Valley wrestlers come up big at Owen Invitational

POLSON — The Polson High School wrestling team placed five wrestlers in this week’s Owen Invitational at Linderman High School.

Pirates’ Coach Bob Owen said he was “pleased” with the performance of his wrestlers in a tournament pool that included several wrestlers that placed at state last season.

“I was really pleased with moving five kids to the finals and we had some really tough luck in the finals,” Owen said. “It wasn’t that our kids didn’t wrestle well. We just made a couple of mistakes that cost them getting pinned when they were right in the match.”

Owen said he felt his younger wrestlers were able to gain “valuable experience” on the mat as well.

“We got our younger wrestlers some much needed mat time for some of our non-placers and with a little more mat time, some of our younger wrestlers will be right there too,” said Owen.

One Pirate who didn’t have trouble in the finals was sophomore wrestler Hunter Fritsch. Fritsch, a transfer from Oklahoma, defeated Lake City, Idaho native Griffin Schoch in the 160-pound weight class.

“He is a really skilled wrestler, he uses different techniques than a lot of our kids do, and he does very well with them,” Owen said. “He can be a little careless and he is a bit of a gambler but he is really tough. We hope he doesn’t take as many crazy risks because if you are going up against a really quality opponent, that could cost you the match. His technique is good and he is pretty hard-nosed.”

Other Polson wrestlers that finished second included Kedrick Baker at the 103-pound weight class.

Another Pirates wrestler that finished second is Mateo Quinones at the 120-pound division.

“It was an outstanding day for Mateo and he was really doing a lot of good stuff,” Owen said. “Technique wise, he moved up quite a bit from last year. I felt like this match could have been tighter but he was another wrestler that made a mistake. However, I like the way that he competed in the tournament.”

132-pound wrestler Bridger Wenzel lost a closely-contested match to Frenchtown’s Riley Gurr.

“Bridger ran from Frenchtown’s best kid,” Owen said. “That kid transferred from Kendrick, Wash. He was a strong titled contender in Washington and really a quality wrestler. Bridger had some work to do if he was going to beat that guy.”

Owen said he felt that Wenzel’s experience was “worth its weight in gold” to get early season experience that could help him later in the state competition.

“He is one of those kids that is really analytical, very smart and willing to take a hard loss like that to figure out what he is doing wrong,” Owen said. “That is how is he going to get really good.”

Owen said he saw several kids that he felt would compete in their respective classes come the state tournament.

“I saw plenty (of good wrestlers) and I don’t know how to single them all out, that is for sure,” Owen said.

Chiefs have ‘strong showing’ at Owen Invite

With a mixture of youth and experience, Chiefs’ Coach James Muir looked at the Owen Invitational as a “learning experience” for his team as he hopes to have them doing their “best wrestling” by February, he said.

“The Owen Invitational was a solid tournament for sure and you know that going into it, it was a fairly tough tournament that several teams entered,” Muir said. “We didn’t really have our full lineup solidified yet. The Owen Invitational was a good one to figure out where we need to improve on and utilize that knowledge in the matches.”

Muir said he felt several of his players that were less experienced at the varsity level had to overcome the initial intimidation at the event.

“Overall, I felt like we did pretty well and we always have things that we can improve on,” Muir said. “For the most part, I thought our underclassmen did a really good job and our 9th and 10th graders did good work at wrestling. You can tell they were a little intimidated going into the event. Overall, we wrestled well and had some guys step it up. We knew we had the capabilities of reaching that. You know that is going to happen. They are going to have a little bit of nervousness until they get the first couple of matches out of the way and get into the swing of things.”

103-pounder Zane Walchuk captured fourth at the invite.

“Our whole team really wrestled with a lot of heart, to be honest,” Muir said. “Walchuk really took that tournament to heart and wrestled tough (throughout the whole tournament).”

120-pound wrestler Owen Brown impressed Muir.

“He put on a really good show for a freshman,” Muir said. “Once he got a match or two out of the way, he was really able to get in his roll and produce.”

Muir said he felt 126-pound wrestler Hunter Peterson was one of the standouts for the Chiefs.

“(Peterson) is looking really solid and obviously, you could see that in his confidence level,” Muir said. “He is on track where he needs to be in order to accomplish his goal.”

152-pounder Happy Cheff wrestled his first match for the first time in two years.

“He’s been out of wrestling for the last two years and as a freshman, he had some health issues and was not eligible to wrestle,” Muir said. “Being back for the first time in two years, he really did a good job. It may take him a day or two to get back into the competition but he dealt with it pretty handily on Friday and Saturday. I feel really good about him placing fourth and he had a lot of emotions going into that match, not wrestling for the last couple of years. He really turned the corner. He did really well, wrestled hard at practice, and it paid off for him.”

