Valley wrestlers prepare for Polson High's Owen Invitational
POLSON – The Polson Pirates wrestling team will return five state placers from last year’s team that finished second in the Class A as they prepare to open their season with the Polson Owen Invitational that is set to begin Friday at 4 p.m. at Linderman Gymnasium.
The Pirates will return R.J. Pierre, a wrestler that finished fourth last season as a 103 pound freshman, Mateo Quinones, who finished third in 103 as a sophomore, Cameron Brown finished third in the 132 pound weight division, Parker Adler finished fourth at 145 pounds, and Bridger Wenzel finished 3rd at 126 pounds as a freshman.
The Pirates have a significant portion of its team coming back this season but will still have to give a supreme effort in order to defeat Havre, according to Polson head coach Bob Owen.
“Havre has us beat for quite a distance and from what I understand, they returned most of their players from the team this year,” Owen said. “By next year, we should be the team to beat because we only have one senior in the lineup this season.”
Owen credits his assistant coaches Matt Owen, Brett Owen, Kevin Owen, and assistant Ethan Buceray for helping his team get where they need to be headed into this 2016-2017 campaign.
“They are very confident in what we are doing,” Owen said. “One of the neat things we have going for us is that Bill and I have coached for over 40 years. With the young attitude these guys brings to the table, it’s really something. I give them a lot of credit for what happened last year and those guys are breathing new life into our program.”
Other participants Owen mentioned will be contributors are junior Noah Humphrey, who will wrestle at 205 pounds, and Colton Coty, who will wrestle at the 160-pound weight class.
Owen will also get help from some transfers. Ethan Tolley is a junior transfer from Colorado and will wrestle at the 126-pound weight class. Hunter Fritsch is a sophomore from Oklahoma and according to Owen, was “one match away” from qualifying at the Class 5A state level there.
“Their additions will be huge for us and they are both in areas where we needed someone at those weight classes,” Owen said. “They are really going to help us a lot. They both come from excellent programs and they are just well coached.”
Owen said he felt one of the Pirates’ biggest attributes will be in their freshman class.
“We’ve got a very good group of freshman and they all have quite a bit of experience in our little guy program,” Owen said.
Owen said he felt, in order to overhaul a powerhouse like Havre, it would take a “total team effort.”
“You know, in order to beat them we would probably have to have 12 to 13 kids at the state tournament,” Owen said. “Havre just has a real powerhouse and I think that was his sixth state title in a row and ninth overall. He really has a good program over there and is a very positive coach.”
According to Owen, in the past they have orchestrated only 1-day invitationals. This season they have made it a 2-day tournament and added five teams coming from out of state.
“It is a tournament we have always seen as a good jumping off spot for us and we really are able to get our feet wet,” Owen said. “It’s an excellent starting spot and we look forward to the competition for the next couple of weeks.”
Following the invitational, the Pirates will travel to the Butte Mining Center Duel Tournament.
“That will be the top dueling tournament in the state, and it will have all of the top AA, A, and B schools represented in the tournament,” Owen said.
Two weeks from now, the Pirates wrestling team will travel to Coeur D’alene, Idaho for the Tri-State Tournament.
“That is one of the toughest tournaments in the northwest,” Owen said. “They have 70 teams that are involved in that and they have teams from Washington, Idaho, and Montana. They have teams that come in from Utah and Oregon and they call it Tri-State but there is actually like five or six states that are involved in it.”
Though Havre will be stiff competition, Owen said that doesn’t modify his team’s expectations.
“As always, we want to compete for the title and that is going to be a goal,” Owen said. “We should have some tread on the tire by the time we get to that point. We have a lot of ground to cover with them to get them ready for the next level and that is always a good end goal. “
Bulldogs ready to face AA, A level competition at the Invite
The Mission High School Charlo co-op wrestling team will get a chance to gain a lot of exposure to higher class competition in the Polson Invite, according to their coach Lyle Cronk.
“The Polson Invitational will be a great tournament,” Cronk said. “This has always been one of the best tournaments to go to all season. Our school gets to see AA and Class A competition in the tournament and that is an excellent opportunity for all of our wrestlers on the team to compete against higher level competition. I am excited for that.”
The Bulldogs-Vikings have a lot of returners headed into the season, including their state placers Trent Dennison and Gus Bosley. Dennison placed fourth at state at the 160-pound class. Bosley placed fifth at the 180-pound weight class.
They will also have sophomore Cole Gilleard, who placed third at divisionals last season at the 126-132-pound weight division and Bailey Weibly, a 120-pound junior that placed second at divisionals last season.
They will also have Troy Mitchell, a 145-pound junior who Cronk called a “leader of the team.”
Cronk will have six freshman wrestlers also.
“The freshman wrestlers are all excellent and they are coming in very excited,” Cronk said. “I am very excited to see them step in the lineup and see how they do. That is all I usually like to say about freshman.”
Chiefs wrestlers ready for Pirate invite
The Ronan Chiefs are very optimistic headed into this Friday and Saturday’s Owen Invitational.
Last season, the Chiefs finished seventh and fell one point short of capturing fifth place in the Class B Montana State wrestling competition.
Ronan will return junior Hunter Peterson, a wrestler projected to wrestle at 126 pounds.
“He is a young kid and was only a sophomore last year,” Chief’s Coach James Muir said. He has some growing room to do and as a junior coming in at 126 pounds, he traveled a lot of miles in the summer time and did a lot of practice camps. The rest of the team is looking extremely well in that aspect and one or two guys on our team have never wrestled before. This puts us in an area to progress faster in our practices, focus on cleaning things up, and sharpen our skills. We had a pretty good showing with 23 guys coming out for wrestling.”
Muir said he felt the Polson Invite will be a good opportunity for his team to showcase their skills.
“The Polson Invite is always a good opening tournament to get your feet wet and see where everyone has progressed or back-peddled a little bit,” Muir said. “It is a good one to jump into. I do like that fact that is it is a tough tournament and it’s not a cakewalk in any respect. It’s good to see where your guys are right off the bat and we take this as an opportunity to clean our team up and get better.”
Muir said his team is “extremely young” entering the season.
“I feel like though we are young, we are a seasoned team in our technique and experience, and we even have one or two wrestlers (on this year’s team) that have never wrestled,” Muir said. “We have a lot of wrestlers coming from our little guy program that have entered in our high school program. They don’t need a lot of basic training. They are ready to start and progress because we barely have any experience from square one and this tournament will allow us to get a little more seasoned.”