Plains wrestlers do well at Choteau Tournament

PLAINS – The Plains/Hot Springs wrestling team went to Choteau and came back placing three kids in a tough competition.

According to Head Coach Kenny Marjerrison the tournament at Choteau is the largest Class B tournament in the state.

The tough competition was no match for some of the wrestlers as a Plains champion was named.

Ben Gorham won the championship and also took the Accumulative Quick Man Award.

“Ben pinned all four of his kids faster than anyone else did,” Coach Marjerrison said.

Gorham pinned his opponents in a little over three minutes – a time that is huge for a tournament like Choteau. Coach Marjerrison said the typical time is up in the seven-minute range so the feat was very impressive.

Gorham at first was hard on himself because he gave up his first point of the season, but after realizing he won the championship and the Quick Man Award, he was happy with the overall result of the weekend.

Gorham wasn’t the only one who saw success over the weekend. Russell Kujala at 132 pounds won second place in the tournament. Coach Marjerrison said Kujala wrestled exceptionally well but got caught in a bad scramble and ended up getting pinned.

He wrestled the number one wrestler Teague Jones from Harlem. Currently Kujala follows closely behind Jones at number two.

The hope is the two will meet up again for the state championship – something that may be a positive in the end.

Kujala should now possess a better idea of what to expect against Jones if they were to be matched up again.

Logan Goodwin was the third wrestler who placed. At 138 pounds, Goodwin placed fourth. Coach Marjerrison said that particular weight division is exceptionally hard.

Goodwin came back and beat a few kids he lost to earlier in the season. It shows he has continually improved throughout the season.

“He’s definitely making good progress and doing really well. We are pretty happy with where Logan is and if he keep competing where he’s at, in three weeks we’ll be eying a state medal,” Marjerrison said.

Two other wrestlers were close to place with Joe DeTienne at 160 pounds and Jake Lile getting seventh place – one spot away from a medal.

The team had similar results to last year’s performance at Choteau but this year offered some tougher competition in the weight classes.

Plains will host a dual and a mixer on Friday night. According to Coach Marjerrison the dual will be a “varsity grudge match” against Thompson Falls. The dual starts at 5 p.m. and the Plains/Hot Springs wrestlers will then continue to a mixer they are hosting later in the evening.

The mixer will feature Noxon, Ronan, Eureka and Bigfork as well maybe Thompson Falls if they decide to stay throughout the night.

Each wrestler should get two to three matches on the night, adding more wrestling time under their belt.

With the season quickly wrapping to an end, the more wrestling time, the better.

The Mission Tournament on Saturday will provide just that. The quick tournament is hosted in a round robin-style fashion and will give the kids a handful of matches each. It will also allow the kids to go head-to-head with some strong competition, like kids from the Big Sky JV team.

Right now the team is working on correcting some of their mistakes on the mat.

“We’re cleaning stuff up,” Coach Marjerrison said. “We’re trying to clean up technique and keep our conditioning sharp.”

The team still has their eyes on the top three spot at the divisional tournament. Overall they are hoping to put up a strong front at state and are aiming for at least three medals – with Gorham, Kujala and Goodwin hopefully bringing home some hardware.