Pirates grapplers excel at Mining City Duals

Polson wrestling coach Bob Owen knows one of the fundamental components to winning the team aspect of wrestling is having large numbers and he knows the other component to winning is having wrestlers with skill.

The Pirates struggled with their numbers but the core group of their team made up for what they lacked with their performance at the Mining City Duals on Dec. 8-9 at Butte Central.

“I am really pleased with how we wrestled, we gave away two forfeits and didn’t have Pierre in the lineup. He may have an MRI on his knee this week,” Owen said. “We didn’t have him and we didn’t have a heavyweight so we were losing 12 points during every match.”

The Pirates wrestled only one Class A school and a total of five Class double-A schools at the Mining City Duals.

Owen stated he was “pleased” with how the core of his unit was wrestling. The more experienced wrestlers on his team lost a total of one match against top-tier Class A and AA competition.

Parker Adler, Cameron Brown and Bridger Wenzel won all but one of their matches in the duals.

“The core of their lineup is wrestling really well,” Owen said. “Between all of them, Bridger was the only wrestler in that group that lost a match and he lost to the state champ in double-A. I was pleased that we competed as well as we did because (the Mining City Duals) was very competitive this weekend.”

Owen knows he has some state-title contenders in his group of wrestlers, but he is also realistic about his team’s chances to capture a state title as a team.

Havre, the defending Class A state wrestling champions, is a cut above the rest of the competition, Owen said.

“The top team at our level is Havre,” Owen said. “The great thing about the Mining City Duals is that you get to see most of your competition and we were about to see the better (teams) in Class A, except for Sidney. They didn’t come for some reason, but most of the top teams in Class A did. There are at least five teams that will be in the hunt for the second and third place spot at state. We will be right in the mix for second or third.”

The Pirates will depend on their core group to help them achieve that second or third-place finish at state.

“That is what you hope for out of your veterans,” Owen said. “You are hoping they can rise to the occasion when the competition gets tough like our team did against Frenchtown and this weekend they were wrestling well. They had a couple of matches that we lost against more Double-A teams and they were tight. Hunter Fritsch tweaked his leg and we didn’t have him for the next two duals. If we had him, we probably would have won our match against Skyview.”

Owen singled out two of his wrestlers that will be contenders to win an individual state wrestling title at Billings.

Cameron Brown, who is wrestling at the 138 and 145-pound weight class, and Parker Adler, who wrestles at the 152-pound weight class, captured all of their individual matches.

“Cameron is wrestling very well right now and Parker is undefeated and pinned all of his opponents,” Owen said. “Parker is sizzling and the way he is wrestling right now, he is on top of his game.”

Pirates get ready for Tri-State meet

The Pirates will travel to the Tri-State wrestling meet, one of the regions biggest and most prestigious annual wrestling competitions in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho Dec. 15-16.

Owen said several wrestlers have an opportunity to showcase their skills and elevate their status as individual wrestlers at Coeur D’alene. How they perform at Tri-State can even dictate how they will be perceived at the state wrestling tournament in Billings.

“We are going to the biggest tournament in the Northwest this weekend,” Owen said. “We will take about eight of our best wrestlers. I’ve got most of the veterans that will go to this meet and we will also base who we take on how hard they work in practice to give them an incentive to work hard in practice.”

Owen said he will get an idea of exactly how good Adler is when he travels to Idaho.

“Parker is much better than he was last year and that is scary for his opponents,” Owen said. “For wrestlers like Parker, it will be a great idea to find out where he sits regionally in the tournament and that will be big (for us) to find out where he sits. He is the favorite and he is the guy to beat at the weight right now. I am glad we are going to be able to take him to that type of competition. The way he is wrestling right now, he is just on top of his game.”

The following are the results for Polson and Ronan at the Mining City Duals in Butte.

30th annual Mining City Duals

Jim Street Wrestling Classic Tournament

Butte High, Butte, MT

Friday-Saturday, December 8-9, 2017

Championship

Havre 31, Flathead 28

Third/Fourth place

Great Falls 35, Sentinel 33

winners pool consolation

ROUND 13

Butte 46, Polson 30

103 – Will Queer pin Masyn Cowell (P) 5:28; 113 – RJ Pierre (P) 3:21 pin Wyatt Queer; 120 – Gabe Tierney maj.dec. Kedrick Baker (P) 12-4; 138 – Bridger Wenzel (P) 1:17 pin Cory West; 145 – Cameron Brown (P) 1:59 pin Quinn Sullivan; 152 – Parker Adler (P) 0:21 pin Cole McGrath; 160 – Carl Anderson pin Garrett Croft (P) 3:22; 182 – Kameron Moreno pin Noah Humphrey (P) 2:26; 205 – Kyle Harding pin Jasper Drake (P) 3:53; 126 – Polson won by forfeit; 132,170,285 – Butte won by forfeit.

