Plains-Hot Springs wrestles at Darby
The Savage Horsemen wrestling team traveled to Darby this past weekend for the annual Darby/Corvallis Invitational. Due to illness the field of teams was down a couple this year to seven. Plains/Hot Springs placed 4th (and also placed 4th at the Ted Kato in T-Falls) overall in team standings and medaled five athletes.
The Savage Horsemen entered six wrestlers, down two because of illness. Although all six kids wrestled very well, the weekend was highlighted by the Plains/Hot Springs freshman, Logan Goodwin (130 lbs.). Goodwin won the Darby Invite in commanding fashion by defeating Robert Few (Hamilton) in the championship 18-0.
“Logan wrestled stellar all day,” Coach Kenny Marjerrison said. “He improves every time he walks on the mat.”
Plains’ other freshman, Jake Lile (FR, 135 lbs) placed 3rd in Darby.
“Jake also wrestled extremely well, it was Jakes first medal this year,” Coach Marjerrison said. “Jake defeated Israel LaFrambois in the consolation finals 14-10. Both Logan and Jake had awesome performances because in addition to wrestling well all day, they had both been defeated by the kids they wrestled in their final matches earlier in the year. It is always a great feeling to come back and beat kids that you have lost to earlier in the season, it really shows the kids are improving.”
In addition to the great performance by the freshmen, the other members of the team performed excellent as well.
Joe Detienne (JR, 152lbs) placed third, only losing to the third ranked kid in the state, Quinton Denton of Ronan. Russell Kujala (SO, 125lbs) placed second in Darby by beating divisional opponent Chase Rhine of Ronan in the semifinals 16-8. Russell eventually lost to Gunnar Fairbrother of Corvallis in the championship round, 6-3.
“Russell wrestled very well and has had a consistent, and solid performance every weekend,” Coach Marjerrison said. “Fairbrother from Corvallis is a high-quality wrestler and is also ranked in the top 4 in the state in Class A.”
The final medalist of the day was Ben Gorham in the heavyweight class. Gorham had a great day as usual by getting first place and pinning all of his opponents along the way in a combined 1:55. “Any time you can make your way through a tournament with teams like Ronan and Corvallis there and only be on the mat for a total of 1:55, you know you’ve wrestled well,” Coach Marjerrison said. Up next for the Savage Horsemen is Divisionals, which will take place in Thompson Falls on Saturday.
“Our team seems to be conditioned well and ready to wrestle at the divisional tournament,” Coach Marjerrison said. “We are hoping to have our other two members who have been sick, back ready for action this weekend in Thompson Falls for Divisionals.”