Pirate grapplers prepare for Western Divisionals
POLSON WRESTLER Parker Adler attempts to pin Ronan wrestler Noah Cheff in Saturday night's dual at Polson High School. (Jason Blasco/Lake County Leader)
POLSON WRESTLER Cameron Brown attempts to pin Ronan wrestler Seth Cheff in the dual with Ronan Saturday night at Polson High School. This match marked the debut of Brown after accidently shooting himself with a .22-caliber pistol prior to the start of the wrestling season. (Jason Blasco/Lake County Leader)
Polson High School Coach Bob Owen and his Pirate team got a tremendous boost in their 52-21 loss to their conference rival Ronan Saturday night at Polson High School.
The Pirates welcomed back one of their key contributing members, Cameron Brown, who made his debut this season after being sidelined for accidentally shooting himself in the leg with a 22. caliber pistol.
“We are making progress,” Owen said. “I think that we got a pretty good chance of having more than two of our returners healthy and if we got them back we are going to be a lot better.”
Columbia Falls defeated Polson 57-12 Thursday at Columbia Falls High School.
“We bumped Parker Adler up in weight class and he wrestled arguably their best wrestler,” Owen said. “That was quite a bigger challenge and he handled it well. He needed the challenge and he’s been wrestling very well. It’s OK if other teams expose a few of our weaknesses because that will make us better because we will know what to improve on before that divisional tournament.”
The Pirates also fell to Ronan and according to Owen, it is because of his team’s lack of experience that allowed Ronan the victory.
“It’s been a traditional rival of ours and they are going to be back in our league next year at the Class-A level,” Owen said. “It will be neat for our league to welcome back such great competition when we go against them. They have a little more experience all the way through the lineup and everyone is healthy. We probably won’t be able to turn our lack of experience around until some of our wrestlers get healthy.”
The Pirates hope to have Hunter Fritsch (ankle injury), Jarod Farrier, and Bridger Wenzel back for the Divisionals that will be held this Friday and Saturday at Hamilton High School.
The Pirates will lose RJ Pierre, their 103-pounder, for the tournament as he is ruled out for the remainder of the season.
“Our goal will be to place as high as we can at Divisionals and that will seed us in the state tournament,” Owen said. “Getting one of the top 2 seeds in the divisional will make a huge difference in the bracket.”
With the regular portion of the season winding down, Owen said the practices become shorter and more intense.
“At this point of the season, we start to taper off our practices and they become a little shorter,” Owen said. “Our practices may be shorter but they become way more intense. Most of our teaching is done and now we just have to refine them and get them in peak condition (for the post season).”