wrestlers place at the event, as Shelby Grant took second in the 171-pound division and Colby Roberts claimed third at 189 pounds.

Grant took on Choteau’s Jake French in the title match, falling by pinfall to French at 3 minutes and 12 seconds.

En route to his championship match berth, Grant pinned Great Falls’ Nate Williams in 44 seconds in the Friday’s quarterfinals, and dropped Lewistown’s Ethan Blythe 8-7 in the semifinals.

Roberts, meanwhile, took on Rob Klingaman of Chinook in the consolation final, coming away with the victory after pinning his opponent in 2:31.

Prior to that, Roberts pinned (2:53) Forsyth’s Cody Lawson in the quarterfinals on Friday before losing a close 8-5 decision to Havre’s Grant Pattison in the semis Saturday.

The Chiefs had four other grapplers reach the quarterfinal round on Friday in Cole Snyder, Chase Rhine, Brandon Dumont and Quentin Denton.

Snyder, 112 pounds, was pinned by Havre’s Dylan Stewart in 1:47 in his match, while Rhine, 125 pounds, lost a 13-3 decision to Helena’s Landon Bailey.

Both Dumont (130) and Denton (160) lost their matches by narrow decisions, with Dumont falling 6-1 to J.J. Werdal of Choteau and Denton losing 6-0 to Great Falls’ Cody Henderson.

Ronan will hit the mats again on Dec. 20, when it hosts Noxon, Florence and Deer Lodge for a quad mixer. The event starts at 6:30 p.m.