Savage Horsemen make wrestling history

PLAINS – The Savage Horsemen accomplished a first in the history of wrestling last week. The team took down the Thompson Falls wrestling team in a dual and won 44 to 12, only losing one match.

“To my knowledge that has never happened in Plains history,” Head Coach Kenny Marjerrison said. “We have never beat them in a head to head dual. It was a big deal for our kids.”

The wrestling program started back in 1968 so the accomplishment is a big one.

“It was just a good night,” Coach Marjerrison said.

Although the wrestlers entered into the night optimistic for a win, Coach Marjerrison did expect a closer outcome. However, both Marjerrison and the wrestlers took the win with great pride.

Some of the matches wrestled were lost previously in the season so the kids were ready for redemption.

Throughout the night Logan Goodwin was the only one to lose a match. Goodwin wrestled up a weight class during the dual – something that can be quite difficult.

“Wrestling higher is harder. The general rule of thumb is you are giving up strength and weight,” Coach Marjerrison explained. At first Goodwin was winning and the match was close but he got caught up and pinned.

After the dual, the wrestlers went straight into a mixer with Bigfork, Eureka, Ronan and Noxon.

The teams were able to get a more time on the mat.

The Savage Horsemen then went on to Mission on Saturday for a round robin-style tournament. Coach Marjerrison said the point of the tournament was to get the kids the best amount of wrestling with the best wrestlers.

“There was a lot of good competition there,” Coach Marjerrison said. “We had some teams we don’t see very often and we saw some tough kids.”

Ben Gorham and Russell Kujala wrestled to the expectations set for them. The duo “wrestled extremely well.”

Joe and James DeTienne also had a good day.

The tough competition did take some wins away from the Savage Horsemen. According to Coach Marjerrison both Jake Lile and Goodwin were faced with fierce competition. Goodwin went 2- 2, while Lile was 1-2 on the night.

“It’s not that they didn’t wrestle very well – they had tough kids in their bracket,” Coach Marjerrison explained.

The team will go on to compete at Florence on Thursday night in a mixer tournament and then Plains will host their last home mixer on Saturday. This event will be the last one before the divisional tournament. The matches set up at the mixers will help determine the final seed placement before the team heads into divisionals.