Whitefish's big 'Dog - heavyweight wrestler Wolf Zinke

Three years ago, the Whitefish High School wrestling program nearly disbanded.

At it’s lowest point, Whitefish was down to seven wrestlers, coach Ryan Boyle said, and the program was about to fall victim to budget cuts.

Now Whitefish is up to 24 wrestlers, its highest number in the five years Boyle has been with the program, and much of the credit belongs on the broad shoulders of senior Wolf Zinke, a 6-foot-5, 230-pound heavyweight with a shot to become Whitefish’s first state wrestling champion since 2006.

Zinke was runner-up at last year’s state tournament and is the No.1-ranked heavyweight in Class A this season, but his wrestling career nearly ended after his freshman year.

Because of the wrestling program’s sparse participation during Zinke’s first season, the school board told Boyle and his wrestlers their numbers would have to increase if they wanted to keep the program.

“At that point we were low on numbers and they came to us and said you need to have 20 guys wrestling, otherwise it’s going to be gone,” Boyle said. “Our A.D., Jackie Fuller, fought tooth-and-nail to keep the program, but it was one of those things where they were just looking at budgets and looking at what they can cut.”

Zinke wasn’t ready to quit wrestling. He and his fellow wrestlers went into the halls of Whitefish High School and recruited their classmates to join the team and save the program.

“There was a sense of urgency from those kids,” Boyle said. “Wolf was one of the major ones that said, ‘I really like this sport. I really want this to continue.’

“He’s a huge part of what’s happening right now, not just because he was down at the state tournament winning matches, but because he went out in the hallways and talked to those kids and got them in here. That’s why we’re still able to do this.”

Zinke arrived in Whitefish as an eighth grader after his family moved from Santa Barbara, Calif. He had never tried wrestling before, but as a freshman in high school his size made him the target of a coaching staff looking to recruit new wrestlers.

“He was a huge kid,” Boyle said. “He was about 6-4, 250 pounds and it was just like, holy cow, who is this?”

Zinke treaded water his freshman season, finishing with a 4-12 record in the heavyweight class against largely older and more experienced opponents. He improved to 13-14 as a sophomore and won a consolation match at the state tournament after losing in the opening round to state champion Chris Kurkowski of Miles City.

His junior year was when Zinke began to realize his potential. He started lifting weights and chiseled his soft 250-pound frame into a slimmer and stronger 230 pounds.

“I’m a tall guy, but I got a lot faster,” Zinke said.

“I’m a lot faster than most guys because they’re bigger dudes. I’m skinnier, more muscular, ripped and better-looking.”

Zinke went 20-5 en route to an appearance in the Northwestern A divisional championship match, where he was pinned by Polson’s Josiah Clairmont. Then he made a run to the state title match, sticking his first three opponents before being pinned by Sidney’s Allen Neuleib, Class A’s top-ranked heavyweight, in the championship bout.

Zinke hadn’t been ranked in the Class A coaches poll all season, so his run to the championship may have surprised some, but Boyle said he knew Zinke had a chance as soon as he saw the draw. Neuleib and Clairmont were both in the other half, meaning Zinke wouldn’t see either until the championship.

“I got that bracket for the state tournament and I went to him right away and said ‘this is our chance,’” Boyle said.

“It really was one of those things that the stars aligned for him and he absolutely wrestled the greatest I’ve ever seen him wrestle. It was amazing to watch him do what he was doing.”

Zinke’s first victim was Hardin’s Robert Becker, who lasted 2 minutes and 40 seconds before being pinned. Next up was Browning’s Dakota Rutherford, who Zinke pinned in 1:33 to set up a semifinal match with Laurel’s Cody Stone-Murphy, a 5-7 fire hydrant who scored an upset win over Neuleib a week earlier at the Eastern A divisional tournament.

Knowing Stone-Murphy would be the toughest foe he’d ever faced, Zinke said he felt pressure to win not just for himself, but for his team since the Whitefish wrestling program would gain valuable exposure if he reached the championship.

“I basically treated it like that was the finals,” Zinke said.

“A lot was on me.”

