Crosstown wrestling: Glacier pins Flathead
<p>Glacier’s Arik Lybeck (left) fights off a pin move by Flathead’s Anthony Wright during the 152-pound match Thursday evening in the crosstown wrestling dual at Glacier High School. Lybeck won by decision.</p>
<p>Glacier’s Grant Tafoya (left) takes down Flathead’s Jake Shaffer during their 171-pound match Thursday evening. Tafoya won by pin in the third period. </p>
Glacier wrestling found the grit it had been missing earlier this season, grinding out a close 45-30 victory in the crosstown dual against Flathead on Thursday at Glacier High School.
The Wolfpack wrestled aggressively, winning a series of close matches to pull out the win over the Braves.
The most exciting match of the night came at 160 pounds. Wolfpack senior Jackson Barber fought to a 0-0 draw after three periods with Flathead’s Jacob Egley, each wrestler unable to score despite close calls and fantastic chances. Just 15 seconds into overtime, Barber got a reversal, leaping into the air as he took a 2-0 decision. The win avenged a loss to the Braves senior in the finals of last weekend’s Holiday Wrestling Classic in Great Falls.
“It was huge for our team,” Glacier coach Mark Fischer said. “That gave us a little bit of fire through the rest of the dual.”
The win at the midway point set a tone for the match, giving Glacier an 18-9 lead, and brought the packed crowd to its feet. As the teams traded pins over the next six matches, it also served as the key win of the match in a contest that could have gone either way.
“We lost some matches we thought we were gonna have, we won some matches that they had gotten the week before,” Fischer said. “Up and down our lineup I’m really proud of our kids.”
After a slow start, Flathead had a chance to win or tie late, closing Glacier’s lead to just 36-30 with two classes left. The Wolfpack closed strong, as Cody Decker sealed the win at 119 pounds with a 5-0 decision and Ryder Day added icing to the cake with a pin at 125.
“We had our chances of winning this, it was a couple of matches there that could’ve gone either way,” Flathead coach Scot Davis said.
“I think even though we lost, the kids know we had a good effort tonight. We’re happy with our performance.”
The match started off fast, as Braves sophomore Tyler Davis dominated the better part of three rounds before earning a pin in the opener at 130 pounds. Glacier senior Lucas Mantel followed up the impressive win with a series of acrobatic takedowns against Tanner Fletcher at 135, pinning the Braves freshman in the first round.
Overall, the more aggressive Wolfpack was able to record six pins in the match, enough to take its third straight dual victory over Flathead. The all-time series is now tied at 3-3.
“Slowly we’re picking up a few more tricks,” Fischer said. “It’s starting to look like that team of the past with grit. We wrestled with a lot of grit tonight.
We won some scrambles. That’s what it’s all about.”
Even with a young squad, Flathead proved it can hang with a veteran team in a dual setting.
“We’re there. We’re right there. We’ve got to feel good about that,” Davis said.
“Where we’ve come from in the beginning and where we’re at now, we’re getting better and better every week. Our kids don’t quit. We’re young and we’re taking this in stride. We’re getting better all the time.”
Earlier in the day, Glacier beat Polson in a dual, easily outpointing the Pirates 68-21. The Wolfpack won nine straight matches between 145 and 105 pounds, winning five by pin and three by forfeit in the stretch.
“We needed to get this win (over Flathead) to start over,” Fischer said. “We only have six weeks left when we come back. It’s a brand new season. We’re going to start fresh and start focused, come out and wrestle like we did tonight.”
Both Glacier and Flathead are done wrestling for the calendar year, taking off for the holiday break. The Wolfpack and Braves each return on Jan. 4 at the Pacific Northwest Invitational in Spokane.
Glacier def. Flathead, 45-30
98 - Ryan Danielson, G, p. Jed Cheff, 3:50. 105 - Dyan Guzman, F, p. Austin Cheney, 2:44. 112 - Lucas DeCock, F, win by forfeit. 119 - Cody Decker, G, dec. Gavyn Wilson, 5-0. 125 - Ryder Day G, p. Cody Settle, 5:24. 130 - Tyler Davis, F, p. Quinn Barber, 5:35. 135 - Lucas Mantel, G, p. Tanner Fletcher, 1:30. 140 - Kaleb Mitchell, G, p. Jon LeGassey 3:23. 145 - Suny Cheff, F, dec. Alek Mitchell, 3-1. 152 - Arik Lybeck, G, dec. Anthony Wright, 6-3. 160 - Jackson Barber, G, dec. Jacob Egley, 2-0. 171 - Grant Tafoya, G, p. Jake Shaffer, 5:19. 189 - Mitch Stivers, F, p. Colby Arbuckle, 5:49. 215 - Dawson Day, G, p. Wyatt Pehling, 1:56. HWT - Axel Bladhom, F, dec. Zach Dennehy, 5-0.
Glacier def. Polson, 68-21
98 - Ryan Danielson, G, dec. Thunder Morales, 11-3. 105 - Austin Cheney, G, p. Cody Hedeen, 5:50. 112 - Tristan Caye, P, win by forfeit. 119 - Carlos Quinones, P, win by forfeit. 125 - Dylan Moll, P, dec. Ryder Day, 5-4. 130 - Quinn Barber, G, p. Donny Herman, 1:31. 135 - Donovan Macura, G, win by forfeit. 140 - Craig Feistner, P, p. Kaleb Mitchell, 3:55. 145 - Arik Lybeck, G, win by forfeit. 152 - Alex Mitchell, G, p. Mike Devlin, 4:54. 160 - Grant Tafoya, G, p. Tel Motichka, 1:15. 171 - Jackson Barber, G, p. Josiah Edington, 3:22. 189 - Colby Arbuckle, G, p. Mike Corrigan, 1:08. 215 - Dawson Day, G, win by forfeit. HWT - Zach Dennehy, G, win by forfeit.