Polson's wrestlers sitting in 6th place

by Dixie Knutson Daily Inter Lake
| February 11, 2012 12:11 AM

BILLINGS - Some big wins, some tough losses.

That was how Friday went for the Northwestern A teams at the All Class Wrestling tournament at Billings' MetraPark.

Northwestern A divisional champion Polson is currently sixth with 67 points, Libby sits eighth with 52.5, Columbia Falls is 11th with 43 points and Whitefish is 17th with 17.

The Pirates have three in the semifinals - Craig Feistner (125), Alex Nystrom (140) and Josiah Clairmont (heavyweight). Libby has four in the semis. They are Zach Crace (119), Mitch Haugen (130) Kyle Leir (145) and Dylan Berget (160).

Columbia Falls has Shonn Roberts (98) and Jacob Babcock (215) in the semifinals. Whitefish has heavyweight Wolf Zinke.

The Pirates also have four alive in the wrestlebacks. Libby has one and Columbia Falls three.

Corvallis is leading in the team standings with 112.5 points. Havre is second at 107.5 and defending Class A state champion Laurel is third with 98. Sidney is currently fourth with 80.5 and Belgrade rounds out the top five with 68.5 points.

But among local schools, the victories are mostly individual.

Some of the matches were over almost before they started - Roberts of Columbia Falls and Clairmont of Polson both had 21 second matches in the first round. Roberts spent less than one full period on the mat as he finished his second match in 1:34. Clairmont was even more efficient with a total mat time of 1:16.

Libby also counted Haugen's quarterfinal pin of Marty Etchemendy of Miles City among its moment to celebrate.

"Not too bad," Pirate coach Bob Owen said of Polson's first day.

"We're wrestling pretty well, probably almost as well as we could. There are a couple (Pirate wrestlers) I know are disappointed with where they're at," he added.

The second round was more difficult, though.

"We hit a lot tougher kids. In some cases a lot tougher than we were. That's what wrestling is," Owen said.

"But we get almost all of them back - and we'll make hay with them next year. If they work out in the offseason, we'll make a run next year," he added.