by Annie Wooden

It was a busy first day of competition at the Western B/C Divisional wrestling tournament at Shelby High School on Friday.

Friday evening, Plains-Hot Springs sat in fourth place as a team with 76 points. Florence High School currently leads the team competition. Here's how the Sanders County wrestlers fared in day one.

103 Pounds: Blue Hawk Weston Block will wrestle in the semifinal round Saturday morning.

113 Pounds: Matthew Thurston of Plains pinned Russell Douglas of Boulder in under a minute, then lost to Rowan Miller of Florence. Thurston will wrestle back in the consolation bracket on Saturday.

120 Pounds: Savage-Horseman John Thurston lost his first match of the day, but then won an exciting 15-14 decision over Kegen Vanek of Cascade to keep his hopes alive for a state appearance next week in Billings. Blue Hawk Carson Kenney won his first match by forfeit, then fell in the first period to Logan VanDyke of Conrad. Kenney and Thurston will wrestle in the consolation bracket on Saturday.

126 Pounds: Cody West of Plains fell in his first match, as did Diego Long and Remy Ryan of Thompson Falls. Savage-Horseman Gavin Schrenk had a bye in the first round, then pinned Mark Sandoval of Darby. Schrenk lost in the quarterfinals by a 6-1 decision and will wrestle back on Saturday. Teammates Ryan and Long met in the consolation bracket on Friday, with Long winning by forfeit. Long will wrestle Sandoval of Darby on Saturday. West is also wrestling back in the consolation bracket.

132 Pounds: Andrew Waterbury of Hot Springs pinned his first opponent in the first period, then lost to Micah Acker of Superior. Waterbury then lost the loser-out match in the consolation bracket.

138 Pounds: Sanders County wrestlers secured three of the four spots in Saturday's semifinal, with Drew Carey of Plains pinning his way to a Saturday match against Brock Ryan of Thompson Falls, who started Friday with a by before pinning two opponents, both in the third period of the respective matches. Beau Crabb of Plains will face off against Shelby's Evan Flores on Saturday. Crabb had three matches on Friday, pinning all of his opponents. Jonah Sorraco of Thompson Falls had a bye his first match in the weight class, then lost out in two.

145 Pounds: Blue Hawk Chris Schwab started the day with two wins before losing in the quarterfinal round. Schwab's dreams of a state tournament appearance are still alive as he is wrestling back in the consolation bracket. Teammate Trevor Peterson had a bye the first round, but lost two in a row to finish out his season.

152 Pounds: Johnny Waterbury of Hot Springs easily worked his way to Saturday's semifinal round, pinning his first two opponents in the first period before beating Kyler Bailey of Manhattan in a 9-0 major decision. Blue Hawks Luke Pastorius and Tate Bosker were unable to make it to the second day of competition in Shelby.

160 Pounds: Savage-Horseman Devin Barnes had a bye the first round, then lost by pin and will fight for a spot at state in tomorrow's consolation rounds.

170 Pounds: Brenden Vanderwall and David Chapman each started the day with a win by pin for the Plains-Hot Springs team before each losing in the quarterfinal rounds. Rowan Ackley of Thompson Falls lost his first match of the day but came back with a 6-2 win in the consolation bracket. All three Sanders County wrestlers will continue in the competition on Saturday.

182 Pounds: Max Hannum is seeking his second straight state title and easily reached the semifinal round on Friday, starting the day with a bye before pinning two opponents, each in the first period. Gabe Rasmussen of Plains won his first match at divisional by pin, but then fell in the second period and is wrestling back to the podium in the consolation bracket.

205 Pounds: Alex Albano of Thompson Falls and Will Tatum of Plains each lost their first matches at divisional, but are wrestling back Saturday in the consolation matches.

Sara Hannum

Divisional wrestling in Shelby.

The divisional meet continues Saturday at Shelby High School.