County performs well at divisional tournament
Thompson Falls High School hosted a hub of grapplers Saturday as teams converged for a shot at state. Coaches from the county schools were thrilled with the results.
“Pride. That is really the one word that sums up our feelings of the Divisional tournament for the Savage Horsemen wrestling team,” head coach Kenny Marjerrison stated. “We entered seven wrestlers into the tournament, six of them placed in the top four. As a team Plains/Hot Springs narrowly missed the third place trophy by 7 points to Thompson Falls.
“T-Falls had a good day, they entered 12 wrestlers, seven of them will be going to state. Even though we missed out on a team trophy, our kids wrestled extremely well. We had two champions, Russell Kujala (125#) and Ben Gorham (285#).”
The two champions were praised by Coach Marjerrison.
“Russell had an outstanding day,” Coach Marjerrison said. “Both his semi-final and his final matches were very good wrestlers. In the Championship Russell beat Connor Rogers (Deer Lodge) 7-0. That is the fourth time we wrestled him this year, it is always very close; usually one point decides the match. So, for Russell to beat Rogers 7-0 is huge, Russ just wrestled extremely well. No matter what Rogers tried and the longer the match went on, Russell just kept distancing the score and nearly pinned him twice.”
“Our other champion, Ben Gorham, was just a monster all day. It was very apparent that Ben was on a mission and there was nothing that was going to stop him. In addition to pinning Braxton Eubanks (Thompson Falls) in the championship in 28 seconds, Ben also earned the cumulative quick pin trophy for the tournament pinning all of his kids in 2:05 total. Ben is fired up, he is ready to wrestle at the state tournament.”
Another state finalist was Logan Goodwin at 130#.
“Logan wrestled great, he has continued to improve every weekend,” Coach Marjerrison said. “He wrestled well in the championship but ended up losing to Bridger LaPierre 10-1.”
In the consolation finals, the Savage Horsemen had two Hot Springs wrestlers, Joe Detienne (152) and Brandon Shea (285 JV) as well as Jake Lile (135).
“Joe and Brandon both had a great weekend,” Coach Marjerrison said. “The 152 class is tough this year so for Joe to take third was great, it will be interesting at the state tournament. Brandon had a good weekend as well taking 4th at 285, even though he has been plagued with illness most of the season. Brandon has tremendous potential and is only a sophomore so it will be great for him to get the experience at state this year.”
The final placer for the Savage Horsemen was Jake Lile at 135 lbs.
“Jake went in to the tournament as an unseeded wrestler with a losing record; to say the least the deck was stacked against him,” Coach Marjerrison said. “It took five matches throughout the day but in the end, Jake placed fourth and is going to state. Probably Jake’s most important win was the consolation semi-finals against River Sides (Superior). Sides is a senior and was a divisional champion a couple years ago. We knew if Jake was going to get in, we had to find a weakness; that weakness as it turned out was that River is not particularly good shape. We train our kids to be able to wrestle for nine minutes as hard as they can go, that way six minutes (a normal regulation match) feels easier, difficult but easier. So before Jake walked on the mat we told him that he has to be on the attack the entire match, the only way he could beat Sides is to wear him out. Forcing the action for an entire match is difficult for anyone, it is a ton of work and we knew that we were asking Jake to gut himself the entire time; he simply responded “Yes, Sir”. In the end Jake won that match 5-2, he had picked off a senior for his chance to go to state. I personally felt an overwhelming sense of pride for Jake in that match, it was a perfect example of hard work paying off. After that match I realized the one thing that is bad about Jake; that there isn’t more kids just like him.”
The final wrestler that competed at the divisional tournament for the Savage Horsemen was Dusten Henning at 119#.
“Dusten wrestled very well in Thompson Falls but was the unfortunate victim of a difficult draw in the tournament as well as having a tough bracket,” Coach Marjerrison said. “Dusten started the day with the number two kid in the tournament, its a tough way to start the day but Dusten wrestled him great scoring two takedowns along the way but eventually losing 9-4.”
The Savage Horsemen leave for the state tournament in Billings on Thursday, we had an excellent sowing at Divisionals so hopefully we can keep the momentum up for state.
As for other county wrestlers, Thompson Falls will send a total of seven wrestlers to state, and Noxon will send three. Bluehawk wrestlers are Lena Babcock (98#), John Gunderson (140#), Colton Bray (140#), Davis Lawson (171#), Jake Nygaard (171#), John Garrahy (189#), and Braxton Eubanks (285#). Noxon state contenders are Luke Crowe (140#), Gary Wadman (160#), and John Onofrey (215#).
“Everyone placed what I thought they would place. Kids wrestled well I thought. We didn’t lose any matches we shouldn’t have,” Thompson Falls head coach Colby Cline said. “It’ll be tough. All of our kids even the second round will be as tough of matches as they would see in the championships. We’ll have to wrestle very well to have some placers [at state]. I’m hoping to have a couple, two or three. Probably six of the seven have a shot of placing if they wrestle really well and things fall their way. They place six at team, four divisions – western, northern, southern, eastern – each division has four wrestlers, 16 man bracket.”
Good luck to all the Sanders County grapplers.