Little grapplers head to state competition

Nearly 40 wrestlers from Plains, Hot Springs and Thompson Falls qualified to compete at the Little Guy Wrestling State competition at Polson Friday and Saturday.

The Sanders County teams were among a dozen teams and some 300 wrestlers at the Western Montana Little Guy Intervalley Tournament at Superior Friday and Saturday. Plains, Hot Springs and Thompson Falls had teams at the competition, which went from 9 a.m. until about 6 p.m., finishing with the beginner class. Fifteen wrestlers from Plains, three from Hot Springs, and 20 from Thompson Falls will move on to compete at the state level this weekend.

The junior class competition took place on Friday at Superior. All juniors qualify to move on to the state competition. The top eight placement wrestlers of the novice and middle class qualify to compete at the 2024 Western Montana Championships at the Linderman Gymnasium at Polson this weekend. The juniors will compete on Friday starting at 5 p.m. and the novice and middle classes will take place on Saturday starting at 9 a.m. Twenty-nine teams from Montana and Idaho will participate in this weekend's competition.

Saturday at Superior was the last competition for the beginner class, which went on for about four hours. Plains had 18 beginners, including two girls, at the Superior meet. They also had eight novices, including one girl, and seven middle class, all boys attending. On Friday, Kiara Brown took first place in the junior 126-pound class. Billyray Holotta took second in the 138-pound junior competition. Owen Jermyn placed second in the 120-pound class and Jayden Grounds took third in the 205-pound class.

"It impresses me on how much they've improved this season," said Jesse Jermyn, head coach for the Plains team. He was assisted on Saturday by Kyle Brown and Michael Chenoweth and had 30 kids at the meet, including three girls. Jermyn guessed that the Plains boys and girls won 60-70% of their matches.

Six Plains middle class wrestlers will compete at state. Mason Goodwin was undefeated and took first in the middle 85-pound class and scored seven team points. In the middle 90 class, Kage Tuma took second and five team points. Clint Weedeman nabbed second in the middle 105 and got five team points. Jay Howell finished fifth in the middle 147 class. Levi Sturdivant finished in seventh place in the middle 100 class. Sawyer Doble took eighth place in the middle 100.

Gavin Brown took third in the novice 75-pound class and picked up three team points. Coltyn Young also got three team points for taking third in the 95-pound class. In the same class, Nolan Martin took sixth place. In the novice competition 55-pound class, Remington Farthing finished in fourth place and got one team point. And in the novice 110-pound class, Lewin Lang finished sixth.

The Plains team also went home with the 2024 Western Montana Little Guy Intervalley Tournament Small Team Award. "I'm proud of how the kids wrestled and grew over the season," said Jermyn, who appreciated the coaching assistance by Brown, Chenoweth and Beau French, who Jermyn said put a lot of time into the season, which paid off. He said the kids wrestled great last week and had some good matches.

Hot Springs had 10 wrestlers at the meet and three novice competitors qualified for the state meet, including Traylyn Peone, who placed seventh in the 75-pound class, Uriah Lowther, who finished eighth in the novice 65-pound class, and Aaron Leichtnam, the coach's son, who went undefeated and nabbed first place in the 145-pound class. David Chapman, a high school wrestler, volunteered as an assistant coach for the Hot Springs team. Beginner Cooper Salmi went undefeated Saturday with three wins in the 60-pound class and Canyon Depoe, also a beginner, had two wins and two losses in the 70-pound weight class. Coach Leichtnam said it was a very good competition at Superior, but it'll be tougher at state.

Thompson Falls had 28 kids at the tournament, including six girls on the team, headed by Braxton Eubanks and assisted by Chris Nichols and Trevor Harris. They had no junior wrestlers last week, but of the 23 novice and middle wrestlers, 20 of them placed in the top places in their brackets for the finals. The names of those that qualified were not provided.

Eubanks said half of their beginners won their matches. "All of the kids showed up ready to compete today, they had some really tough matches, but they didn't quit," said Eubanks, who added that the team showed huge improvement through the season. He said all of the qualifiers for state have potential to place this coming weekend. "We are hoping to end the season on a good note and bring home some hardware," he said.