Other impact wrestlers, according to Muir, were 160-pounder Ethan Christopher and Sam Maccabe, who has been wrestling for only 12 days.

“Mocabee only had 12 practices and ended up in the final of the JV tournament in Ronan,” Muir said. “He ended up beating some guys in the JV tournament and that is a pretty good accomplishment for only wrestling for 12 days.”

Ronan will join Polson in the Mining Classic in Butte next week. That match, according to Owen, showcases some of the best wrestlers in the entire region.

“Our team is pretty soild. We are ready to roll and this is a big momentum builder for us” Muir said. “By Friday, everyone should have their ten practices in. In the Polson Tournament, we had more individuals just trying to mix and match weight classes for certain individuals, and the team race wasn’t the key point for the opening tournament. It was more about trying to fit our wrestlers into the proper weight class.”

Bosley, Wieble stand out for Bulldogs

The Mission-Charlo co-op wrestling team received some invaluable experience getting to see wrestlers in higher Class ranks at this weekend’s Owen Invitational.

“They won some matches and the whole Polson Invite was a great tournament with good competition,” Bulldogs Coach Lyle Cronk said. “We have a young team this year and at the end of the day, I had positive things to say about every wrestler (on our team). There are still a lot of things that we need to work on as a team. You can spot some of those things to improve early in the season but our focus is improving on our strength, eliminating our weaknesses, and just keep working hard.”

The Bulldogs will travel to Superior this Friday and Saturday to a tri-meet that will include Big Fork and Florence.

“This will be a chance to see some division rivals,” Cronk said. “It’s always good to see how they measure up. We take notes and we need to improve on that at the end of this year.”

Cronk said he was pleased with his 182-pound wrestling standout Gus Bosley.

“Until the finals, no one lasted very long against him,” Cronk said. “Its kind of nice to see how some of those upperclassmen can dominant and show these younger kids how it’s done.”.

Owen Invitational

2-3 December 2016

Polson, MT

Team scores – 1, Missoula Sentinel 155.5; 2, Columbia Falls 146; 3, Eureka 139; 4, Polson, 132.5; 5, Frenchtown 119.5; 6, Lake City 99; 7, Thompson Falls 91; 8, Ronan 80; 9, Corvallis 76.5; 10, Hamilton 67; 11, Florence 53; 12, Stevensville 48.5; 13, Mission-Charlo 47; 14, Kalispell Glacier 42; 15, Missoula Hellgate 32; 16, Superior 15; 17, Whitefish 12; 18, Bigfork 11.

Individual weight class results – Mission Valley relevant

103 — 2nd, Kedrick Baker (Polson); 4th, Zane Walchuk (Ronan)

Championship – Walker Dyer (Flthd) p. Baker 1:37

Consolation – Carter Brown (Corv) d. Walchuk 7-1

Kedrick Baker 3-1 fr (Pol) – Baker p. Murphy 1:20, Baker p. Brown 2:21, Baker p. Walchuk 1:42, Dyer p. Baker 1:37.

Zane Walchuk 3-2 (Ron) – Walchuk p. Austin Warren (Eur) 0:37, Walchuk p. Will Flowers (Corv) 2:26, Baker p. Walchuk 1:42, Walchuk d. Croft 7-2, Brown d. Walchuk 7-1.

Sheadyn Croft 3-2 fr (Ron) – Croft p. Gahret Salminen (CF) 0:40, Dyer md Croft 11-1, Croft for. Warren, Croft p. Olson 1:57, Walchuk d. Croft 7-2.

Walker Murphy 0-2 fr (M-C) – Baker p. Murphy 1:20, bye, Caleb Olson (Stevi) md. Murphy 12-4.

113

Championship – James Bibler (Frtwn) d. Triston Davis (Corv) 10-1.

Consolation – Dakota Thomas (Sup) p. Garrett Jones (TF) 2:46

R.J. Pierre 0-2 so (Pol) – bye, Jake Bibler (Frtwn) md. Pierre 10-1, Michael Parkin (Sup) d. Pierre 4-2.

Caden Rhine 0-2 fr (Ron) – bye, Cyrus Mortensen (Lake City, ID) p. Rhine 1:26, bye, Parkin d Rhine 7-0.

Robert Dempsey 0-2 fr (M-C) – bye, Dakota Thomas (Sup) p. Dempsey 2:38, bye, Jones p. Dempsey 1:13.

120 — 2nd, Mateo Quinones, Polson

Championship – Kaleb Frank (TF) p. Quinones 1:46.

Consolation – Owen Brown (Ron) d. Winfield West (CF) 6-5.

