Neiss, Ronan muscle Whitefish
Whitefish freshman Wolf Zinke gets close to a pin during his match with Ronan junior Aaron Yazzi-Whitworth on Tuesday at Whitefish. Zinke went on to win by decision.
WHITEFISH — The quest for perfection continues for Cameron Neiss, while Ronan tuned up for a big Northwestern A wrestling dual with rival Polson later this week by thumping Whitefish 54-16 on Tuesday to spoil Senior Night at WHS.
Ronan’s Neiss (135) improved to 33-0 on the season with a precision-like third-period pin of Dalton Rice. The top-ranked grappler in Class A at his weight class had four takedowns in a match he completely controlled. He eventually pinned Rice, a senior who is ranked No. 4 at 130, in 5:03 after taking a 15-6 edge.
Ronan, ranked No. 3 in Class A, held three starters out — Micky Cheff (152), Cole McArthur (160), Toby Cheff (189) — because they have had 17 weigh-ins to date. Wrestlers are allowed only 18.
Micky Cheff is ranked No. 2 at his weight class, McArthur is third and Toby Cheff is first.
Ronan coach Dustin Azure said all three will be in the lineup on Friday at home when the Chiefs (6-1 Northwestern A) host the No. 5 Pirates.
Polson won the earlier league matchup, while Ronan topped Polson in their other meeting this season.
Ronan, which normally forfeits at 105 and 119, also forfeited this time at 160 and 189.
All total, five wrestlers — three for Ronan and two for Whitefish — won by forfeit. Both teams were open at 105 and 119.
In the eight matches wrestled, Ronan went 7-1, winning five times by pins.
“I told the seniors this was their last shot before the home crowd and if they could, to leave it all on the mat,” Whitefish coach Ryan Hoffman said.
Senior Tanner Benedict (160) won by pin, while seniors Nick O’Dell (145) dropped a tough 7-5 decision in overtime and Geoff Streeter (171) lost a rough 8-7 decision.
O’Dell used a reversal with five seconds remaining to take a 5-4 brief lead on Dustin Goldsby. At the buzzer, Goldsby completed an escape to tie it, and won with 8.9 seconds left in overtime on a takedown.
Streeter gave up a two-point nearfall in the final 13 seconds in losing to Tyler Wheeler.
“Tonight, we saw some good things out there,” Hoffman said.
“We extended the matches, got into the third period. We wrestled some kids we hadn’t wrestled this year.
“Nick and Geoff both wrestled well, they just made a little mistake and it cost them,” Hoffman said.
98 — Lukas Conklin, R, won by forfeit; 105 — Open; 112 — Andrew Teigan, R, won by forfeit; 119 — Open; 125 — Kyle Lawson, R, won by forfeit; 130 — Shelby Grant, R, pinned Jon Sammon, 1:17; 135 — Cameron Neiss, R, pinned Dalton Rice, 5:03; 140 — Alex Greenfield, R, pinned DJ Buckley, 1:14; 145 — Dustin Goldsby, R, dec. Nick O’Dell, 7-5 OT; 152 — Quenton Denton, R, pinned Robby Neff, 3:40; 160 — Tanner Benedict, W, won by forfeit; 171 — Tyler Wheeler, R, dec. Geoff Streeter, 8-7; 189 — Nate Wiedenmeyer, W, won by forfeit; 215 — Colby Roberts, R, pinned Domonic Sargent, 1:31; 285 — Wolf Zinke, W, maj. dec. Aaron Yazzi-Whitworth, 15-7.
Match started at 171