The Plains Little Guy Wrestling team competed at Arlee Thursday and walked away with numerous wins and a few losses, but coaches felt they never gave up.

The meet was for beginners and novice only, but the three-hour meet included almost 200 wrestlers from Plains, Hot Springs, Superior, Mission-Charlo, Ronan, and Arlee, including over 50 girl grapplers.

"The kids wrestled very well in Arlee," said Andrew Leichtnam, head coach for the Hot Springs team, which had seven boys and one girl at the meet - four novice and four beginners. It was the first loss of the year for Thai McCrea of the Hot Springs Savage Heat, competing in the 65-pound novice class. McCrea lost to Mission-Charlo's Iron Dog wrestler Raya LaMere 7-5, but she won her other two matches, including a victory against Plains Trotter Pearl Ferlan. "Thai is a stud but we've still got some room for improvement," said Leichtnam. McCrea's brother, Robert, competing in the beginner 60-pound class, was the only undefeated wrestler on the Hot Springs team, the coach said.

Leichtnam said his team left Arlee with an overall record of 20 wins and five losses. The Savage Heat team presently has five wrestlers that have only one loss this season. His team wrestles from 60 pounders to 140 pounds.

The Plains Horsemen and Trotters, coached at Arlee by Michael Chenoweth and Beau French, had 26 grapplers - 10 beginners and 16 novice - at the meet, including four girls. Chenoweth said they didn't keep track of the team's wins and losses, but Paisley French, Jagger Corby, and Harrison Laclair went undefeated.

"The keys right now are learning and mat time," said Chenoweth, who added that the kids always put up a good fight and did pretty good overall. The Plains beginners and novice kids range in weight classes from 50 to about 120, Chenoweth said. "We're just really excited about the program. We've got a lot of great kids and our numbers have grown each year since we restarted the program three years ago," he said. The Sanders County Little Guy middle and junior wrestlers competed in Libby on Saturday.

Ed Moreth

Hoyt Miller of Plains attempts to pin Kristina McNutt of Mission-Charlo, who tries kicking and scratching. Miller, competing in the 65-pound beginner class, eventually won with the pin.

The teams will head to Superior on Saturday for the Superior Valley Qualifier, followed by the Superior Inter-Valley Qualifier on Saturday, March 16, and then the Polson Western Montana Little Guy Championships on Saturday, March 23.