HOG wild

Contestants - and the pigs they wrestled - slipped, splatted and squealed Friday

Their game plan turned to mud in a few seconds. Quietly corner that 80-pound pig, grab all four legs, haul it to the two-foot-tall barrel partly filled with sawdust, and stick it in butt-first.

The junior class pig wrestling team was "Get Dirty" - Desiree Blankenship, 12; Nina Timmons, 13; Alyssa Blankenship, 11; and Tanner Stupack, 12.

They had 60 seconds to do the task.

But …

The 30-foot-in-diameter circular pen was almost a foot deep in gray liquefied bentonite.

Bentonite is used in sorts of adhesive, sealing and binding uses.

Nasty looking stuff. Gooey as hell when soaked.

"The more water it gets, the slimier it'll be. It'll look like a milkshake when I'm done," said Todd Balin as he sprayed the bentonite with a water hose.

A man murmured in the crowd of roughly 500: "That's real slick. Even the pigs'll have a hard time getting up."

Volunteers rubbed the sludgy bentonite on each pig to grease it up.

A grizzled old guy - who declined to give his name, but looked like Captain Quint from "Jaws" - held up a red flag.

He waited until all four team members each had one hand on the fence rail by the pen's gate, and the hog meandered around on the opposite side of the pen.

The flagman shouted: "Players ready! Hog ready! Time begin!" The flag swooped down.

The kids half ran, half high-stepped across the pen at the pig. Their plan got lost along the way.

"It went down the toilet," the older Blankenship said.

Timmons added: "And we didn't even have a toilet."

The kids essentially dove at the pig.

It squealed. It wiggled and wriggled. It tried to roll. But the kids somehow held on.

They carried it through the muck to the barrel. The crowd roared in approval of their swiftness and clutching skill. They started to lower the pig's butt in the barrel - one second away from finishing.

Then …

"We slipped and it slipped out of our hands," Stupack said.

The same scenario unfolded again.

The kids chased the pig. Dove. Somehow all four grabbed it.

They slogged the pig back the barrel, started tipping it in, and the hog wiggled free at he last second.

A few seconds later, the one minute was up.

"It was awesome," Blankenship said.

. . .

Twenty-two teams competed in four divisions Saturday in the Northwest Montana Fair's first-ever pig-wrestling tournament.

Pee Wee Co-ed against 25- to 50-pounders. Junior Co-ed against 80- to 100-pounders. Women against 140- to 160-pounders. Men against 200- to 230-pounders.

The pigs won eight times.

Twenty-four teams have signed up to compete today, beginning at 3 p.m. The fair is still accepting team entries until noon.

The Friday times to beat are:

. Pee Wee - the Bacon Bits' 55.08 seconds.

. Junior - The Porkers' 12.87 seconds.

. Women - Stampin' Up's 55.7 seconds.

. Men - Well. … It was dramatic and close.

. . .

The Bigfork Wrestlers stood before the crowd.

Their coach Jeremy Bogen, 23 - who's function was to yell at them as they trained - held up a fat, gaudy belt like the ones seen on professional wrestling. Danger Hollinger, 22, - he says that's his real first name - won it three years ago, and the group thought it would be something cool to have at stake at the contest.

Bogen, Hollinger, Jacques Boiteau, 23, Claude Boiteau, 27, and Aaron Bogel, 20, all work together at Bigfork Water Sports. They vowed to spend the summer doing crazy things together. That included training for the pig wrestling contest by hauling big rocks together underwater in Flathead Lake.

"You're gonna be plantin' your face in plaster. Being underwater, you've gotta hold your breath," Bogen said.

The Bigfork Wrestlers also had a plan.

Two each would go around each side of the barrel. Whichever way the pig ran, those two players would grab its ears and front legs. The trailing two would grab its rear feet. Then they would drag - not carry - the beast to the barrel.

The red flag went down.

The plan went like clockwork, except …

"Three seconds into it, I was totally blinded [by the muck]. I had to get by with sheer smell," Hollinger said.

The hog squirmed a lot more than expected. The foursome couldn't flip him as fast as they wanted. It slipped loose, but the four quickly tackled him and wiggled themselves back to their assigned grabbing spots.

They dragged him to the barrel.

They tried to lift him, but all four heaved at different times and failed. Then they heaved together and got the critter in the barrel.

The crowd yelled. It felt great, exhilarating.

Bigfork Wrestlers' 38.23 was the time for the next four men's teams to beat.

"We cheered the pig in every one, tryin' to get the pig riled up," Claude Boiteau said

Two couldn't beat the Bigfork team. But the MMRB team clocked a 36.74 to take over first.

Toward the end, the fair board's team entered the arena.

"Don't let the gray hair fool ya. These guys're slick and fast," ring announcer Tim Karman said.

At stake was cash. The first- and second-place teams would collect a percentage of money bid on them - $243 for first, $162 for second.

The fair board members did roughly the same things as the Bigfork Wrestlers, but they didn't bobbled the hog when they grabbed it. They got the pig in the barrel in 34.24 for first place

"They got it the first time. That's the make-or-break part," Hollinger said.

"They used performance-enhancing drugs," Bogel said.

The Bigfork Wrestlers ceremoniously gave their fat championship belt to the fair board.

Hollinger said: "We're gonna come back next year and get it back."