In the biggest match of his life, Zinke pinned the Laurel heavyweight 1:08 into the first period to advance to the championship match. His dream run ended later that evening when, in front of a packed crowd at Rimrock Auto Arena in Billings, Neuleib tossed Zinke to the mat 30 seconds into the first period and secured the pin at the 47-second mark.

Zinke admits he wasn’t ready to be on that big of a stage.

“When I got into that match, I was nervous,” he said.

“I had never been in a situation like that. I wasn’t really ready for that match. I was kind of content that I got second at state and I knew that kid was a lot better than I was. It was kind of a bummer for me now that I go back and think about it. I was really nervous. Being unranked and going to second in state is a pretty big jump.”

Boyle said he could sense Zinke wasn’t quite right heading into the championship match.

“It was one of those things that I could kind of tell that he was nervous,” he said.

“He’s a quiet guy when he’s warming up. I don’t know if it was too much for him just to be in the championship, but I could tell that he was a little nervous being there.

“He got caught in that first period trying to do a duck-under and didn’t quite get all the way around him.”

Motivated by coming so close to a state title, Zinke went back to Santa Barbara during the summer and spent part of every day lifting weights in the gym with one goal in mind: to win a state championship.

When asked what winning a state title would mean to him, Zinke’s first thought isn’t about himself, but about what it would mean to those around him.

“It would mean a lot to Boyle,” he said.

“Which is one of the reasons I do it, because I want to be his first state champion.

“To win it for Whitefish, since we haven’t won it in a long time, would be a big deal. That would give our program more money because we’d be better sponsored, and we could actually go to bigger tournaments. For the future of our program, it would be a lot better for us.”

Boyle said Zinke doesn’t always put that side of his personality on display, but underneath his heavyweight bravado is a very caring person.

“He acts real big,” Boyle said.

“That’s his personality, that’s what people see. There’s a big shell that really protects him, but we’ve had our moments as far as vulnerability that you can really tell that he’s just a sweet guy.”

Neuleib and Clairmont have both graduated, leaving Zinke as the favorite among Class A heavyweights this year, but he didn’t enter the season in peak shape. He struggled in his first match, slipping past Columbia Falls’ Spencer Ross with a 6-5 decision while nearly puking between the second and third periods. A day later, Frenchtown’s Jordan Zuraff handed Zinke a loss at the Polson Invitational.

“My conditioning was pretty low and Jordan’s a pretty good wrestler,” Zinke said.

“I think it was good for me because I was too cocky going into that match. I think it was good that I lost just so I could realize that I’m not God when I’m on the mat.”

Zinke is 18-0 since that loss, and Boyle said he really picked up his game after Christmas break when he won the Cut Bank Booster Club tournament.

“He went to Cut Bank and he wrestled very well,” Boyle said. “He went down to Missoula and we weren’t able to get him into the Rocky (Mountain Wrestling Classic), but he walked through the people that were there at the Big Sky tournament.

“He’s wrestling smart, he’s using actual armbars, he’s really starting to figure out the moves.”

While his technical ability has improved, Boyle said Zinke primarily relies on his size and instincts. He’s not the biggest heavyweight, but he’s one of the tallest and has the strength to hold off heavier opponents.

“He knows some moves, but a lot of it is just what he feels and what he does,” Boyle said. “He’s 6-5, so to wrestle him you’re coming up a lot to him. He’s just very big. At 230 pounds, he’s one of the lighter guys, but there’s enough power there and there’s a lot of speed there. Once he’s on top of you, you don’t have a chance to come up out of that.”

Zinke has fared favorably against the other top heavyweights in the Class A coaches poll. He’s 1-0 in his career against No. 2 Stone-Murphy, 1-0 against No. 3 Donovan Hucke of Dillon and 5-1 against No. 5 Dakota Rutherford of Browning (with the one loss coming when he was a sophomore). He is 0-1 against No. 4 Zuraff and has never faced No. 6 Bryce Blumenschein of Belgrade.

Zinke will get a chance to avenge his loss to Zuraff on Saturday at the Northwestern A divisional tournament in Frenchtown. Then he’ll head to Billings for the state tournament Feb. 8-9.