Mateo Quinones 3-1 jr (Pol) – Quinones p. Hayden Chatwin (Lake City, ID) 1:46, Quinones p. Zach Blanchard (Flthd) 3:25, Quinones p. Wieble 1:42, Frank p. Quinones 1:46

Owen Brown 5-1 fr (Ron) – Brown d Caden Willis (Gla) 10-3, West d. Brown 9-5, Brown p. Chatwin 2:40, Brown p Nathan Schmidt 2:53, Brown md Wieble 13-4, Brown d. West 6-5.

Bailey Wieble 2-2 jr (M-C) – Wieble p. Aaron Edens (Flo) 0:50, Wieble p. Dante Venema (Corv) 4:55, Quinones p. Wieble 1:42, Brown md Wieble 13-4.

Owen Targerson 0-2 fr (Pol) – Frank p. Targerson 0:27, Benji Opat (Corv) p. Targerson 1:34.

126 — 1st, Hunter Peterson, Ronan

Championship – Peterson tf. Kahden Bakkila (Eur) 1.5 5:00 (20-5)

Consolation – Justin Mayfield (Sent) d. Reece Eckley (Sent) 3-0

Hunter Peterson 4-0 jr (Ron) – Peterson tf. Lane Wilson (Gla) 1.5 2:31 (17-2), Peterson tf. Bridger Williams (Ham) 1.5 2:42 (16-0), Peterson md Eckley 17-5, Peterson tf. Bakkila 1.5 5:00 (20-5)

Ethan Tolley 1-2 jr (Pol) – Williams p. Tolley 5:00, Tolley p. Wilson 1:28, Bridger Hall (Hellg) d. Tolley 4-2.

Isaac DuMontier 1-2 fr (M-C) – Mayfield p. DuMontier 1:39, DuMontier p. Nicholas Smetana (Bfrk) 0:49, Williams p. DuMontier 2:39.

132 — 2nd, Bridger Wenzel, Polson

Championship – Riley Gurr (Frtwn) md Wenzel 12-0

Consolation – Cameron Hegel (Sent) p. Hunter Peterson (CF) 1:55.

Bridger Wenzel 3-1 so (Pol) – Wenzel p. Wesley Buchannen (Sup) 0:44, Wenzel p Anthony Dulac (Flor) 1:46, Wenzel sv-1 Hunter Peterson (CF) 5-3, Gurr md Wenzel 12-0

Cole Gilleard 2-2 so (M-C) – Gilleard p. Gus Roland (Corv) 1:12, Hegel p. Gilleard 1:42, Gilleard d. Elijah Mills (Lake City, ID) 4-3, Hank Dunn p. Gilleard 1:00.

Noah Cheff 2-2 so (Ron) – Cheff p. Nate Brown (Hellg) 2:40, Petersen p. Cheff 4:38, Cheff d. Flannery (Wf) 4-1, Adrian Garcia (Ham) inj. Cheff 1:28.

138

Championship – Justin Gibson (Gla) p. Avery Meinzen (Flo) 3:29

Consolation – Conall Powers (Sent) d. Will Wissenback (Corv) 13-10

Bryce Henning 2-2 sr (Pol) – Henning p. Caden Brown (Ham) 3:03, Thomas md Henning 12-4, Henning sv-1 S.Cheff 5-3, Powers d. Henning 5-0.

Seth Cheff 2-2 jr (Ron) – S.Cheff d. Wissenback 6-2, Asa Hoerner (Hellg) p. S.Cheff 2:37, S.Cheff p. Jethro Thorne (Flo) 1:14,

Jarod Farrier 0-2 fr (Pol) – Brandon Thomas (CF) d. Farrier 9-6, Wissenback (Corv) d. Farrier 6-1.

145 — 2nd, Parker Adler, Polson

Championship – Ben Windauer (CF) p. Adler 4:21

Consolation – Chase Lathim (Lake City, ID) d. Kyler Alm (Flthd) 4-2

Parker Adler 3-1 jr (Pol) – Adler p. Nathan Hader (CF) :48, Adler p. Mitchell 0:44, Adler p. Lathim 3:46, Windauer p. Adler 4:21

Troy Mitchell 1-2 jr (M-C) – Mitchell p. Hunter Pickens (Bfork) 0:21, Adler p. Mitchell 0:44, Irvine (TF) d. Mitchell 2-0.

Tyson Walbeck 1-2 fr (Pol) – Laine Petri (Ham) p. Walbeck 1:18, Walbeck p. Pickens 0:32, Hader p.Walbeck 1:26.

Tyler Uhrich 0-2 fr (Ron) – James Dunn (Eur) p. Uhrich 2:46, Irvine p. Uhrich 1:18.

