Glacier, Flathead wrestlers head to Holiday tourney

The local high schools are getting in plenty of action in pre-Christmas break, and no sport is getting more done than wrestling.

Glacier and Flathead are taking teams to the CMR Holiday Classic Friday and Saturday in Great Falls, the second big tournament in a season already in its third week.

Glacier’s boys won three of five matches at last week’s Mining City Duals, with the wins coming over Bozeman (42-18), Missoula Hellgate (39-27) and Class A Three Forks/Ennis (33-30), with losses to defending State A champion Columbia Falls and AA power Billings Senior.

It wasn’t 5-0 — Flathead won the thing, for the third straight year  — but it was encouraging. Coach Ross Dankers is excited to see how Aiden Sweat, who was 3-0 on the mat in Butte and 2-0 at 113 pounds, does at 103 this weekend.

“Aiden Sweat hasn’t gotten a lot of matches,” Dankers noted. “For him as a sophomore to be at 103 and full size is pretty exciting.”

Senior Payton Stewart is also moving down to 126 this weekend, and Dankers is interested in how Mark Ahner, 3-0 in Butte and 2-0 at 182, does at 170.

There’s also 152-pounder Kaleb Shine, whose one loss in Butte (to Demetri Salaris of Billings Senior) came after he built a 5-1 lead.

“Otherwise we’re just kind of limping through a little bit, with illness and injury,” said Dankers, who was unsure of the status of 120-pounder Garrett Bosch. “We’re hoping to get back to 100 percent by January.”

That includes the Glacier girls, where Brooke Yeadon has been a little nicked up and Cora Coles, the defending AA champ at 114, has yet to see action (but should this weekend). Dankers was excited about Katelyn Sphuler’s runner-up finish at 100 pounds at last weekend’s Flathead Girls Invitational, and the fourth-place finishes by Temree Payne-Taylor (120) and Kylie Shine (132).

Flathead’s Bravettes finished second to Billings Senior in their own meet, with Adi Siegel (114), Bella Downing (120) and Brady Boll (132) all taking second. Six wrestlers placed in all, three at 132.

Flathead head coach Jeff Thompson noted his teams won’t be at full force in Great Falls.

“The wrestling gods were not in our corner this week,” he said. “WE have been hit hard by sickness and injuries. We will still battle as a team and have some individual success.

“The CMR holiday tournament  has a solid field and we are excited to get some tough competition.”