Pirates wrestlers learn valuable lesson at Whitefish
Lake County Leader Polson wrestling coach Bob Owen recognizes the achievement of his top 7 players catapulting their Pirates to a top 15 finish and the highest finish in 10 years at the Tri-State Meet at the tournament in Coeur D’alene, Idaho, but he knows there is still plenty of room for improvement from the younger sector of his team. Prior to heading into winter break, the Pirates participated in a Double-Duel that featured White Fish and Browning.
Polson fell to Browning by 12 points but were missing two of their key wrestlers: Kedrick Baker and RJ Pierre.
“All of our younger kids were ahead and ended up getting pinned,” Owen said. “That is something that we need to address and something that we need to improve on. Once we get that lead, we need to continue to wrestle hard.”
Owen said wrestling is a sport predicated on momentum and that is what his younger wrestlers, who he says need more mat time, need to learn.
“Wrestling in a duel meet, there is some momentum in those things,” Owen said. “Momentum can go either way. A couple of our kids got pinned and they were OK with that. They can’t be. It’s that kind of adverse situation that they need to learn how to handle while they are wrestling because they can’t let their guard down.”
Over the winter break, Owen and his coaching staff said they are going to put an emphasis on correcting some of the mistakes they made.
“We addressed that, had some really good practices the next day, and hopefully we will take care of some of that,” Owen said. “I am hopeful that we will be able to address this in our next practice and talk through some of the things with some of our younger kids. Some of our older kids have really stepped up and showed some of our younger kids good leadership in that practice. I think that will be a positive in the long run.”
Though the Pirates had one of their best results in over a decade at the Tri-Meet Invitational, Owen said some of his more skilled wrestlers need help from their younger counterparts, headed into the second half of the season.
“That is half our team and we took seven kids (to Coeur D’alene),” Owen said. “If we are going to be able to earn a trophy at the state tournament, and this is something I told the younger kids the other night, our younger crew is going to have to buckle down because they have to be placers. A lot of this has to do with their confidence level. We are going to have to work on some things over vacation such as goal setting and positive management in order to help that end of it.”
The Pirates will begin the second portion of the season at the Bozeman Invitational on Jan 6-7.
“(The Bozeman Tournament) is an excellent tournament and we will have some really good teams in there,” Owen said. “Most of them are some of the better Class-AA teams from Montana and Wyoming. The tournament is really tough and we will only take the ones worthy of competition. The rest of the team will go to the Western Montana Duels in Ronan.”
Owen said he felt there is still a lot of season left to go for the younger portion of his team to learn.
“We kind of have to consider wrestling divided into two seasons with our first portion of the season done and now the second half starts,” Owen said. “(The second half of the season) now starts to get a little more intense and we have to prepare them for the tougher competition that they are going to face.”
At Whitefish
Polson 51, Whitefish 22
103 – Anwar Mazur (W) won by forfeit; 113 – Mateo Quinones (P) p. Nathan Buckley (W) 1:24; 120 – Owen Targerson (P) p. Carlitos Bertelson (W) 1:57; 126 – Ethan Tolley (P) d. Eli Taylor (W) 5-4; 132 – Bridger Wenzel (P) p. Dakota Flannery (W) 1:35; 138 – Parker Adler (P) p. Jack Eyebath (W) 0:37; 145 – Robert Bertelson (W) p. Kaleb Unger (P) 5:31; 152 – Garrett Croft (P) won by forfeit; 160 – Malik Heydon (W) won by forfeit; 170 – Hunter Fritsch (P) won by forfeit; 182 – Jon Peterson (P) won by forfeit; 205 – Travis Catina (W) md. Noah Humphrey (P) 13-5; 285 – Ryan Burland (P) won by forfeit. (Th22Dec16)
Browning 43, Polson 30
113 – Mateo Quinones (P) won by forfeit; 120 – Owen Targerson (P) won by forfeit; 126 – Bridger Wenzel (P) p. Trevor James (B) 1:01; 132 – Tommy Campbell (B) p. Ethan Tolley (P) 3:13; 138 – Parker Adler (P) p. Aaron Wells (B) 1:20; Joe Boggs (B) p. Kaleb Unger (P) 1:10; 152 – Calvin Racine (B) md. Garrett Croft (P) 15-3; 170 – Hunter Fritsch (P) p. Emmitt Augare
(B) 0:56; 182 – Jayden Salios (B) p. Jon Peterson (P) 2:54; 205 – Brett Kipp (B) d. Noah Humphrey (P) 7-3; Hwt – JohnGlenn Still Smoking (B) p. Ryan Burland (P) 0:29.
Browning won 103, 160 by forfeit.