Beech places second at Choteau meet

Matt Unrau

During his Freshman year, Plains wrestler Kenneth Beech placed sixth at the team-heavy Choteau meet. Last year he improved his performance and placed third. This year he once again improved on the mat placing second in the meet that is widely recognized as a good indication of where a wrestler stacks up in the state.

It was a dominating performance by Beech who ended up only losing to Jade Rauser of Townsend, a junior wrestler who has yet to lose a highschool match.

“It’s bittersweet,” says Coach Kenny Marjerrison. “He can beat everyone else in the bracket. It’s just one kid. Three years in the past or three years in the future, he (Kenneth) is going to be a state champion.”

Rauser is a two-time state champion and is arguably one of the best wrestlers in the nation after placing first in three seperate wrestling categories in a National Competition. He pinned Beech in 1:28.

“There’s no shame losing to that kid,” says Marjerrison. “We’re going to keep doing the same thing. We’re not going to change anything because of that kid.”

Still the second place finish marks the second year in a row that Plains had placed a wrestler at the big meet in Choteau. Last year Chris Stobie battled through the bracket starting unranked and ending up placing second. Before that Marjerrison estimates that it was seven years since Plains placed someone at the meet.

Cole Goodwin and Kris Beech also had good meets as both wrestlers finished one match win shy of placing. They did this even though all of the Plains wrestlers received rough draws as everyone but Kenneth had to wrestle the number one ranked wrestler in the very first match.

“It was probably the best competition I’ve seen since I started coaching,” says Marjerisson referring to the entire field.

On the JV side Joe Reyna showed a lot of improvement on the mat as he continues to make progress as a Freshman and Clinton Phillips also wrestled tough after only starting to practice with the team last week.