Plains-Hot Springs 3rd in St. Ignatius tourney
The right combination of class champions and depth throughout the line-up helped carry the Plains/Hot Springs Savage Horsemen wrestlers to a respectable third-place finish Saturday at the Mission Mountain Classic tournament in St. Ignatius.
The Savage Horsemen had three individual champions: Gavin Schrenk (113 pounds); Drew Carey (132 pounds); and John Waterbury (138 pounds) along with four second place showings as they gathered 91 team points.
Team winner Three Forks won the meet with 116 points, while second place Ronan had 100.5 points during the one-day event, which had a smaller than normal field of entries due in part to weather-related concerns. Eight teams made it to this year’s event.
The Superior Bobcats, who last week won the Ted Kato tournament in Thompson Falls, came in fifth with 79 points as six of their wrestlers took home individual champ medals.
Schrenk got things rolling for Plains/Hot Springs with his victory at 113 pounds. He won the title with a 14-3 major decision over Arlee’s Dean Moran. In doing so, Schrenk, a sophomore, boosted his season mark to 25-10.
The Savage Horsemen’s Carey won his 132 pound weight class with a first round pin of Three Forks eighth-grader Wyatt Hart-Barker, the fall coming at the 1:10 mark.
Waterbury, a sophomore who now has a 37-4 record at 138 pounds, was also a champion, beating Superior freshman Sam Doughty in 42 seconds of the first round. Waterbury was also a class champion at the Ted Kato meet.
Superior, meanwhile, got a first place finish from Micah Acker in the 120 pound division. Acker pinned Brody Smith of Arlee in 2:51, upping his record for the year to 30-13.
Acker’s win was followed by multiple event champion Decker Milender’s victory in the 126 pound category where he won a tough 6-2 decision over Plains/Hot Springs’ Jacob Schulze. Milender has won several major events this year on his way to a 40-4 record.
Lucas Kovalsky, wrestling at 145 pounds was also a first place medal winner, stopping Will Jame Courville of Ronan by fall at 3:29. Kovalsky, a junior, is now 20-7 on the year.
At 152 pounds, Superior eighth-grader Turner Milender continued his emergence as a top wrestler when he won the weight class with an 8-4 decision over Peterson Watkins of Ronan. The win boosted Milender, younger brother of Decker, to 27-18 on the year. He has finished second at multiple tournaments this season.
Superior also picked up a first place medal at 182 pounds when William Buchanan won by fall (2:36) over Savage Horsemen wrestler Levi Blood. Buchanan lifted his season mark to 8-9 with the win, while Blood fell to 19-15.
The last Bobcats wrestler to win was 285-pounder Chandon Vulles, another first place medalist from the Ted Kato tourney. Vulles raised his season mark to 34-6 with a fall at the 1:16 mark over teammate Kaleb Pearce, another of the promising underclassmen Superior has on its roster. The Bobcats also picked up third, which went to junior Jaden Hughes. The heavyweight classification had only three wrestlers participating, and all three were from Superior.
Plains/Hot Springs also got a first place medal in the girls competition when multiple tourney winner Lillian MacDonald pinned St. Ignatius’ Aubrey Sharbone 25 seconds into the second round.
MacDonald, a senior, is now 28-7 on the year.
Other top five finishers for the Savage Horsemen were: Donny Nelson and Mason Elliot, fourth and fifth respectively at 145 pounds; Brenden Vanderwall, second at 170 pounds; and, Brady Schrenk and David Chapman, third and fourth in the 160 pound category.
Next up for the Superior and Plains/Hot Springs wrestlers is the Divisional tournament, held this year at Salish Kootenai College in Pablo this Friday and Saturday.
Thompson Falls will also take part in the SKC divisionals.