Four local wrestlers place at Jug Beck Classic

by John Heglie

Special to the Leader

This past weekend in Missoula, Mission Valley wrestling teams from Ronan and Polson competed in the 38th annual Jug Beck Rocky Mountain Classic in Missoula at Sentinel High School. 

The Rocky Mountain Classic is one of the bigger meets in the latter part of the regular schedule, attracting teams from eastern Washington and Idaho. In the team scoring, Ronan placed 21st, while Polson was in 23rd place.

At the individual level, both teams had a pair of grapplers advance to the placement rounds. For the Ronan Chiefs, Hunter Peterson at 113 and Cole Snyder at 138 made the semifinal round, but got knocked back into consolation. Snyder would finish fourth, while Peterson would place sixth. 

The Polson Pirates also had a pair of wrestlers compete in the placement rounds. Mike Corrigan at 205 and Parker Adler at 120 made the quarterfinal round, after which both placed eighth. Polson also had one other wrestler advance as far as the quarterfinals in senior Tele Seemann at 170, but he was just shy of competing in a placement match.

Ronan will compete in a trio of road quads this week with the Bigfork Quad on Jan. 22, the Eureka Quad on Friday and the Plains Quad on Saturday.  The Polson Pirate wrestlers hit the mats once again on Jan. 23 at Columbia Falls.

MatCats edge Pirate grapplers

This past Thursday in Polson, the host Pirate grapplers and the visiting MatCats of Columbia Falls squared off in a conference clash in which the visitors prevailed in the team scoring.  Columbia Falls has seven returning state placers. Despite the formidable opposition, the Pirates turned in some exceptional performances. Veterans Tele Seemann and Mike Corrigan pinned their opponents. Both freshman Cameron Brown and Parker Adler prevailed over fourth place state placers last season, Adler by decision and Brown by pin. Colton Cote at 152 also pinned a third place state finisher. Also showing improvement is Noah Humphrey at 160, who went the distance all three rounds although he would lose out by major decision.

At St. Ignatius this past Thursday, the visiting Ronan Chief wrestlers got the better of their cross-county counterparts in this matchup rescheduled from last week on account of inclement weather.  Mission-Charlo received a trio of pins from Trent Dennison, Gus Bosley and Ethan-Goss Dickie, but it wasn’t enough to offset the numerical advantage of the other weight classes that also included some forfeits. 

Choteau Classic

 This past weekend, the Mission-Charlo and Arlee wrestling teams competed at the Choteau Classic. Host Choteau won the event outright, but the Mission-Charlo Bulldogs placed ninth, while the Arlee Warriors tied for fifteenth with Deer Lodge.  Mission-Charlo also participated in the Conrad Mixer as a warmup the day prior to the tournament.

The highest finisher was Warrior Alex Bertollt at 170, who took the championship. 

Bulldog Steven Bravo at 182 placed second.  Mission-Charlo also had a trio of fifth place finishers in Bailey Weible at 113, Gus Bosley at 170 and Ethan Goss-Dickie at heavyweight. A pair of sixth place finishers were Bulldog Trent Dennison at 152 and Warrior Daniel Dunlop at 145. 

One of the most intriguing matchups of the tournament was the 170 quarterfinal which pitted Gus Bosley of Mission-Charlo against Alex Bertollt of Arlee.  Amiable when they are not going at one another on the mat together, this bout was a street fight-like brawl which Bertollt won by pin in the second period this time around.  Bosley has won two of their other encounters. Arlee wrestling coach Ken Hill considers Bosley to be an up and comer who is of a similar ilk and caliber to grad Jacen Peterson, who is now wrestling with the Arizona State Sun Devils. 

    Arlee embarks upon a trio of road wrangles from Jan. 22-24, traveling to Deer Lodge on Thursday, Eureka on Friday, and is slated to compete at Mission-Charlo on Saturday.  Mission-Charlo will compete in the Bigfork Quad on Thursday, Jan 22, then host their own Mission Mixer which is anticipated to include teams from Bigfork, Noxon as well as others pending.