Sanders County Ledger - Your Best Source For Sanders County News

by Skye Hill

Though their travel plans changed a bit, the Savage-Horsemen wrestling team found some good competition over the weekend. Plains-Hot Springs was originally scheduled to travel to Choteau for a tournament last weekend, but changed plans due to winter weather and attended the John Fisher jv tournament in Missoula. PHS had several wrestlers take the top spot in Missoula.

Finishing first for the Savage Horsemen were Matthew Thurston, Gavin Schrenk, Drew Carey, John Waterbury, David Chapman and Gabe Rasmussen. Brenden Vanderwall and Devin Barnes finished in second and Beau Crabb took sixth place..

Matthew Thurston at 113 pounds won his first match by decision. He went on to the semifinals and won by pin over Austin Velk of Havre. He would take first place in the finals by pin over Frenchtowns’ Ean Johnson.

Andrew Waterbury took third in the bracket, first winning his match but losing by pin in the semifinals and the consolation bracket.

At 126 pounds, it was a Savage-Horsemen final as Gavin Schrenk and Cody West faced off in the final match. Schrenk would win by an 8-2 decision. West won two matches before making it to the championship, including a pin over Jordyn Lupton of Coeur d’Alene and then a 6-1 decision over Frenchtown’s Cooper Hardy. Schrenk worked his way to the final with a first-period pin over Frenchtown’s Darian Zukauskas and then a 9-1 major decision over Dallin Covington of Missoula Sentinel.

In the 138-pound weight class, Drew Carey took first place, receiving a bye for his first matches. He went on to pin Chris Romo of Lake City, putting him in the semifinals. Carey pinned his next two opponents to take first place.

Beau Crabb, also in the 138 weight class, took sixth place, losing his first match by pin. He went on to have a bye, and went on to pin Charlie Cooper of Sentinel to put himself in the consolation semifinals, where Crabb pinned his opponent. He would be pinned in his last match.

John Waterbury took first place for the 152-pound weight class, having a bye in the first round. Waterbury pinned two opponents to get into the championship match, which he won with a 10-5 decision over top see David Osborn of University High School in Washington.

Chapman pinned his way to the top of the podium at 170 pounds, first pinning Caden Kemper of Coeur d’Alene in the second period. In his semifinal matchup, Chapman pinned Everett Tucker of Missoula Sentinel at the start of the second period. On the other side of the bracket, Chapman’s teammate Vanderwall started the day with a bye before pinning Kaden Kaber of Columbia Falls in 4 minutes, 18 seconds. That set up a championship match between the two Savage-Horsemen wrestlers and Chapman would win by pin in 51 seconds.

Gabe Rasmussen had a full day in the 182-pound bracket. His tournament started with a 9-4 decision over Carter Gregerson of University High School. Rasmussen then pinned Hellgate’s Brody Gendrow as the first period was winding down, and easily took Frenchtown’s Jacob Kuripus to the mat in 1:38 to make it to the championship. Getting to first place would be a bit more of a challenge for Rasmussen, who pinned Frenchtown’s Cole Houlihan in the third period.

Devin Barnes finished second in the 160-pound bracket. Barnes was pinned by Dominque McKay of Ronan in the championship match.

“I am very proud of my team, although this wasn’t the big competition like it would have been in Choteau, the team performed well. They are implementing the things we are practicing and it shows,” said coach Jesse Jermyn.

The Savage-Horsemen will host a mixer this Friday and compete in the Ted Kato Memorial tournament on Saturday.