Savage Horsemen celebrate seniors

The Savage Horsemen wrestling team celebrated Taylor Angle and David Schulze during a senior night mixer last Friday.

Angle wrestled three matches on Friday, pinning two opponents in the second period of matches and losing a tough 12-5 match against Arlee. Both Angle and her coach/father Shane were emotional during the senior night presentation. When asked about senior night, Taylor said how special it was to have her dad with her. "I love that my dad's my coach," Taylor said Friday after senior night. "He's been with me since I started wrestling," which was when she was three years old. As Angle completes her senior season, she said she's happy that she's been able to wrestle more girls this year and is looking forward to the state competition. This year, the girls' state tournament will be held at Metra Park in Billings on mats alongside the state boys' tournament.

Schulze won both of his matches on Friday, the first being a tough 6-3 win over Harold Miller of Shelby. After two periods, the wrestlers were tied at three each, but Schulze secured the win in the final period. In the final match of the evening, Schulze beat another Shelby wrestler by technical fall 15 seconds into the second period after leading 14-0 at the end of the first period.

Lily MacDonald got two pins in front of the home crowd on Friday, pinning her first female opponent from Valier in 45 seconds and then Drew Knoll from Arlee in 2:22.

Spur Ryan wrestled two exciting close matches on Friday. His first match was against Joe Ramos of Valier. Ryan was up 4-1 after the first period and almost got pinned in the second period but held the lead 6-5. Ramos took the lead in the third and won 7-6. Against Charlie Adams of Mission-Charlo, Ryan was up 3-2 after two periods, but Adams tied the match with one minute left, pushing the duo into overtime. Ryan won with a takedown in overtime.

John Waterbury started his Friday night with a pin in the second period against Arlee. Waterbury was up 7-1 after the first period and increased his lead to 12-1 before pinning his opponent. Waterbury lost his second match of the evening by pin.

Brady Schrenk got a pin in the second period of his match and Drew Carey went 1-1 with opponents during the home mixer. August Courville, Sky Van Der Gang and Gavin Schrenk wrestled hard matches at the mixer but were unable to get a win.

Last Tuesday, the Savage Horsemen girls traveled to Ronan for a mixer. Coach Shane Angle said Taylor had a stellar night with three wins, two by pin and one by technical fall. Her first match, Angle went up a weight class to wrestle Yasmine Tatset McKay at 132 pounds. Angle scored five points against McKay before pinning her in the first period. Angle then won a 15-1 technical fall in the third period against Juliette Chef. In her final match, Angle again racked up points against Amberli Anderson of Ronan before pinning her in the first period.

Brynn Courville also bumped up a weight class for a match at 138 pounds, losing to Simah Anson of Dillon 8-5. Back in her own 132-pound weight class, Courville won two matches, the first a pin in the first period and the second a 16-1 technical fall in the second period.

Lily MacDonald went 2-0 at the Ronan mixer, pinning both her opponents in the first period last Tuesday evening.

This week is another busy one for the Savage Horsemen. The Plains-Hot Springs wrestling team will be in Thompson Falls for a mixer on Thursday and then travel to Bigfork on Friday and Mission on Saturday. Coach Angle said his main concern is keeping people healthy. "We're going to review the year and tighten up some moves," he said. This will be the last week of the regular season for the Savage Horsemen before they head to the divisional meet in Butte February 4-5.