A wrestling: Cats pin down Whitefish

WHITEFISH — The Columbia Falls wrestling team racked up seven pins in a 61-15 rout of rival Whitefish on Friday.

Cameron Linstead opened with a pin in the 119-pound bout, and the next three Columbia Falls wrestlers followed with pins to give the Wildcats a commanding lead.

Shonn Roberts finished the dual with Columbia Falls’ seventh pin, needing just 48 seconds to subdue Whitefish’s Garrett Rice in the 112-pound bout.

“We’re going to be tough this year,” Roberts said. “We can already tell. We’ve got a lot of good kids and it’s pretty exciting for our roster.”

Roberts, the Class A state-champion at 98 pounds a year ago, moved up to 112 pounds this season, and had no trouble wrestling at his increased weight.

“I feel good at that weight,” he said. “I’m too heavy to wrestle anything lighter than that.”

Seth McCall, Dalton Nelson, Josiah Osborne, Cameron Peterson and Aaron Vick had the Wildcats’ other five pins.

Whitefish tallied two wins in the dual as 105-pounder Dillon Thornsteinson pinned Columbia Falls’ Cameron Goodwin and senior heavyweight Wolf Zinke, last year’s runner up at the state tournament, won a 6-5 decision over sophomore Spencer Ross in a bout that brought the Whitefish crowd to its feet on several occasions.

Zinke was the aggressor early, but Ross fought off Zinke’s attempts to toss him to the mat. Ross scored the first takedown 43 seconds into the first period, then Zinke scored a reverse to tie it at 2.

Ross scored the first takedown again in the second period, but Zinke quickly reversed and rode out the rest of the period.

Clearly winded, Zinke needed time to catch his breath and settle his stomach prior to the third period.

“I just put too much effort into my warm-up,” Zinke said. “That was all that really happened.”

Ross was unable to take advantage of his opponent’s fatigue, as Zinke scored a takedown 30 seconds into the third. Ross escaped, then forced a stalemate, but neither wrestler scored the rest of the bout and Zinke hung on for the win.

“I was just trying to be aggressive and show him I wasn’t going to back down,” Zinke said.

Despite seeing his wrestler take the loss, Columbia Falls coach Jessie Schaeffer said he was encouraged by Ross’ performance against one of the top heavyweights in Class A.

“He was by far in better condition than Wolf was,” Schaeffer said. “We’ve got to work a little bit on his top position. Our takedowns weren’t quite there when they needed to be.

“Obviously there’s some room to improve, but it’s exciting to see that our heavyweight is right up there with the best in Class A.

Roberts said Ross’ effort was the highlight of the dual.

“He performed way better than I thought he would,” Roberts said. “He really surprised everybody.”

Columbia Falls forfeited the 98-pound slot and Whitefish forfeited at 189 pounds.

Columbia Falls def. Whitefish 61-15

98 - James Buckley (WF) win by forfeit. 105 - Dillon Thornsteinson (WF) def Cameron Goodwin (CF), Fall 1:38. 112 - Shonn Roberts (CF) def Garrett Rice (WF), Fall 0:48. 119 - Cameron Linstead (CF) def Skyler Bowerman (WF), Fall 3:01. 125 - Seth McCall (CF) def Matt Barton (WF), Fall 3:12. 130 - Dalton Nelson (CF) def Trysten Armstrong (WF), Fall 1:55. 135 - Josiah Osborne (CF) def Emmitt Schmidt (WF), Fall 0:59. 140 - Zayne Brunz def Wyatt Price, Dec 7-1. 145 - Colton Gove (CF) def Judah Prestegaard (WF), Dec 9-5. 152 - Bryan Shaffer (CF) def Madison McWhirter (WF), Dec 8-4. 160 - Cody Walters (CF) def Konrad Zinke (WF) M-Dec 12-4. 171 - Cameron Peterson (CF) def Kyle Bowerman (WF), Fall 2:23. 189 - Jacob Burgess (CF) win by forfeit. 215 - Aaron Vick (CF) def Matt Gulbrandson (WF), Fall 3:10. Hwt - Wolf Zinke (WF) def Spencer Ross (CF), Dec 6-5.