Superior wrestlers see victory in two tournaments

SUPERIOR – The Superior wrestling team came away with good results as they had three days of wrestling last week.

On Tuesday, January 14, Superior hosted Arlee, Thompson Falls and Drummond for a series of quad-mixer matches. The team performed well and took two non-exhibition victories. According to Head Coach Charlie Crabb, the team won the matches they needed to.

Senior Anthony Parkin, 113-pound class, won one of the varsity and freshman Blaine Parkin, 98-pound class, won another. Freshman Tate Trudeau, 105-pound class, lost his varsity match. The remainder of the matches were exhibition.

The coach felt Blaine’s matches were hindered by the size difference of the other wrestlers.

“Blaine only won the one match, everybody else was quite a bit bigger than he was,” said Crabb.

Trudeau also suffered size differences in his matches. However, he won one of his matches and Crabb said he showed good improvement coming back from the football injury he suffered.

“He did well against [his opponents] and that’s what we wanted, so he did a good job with that,” said Crabb.

All three of Superior’s wrestlers faced opponents bigger than they were. Blaine and Trudeau were both overwhelmed by their opponents. However, Anthony was able to come out on top and won all three of his matches.

On Friday, January 17, and Saturday, January 18, the team travelled to Missoula to take place in the Rocky Mountain Classic. Crabb said there were approximately 31 teams in attendance from Montana, Idaho, Washington and even Wyoming.

Anthony took sixth place in the tournament. Crabb said there were approximately 20 other wrestlers in Anthony’s weight class. While he was undefeated on Friday, he was defeated twice on Saturday.

Blaine made it through Friday’s matches. However, he was defeated in Saturday’s qualifying match and removed from the competition.

Trudeau did not place, but had a good tournament. Crabb felt Blaine and Trudeau did an especially good job in the tournament where he noted some big improvements. He said both wrestlers faced off against some strong opposition.

“If you can win a match [at RMC] you’re doing really well,” said Crabb. “Overall, I thought they did really well.”

The coach felt the competition was especially strong and he was impressed with their performance. He said the other wrestlers were some of the best in the area and many were from AA schools.

As the next tournament approaches, the team will work to improve their skills in the bottom position. Crabb said the team had lost some matches because of poor scoring from the bottom. He also wanted to see overall improvement in everything the team did, as divisionals get closer.

“We’ve got to turn the heat up on them,” said Crabb. “Get it up in gear and get them in better shape.”

The team’s next matches will be at the tournament in Mission on Saturday, January 25. Crabb was not sure how many teams would be at the Mission Tournament, but thought there would be junior varsity and varsity teams, among others.

After the RMC, there are only three more tournaments before the start of divisionals.