Consolation pool

ROUND 12

Ronan 42, Helena 15

ROUND 11

Flathead 46, Polson 24

103 – Brendan Barnes pin Masyn Cowell (P) 2:45; 113 – Bryce Shaffer pin RJ Pierre (P) 4:49; 120 – Kedrick Baker (p) 9-2 dec. Dom Bottello; 126 – Mateo Quinones (P) 0:45 pin Hunter Reichert; 138 – Bridger Wenzel (P) 3:12 pin Bo Meyer; 145 – Cameron Brown (P) 9-2 dec. Tanner Russell; 152 – Parker Adler (P) 0:19 pin Zaybin Stewart; 160 – Garrett Rieke pin Garrett Croft (P) 0:44; 182 – Tucker Nadeau pin Noah Humprey (P) 2:28; 205 – Hunter Wellcome 19-3 tf. Jasper Drake (P) 4:33; 132,170,285 – Flathead won by forfeit.

ROUND 8

Lewistown 38, Ronan 34

Billings Skyview 40, Polson 33

113 – Rene Pierre (P) 6-3 dec. Gentry Lamb; 120 – Bridger Lamb maj.dec. Kedrick Baker (P) 16-3; 126 – Mateo Quinones (P) 3:29 pin Cameron Savarin; 138 – Bridger Wenzel (P) 1:49 pin Jose Rodriguez; 145 – Cameron Brown (P) 3:58 pin Austin Carothers; 160 – Kade Kay pin Garrett Croft (P) 2:56; 170 – Brock Bushfield pin Hunter Fritsch (P) 1:41; 182 – Brenner Bushfield pin Noah Humphrey (P) 1:57; 205 – Noah Thomas pin Jasper Drake (P) 2:33;

103, 152 – Polson won by forfeit; 132, 285 – BlgsSkyv won by forfeit.

ROUND 7

Great Falls 46, Ronan 27

*Polson 51, CMR 22

113 – Rene Pierre (P) pin unknown; 120 – Kedrick Baker (P) vs. Jarrett LeMaster; 126 – Carter Carroll maj.dec Mateo Quinones (P) 8-0; 138 – Bridger Wenzel (Pol) 3-2 dec. Kai Stewart; 145 – Cameron Brown (P) 2:42 pin Tyler Carter; 152 – Parker Adler (P) 1:19 pin Mike Brien; 160 – Garrett Croft (P) 0:57 pin noID; 170 – Hunter Fritsch (P) 1:06 pin Kain Schwartz-Dorhety; 182 – Noah Humphrey (P) 1:08 pin Eryck Otto; 205 – Tony Walter pin Jasper Drake (Pol) 2:00;

103 – Polson won by forfeit; 285 – CMR won by forfeit; 132 – double forfeit.

Asterisk (*) denotes stat variants reported in media, discrepancy unable to be resolved: P45,CMR16.

ROUND 5

Billings West 42, Ronan 33

Billings Senior 39, Polson 30

ROUND 3

Polson 60, Dillon 6

113 – RJ Pierre (P) 1:20 pin Forest Wagoner; 145 – Cameron Brown (P) 1:25 pin Pete Gibson;; 152 – Parker Adler (P) 0:53 pin Cooper Hoffman; 160 – Brent Tezak pin Garrett Croft (P) 2:44. 170 – Hunter Fritsch (P) 0:37 pin Ash Norris; 182 – Noah Humphrey (P) 0:21 pin Hunter; 285 – Jasper Drake (P) 0:20 pin Anthony Weary;

103,120,126,132 – Polson won by forfeit; 138,205 – double forfeit.

ROUND 1

Ronan 33, Big Sky 32

Polson 31, Frenchtown 27

103 – Eli Warner dec. Maysn Cowell (P) 8-2; 113 – Walker Dyer dec. Rene Pierre (P) 8-2; 120 – Jake Bibler pin Kedrick Baker (P) 2:58; 126 – Mateo Quinones(P) 14-4 maj.dec. Zach Blanchard; 132 – Jarod Farrier (P) 3-1 SV-1 Owen Indreland; 138 – Riley Gurr dec. Bridger Wenzel (P) 7-1. 145 – Cameron Brown (P) 3:22 pin Blake King; 152 – Parker Adler (P)2:00 pin Christian Wyant; 160 – Michael Edwards pin Caleb Pierre (P) 2:00; 170 – Garrett Croft (P) 9-3 dec. Canyon Shope; 182 – Hunter Fritsch (P) 2:24 pin Tate Jones; 205 – Noah Humphrey (P) 6-2 dec. Levi Downard; 285 – Frenchtown won by forfeit. (Tu05Dec17)