Five place at Choteau

Sanders County Wrestlers made a splash in the 30-team field at the Choteau Classic tournament this weekend with five grapplers earning medals.

Kenneth Beech of Plains-Hot Springs finished second in the 119-pound class, falling to three-time state champion Jade Rauser. Adam Moore, 189 pounds, of Noxon also took second, falling to Ben Stroh.

Earning fourth place were Tyler Addy and Shawn Sacchi of Thompson Falls and Cole Goodwin of Plains. Addy, 105 pounds, was pinned by Clancy Ludvigson, Goodwin, 135 pounds, lost by points to Colt Harris and Sacchi was pinned by Jake French.

Both Ted Beech, a 130 pound junior, and Ben Gorham, a freshman heavyweight, were one match away from placing for the Savage Horsemen.

“That is an excellent tournament,” Savage Horsemen head coach Kenny Marjerrison said. “For a young wrestler to even win a match in that tournament is a big accomplishment so we were happy with their progress.”

Although Noxon heavyweights Taylor Scott and Cody Martens didn’t make it to the placing round, both wrestled well according to head coach Kelly Moore. Moore also had seven wrestlers participating in the JV portion of the tournament. Bran-Dan Lockwood came away with his first victory of the year, and Austin Jimenez saw his first tournament action this season.

This week, the Savage Horsemen will head to Darby on Thursday and Thompson Falls for the Ted Kato Tournament on Saturday.

Noxon will host Mission and Eureka on Tuesday before joining Plains-Hot Springs on Saturday.

Both squads squared off earlier in the week as well, at the Savage Horsemen’s senior night on Tuesday. Plains-Hot Springs seniors Giorgi Malakmadze, Kenneth Beech, Cole Goodwin and Zoey Banovich all wrestled in their final home matches of their respective careers.

“They’re great kids,” Marjerrison said. “We’ve had a lot of fun with them. It’s going to be extremely difficult to replace those kids, because all of them work really hard and have really been the back bone of the program for the last three or four years.”

Colby Chishom wrestled well, winning two matches despite missing most of the season up to this point with a shoulder injury. Gorham won both his matches and Ted Beech won two of three.

For Noxon, Moore got two wins, and Caleb Fickus, Adam Bruenner, Martens, Scott and Hunter Fricke each had one.

Savage Horsemen freshman Cody Kinzie, 125 pounds, suffered a season ending elbow injury at practice this week after winning both his matches on Tuesday.