Seventeen little guy wrestlers headed to state this weekend

The little guy wrestlers from Superior had a huge weekend in Libby at the Unit 2 Valley Tournament. Coach Charlie Crabb said that they ended up in third place in the small team rankings, which proved to be "a lot better than I thought we would do." Crabb said he felt the kids had a good tournament.

"Overall, I thought we did really well," he said. "I thought the kids wrestled tough and gave a good showing."

Crabb said that they have qualified 17 wrestlers for the Western Montana Championships in Columbia Falls, which will take place this Saturday, March 27. With one more week of practice before the meet, he said the goal is to keep the kids working hard and to keep them focused.

"We have one more week of practice and as long as the kids keep working hard they will have success in the final tournament," he said. Some of these kids are really starting to realize that hard work does pay off and they are having fun doing it."

Seeing that the kids are realizing that thrills the coach and those helping with little guy wrestling as one of the primary goals of the six week long sport is to teach kids about self discipline, hard work and to promote wrestling so the kids might continue throughout high school. But they also want the kids to have fun.

Beginner

55 pounds: Michael Parkin, 4th

95 pounds: Jake Lapinski, 2nd

Novice

65 pounds: Logan Donally, 3rd

70 pounds: Jack Mitchell, 7th, Mason Frost, 8th

80 pounds: Kaleb Ververis, 7th

100 pounds: Nathan Lapinski, 2nd, Connor Voll, 3rd

110 pounds: Tucker McLees, 4th

Middle

65 pounds: Blaine Parkin, 3rd, Taryn Ververis, 5th

100 pounds: Michael Frost, 7th, Vicente Guerrero, 8th

110 pounds: Bridger Lapierre, 2nd

147 pounds: Aaron Kelly, 3rd

Junior

80 pounds: Anthony Parkin, 2nd

95 pounds: Tucker Smith, 2nd