MISSION – Four Savage Horsemen are still riding, riding on to the State B-C Tournament in Billings.

The Plains-Hot Springs Savage Horsemen wrestling team qualified four grapplers for this week's State B-C tourney to be held at Metra Park in Billings Friday and Saturday at last Saturday's Western B-C divisional meet in Mission

With Conrad Vanderwall taking second place at 138 pounds, Brady Schrenk claiming second place at 113, Mason Elliott finishing fourth at 120 and Bert DeTienne fourth at 152, coach Jeff Kujala's P-HS grapplers scored 61 team points and qualified those four wrestlers for Montana's biggest prep wrestling show of any season.

Host Mission-Charlo won the meet with 187 points, Clark Fork (Superior-Alberton) was second with 183.5 and Eureka third with 151. P-HS finished seventh in Western B-C team scoring.

What's more, Peter Carey (132 pounds), Jesse Uski (160) and Stephen Yother (205) all finished in fifth place, and Gage Fuhrman (145) placed sixth. Carey, Uski and Yother earned alternate slots in the State B-C if the other divisions do not have full fields in each weight class.

At press time, it was not known if any of the fifth place winners would be called into State B-C duty this week.

"The kids wrestled well," Kujala said. "It would have been nice to get a few more through, but we are happy with the four we have moving on."

Kujala is undoubtedly happiest of all for Vanderwall and Schrenk, P-HS's silver medal winners in Mission.

Vanderwall earned his championship match berth at 138 with two decision wins, outpointing Bigfork's Ryder Nollan 9-2 in the quarterfinals before outlasting Shane Reishus of Thompson Falls-Noxon 13-11 in the semifinals.

Nathan Schmidt pinned Vanderwall in 2:38 of the championship match. "Conrad had a good tournament," Kujala said. "He has set himself up well for this week with his strong showing in Mission."

Schrenk pinned Kyler Bates in 1:51 of their semifinal bout at 113 pounds to gain the finals and punch his ticket to Billings. Decker Milender of Clark Fork pinned Schrenk in 1:02 of the 113 final.

"Brady has made great strides this season," Kujala said. "It's a real positive for him to get to go on to state now and see what it is like there."

Elliott and DeTienne also earned the right to go on and fight in Billings. DeTienne's inspired performance at 152 was a highlight for the Savage Horsemen.

"Bert has been battling illness and injury this season so it was good to see him break through," Kujala offered. "He had a really good tournament."

After pinning Zack Dixon of Florence in 1:00 of that first round match, DeTienne then pinned Clark Fork's Hunter Haskins in 2:53 of the quarterfinals to land in the semifinals against Darwin Adams of Mission-Charlo.

Adams pinned DeTienne in that semi, but DeTienne then won a tough 9-7 decision from Clark Fork's Thomas Anderson to clinch a spot in the conso final, where Haskins won the rematch to claim the third place medal and relegate DeTienne to fourth.

Happy with the ones he does have going to Billings this week, Kujala could not help but feel a little bad for the ones who did not move on.

John Hamilton

P-HS FRESHMAN Brady Schrenk pinned Florence's Kyler Bates in this semifinal match to advance to Western B-C championship match at 113 pounds Saturday.

"It's hard to beat that state tournament experience, and you don't get the chance at it very often," he said. "Those kids that didn't make it will have to work that much harder in the off season if they hope to get there next year."