152 — 4th, Hap Cheff (Ronan)

Championship – Mason Fetters (CF) p. Cody Garrison (TF) 0:31

Consolation – Reese Rahn (Sent) d. H.Cheff 5-4

Hap Cheff 4-2 jr (Ron) – H.Cheff d. Dustin Copeland (Ham) 13-9, Garrison d. H.Cheff 8-3, H.Cheff p. Unger 0:47, H.Cheff d. Kyler Pancake (Flo) 4-2, H.Cheff d. Anthony Baldwin (Sent) 8-4, Rahn d. H.Cheff 5-4.

Kaleb Unger 2-2 fr (Pol) – Anderson p. Unger 2:32, Unger p. Cleveland 1:21, Unger p. Izaac Sessums (Hellg) 2:58, H.Cheff p. Unger 0:47.

Garrett Croft 2-2 fr (Pol) – Croft p. Moore (Corv) 4:38, Croft p. Ammon Simmons (Stevi) 5:19, Anthony Baldwin (Sent) 1:18, Braydon Stone (CF) d. Croft 8-2.

Miles Anderson 1-2 fr (M-C) – Anderson p. Unger 2:32, Fetters p. Anderson 0:23, Copeland d. Anderson 5-3.

Nick Cleveland 0-2 fr (Pol) – Nutting (Lake City, ID) p. Cleveland 3:22, Unger p. Cleveland 1:21.

160 — 1st, Hunter Fritsch, Polson

Championship – Fritsch p. Griffin Schoch (Lake City, ID) 5:24

Consolation – Levi Garcia (Eur) d. Tyler Puddy (Sent) 6-2

Hunter Fritsch 4-0 1st so (Pol) – Fritsch tf. Hyme Anderson (Ham) 1.5 2:50 (16-0), Fritsch d. Colten McPhee (CF) 11-4, Fritsch md. Matt Holman (Bf) 19-8, Fritsch p. Schoch 5:24

Noah Volesky 0-2 so (Pol) – Tucker Mclees (Sup) p. Volesky 1:10, Fuhrman (TF) p. Volesky 1:01

170

Championship – Storm Companion (CF) d. Jase Sorenson (TF) 8-1

Consolation – Manny Rivera (Ham) inj. Ben Crews (Stevi)

Stevan Weyant 1-2 sr (Ron) – Barber md. Weyant 15-5, Weyant tf 1.5 Mays 4:18 (16-0), Robinson (Hellg) p. Weyant 0:37.

Justin Mays 0-2 (Ron) – Ben Crews (Stevi) tf. 1.5 Mays 4:11 (17-1), Weyant tf. 1.5 Mays 4:18 (16-0).

Jon Peterson 1-2 jr (Pol) – Ram Lettan (Lake City, ID) p. Peterson 3:40, Peterson p. Ryan Cahalin (Sup) 1:07, Hunter Allen (Frtwn) p. Peterson 2:54.

182 — 2nd, Gus Bosley (Mission-Charlo)

Championship – Garrett Graves (Eur) p. Bosley 3:20

Consolation – Jerry Cassidy (Stevi) p. Hunter Barron (Corv) 3:31

Gus Bosley (M-C) – bye, Bosley p. Brandon Olsen (Gla) 1:08, Bosley p. Jerry Cassidy (Stevi) 1:33, Garrett Graves

205 —

Championship – Justin Hinson (Ham) d. Joe Fehr (Eur) 11-5.

Consolation – Tanner Stack (Sent) sv-1 Kyle Anderson (Ham) 2-0.

Noah Humphrey 3-2 jr (Pol) – Humphrey p. Trevor Linkey () 1:22, Hinson d. Humphrey 8-2, Humphrey dec Logan Kaminsky (Bigfork) 5-2, Humphrey d. Chase Krone (Stevi) 7-2, Anderson p. Humphrey :50.

Gray Cook 0-2 sr (Ron) – Anderson p. Cook 2:44, Austin Cooper (Tfalls) p. Cook 1:30.

285

Championship – Kalen Yanak (Eur) p. Kyler Koski (CF) 3:40

Consolation – Zane Lettau (Lake City, ID) p. Torin Jackson (Sent) 1:19

Ethan Christopher 2-2 so (Ron) – Christopher p. Burland 1:24, Yanak p. Christopher 0:18, Christopher p. Anderson 0:31, Dakota Freisen (Hellg) p. Christopher 1:12.

Chris Anderson 1-2 jr (M-C) – Jackson p. Anderson 0:30, Anderson p. Mocabee 3:34, Christopher p. Anderson 0:31.

Sam Mocabee 0-2 (Ron) – Lettau p. Mocabee 0:58, Anderson p. Mocabee 3:34.

Ryan Burland 0-2 sr (Pol) – Christopher p. Burland 1:24,