Wrestlers compete in state finals

The Linderman gymnasium was wall to wall wrestlers and fans Friday and Saturday for the 2024 Montana Western Montana Championships, where almost 600 wrestlers from 34 Montana teams and one Idaho team battled in the last face-off of the season.

Eleven Sanders County wrestlers finished in the top four placements. Plains was the only Sanders County team with wrestlers in the junior competition on Friday with three boys and one girl. Plains had 10 competing in the novice and middle classes on Saturday. Thompson Falls had 19 wrestlers on Saturday and Hot Springs had two.

Sanders County went home with two championships at state. Fourteen-year-old Billyray Holotta of Plains took the championship in the junior 138-pound weight class on Friday evening by winning all three of his matches. He whipped Austin Schall of Ronan in a 3:46 pin, followed by a victory against Tanner Howell of Salmon, Idaho, and then nabbing a 10-1 victory over Reagan Christopher in the championship round. Holotta had 20 wins and three losses his first season with Plains. He wrestled for nine years in Oregon and plans to join the Plains High School wrestling team next season.

Rhiley Sanders of Thompson Falls was champion in the boys middle 224-pound weight class. He first whipped Niko Brewer of the Wolfpack Wrestling Club with a 1:46 pin, followed by a 1:24 pin of Ronald Grassa of Bigfork. "He was able to utilize an arm bar we showed him this season to secure the pin in the championship match. It's a move that is new to him but he runs it unbelievably well for a kid his age," said Thompson Falls head coach Braxton Eubanks, who added that Sanders has been wrestling for about six years.

His brother, Luke Sanders, took second place in the novice 190-pound class after being pinned by Brayden Staley of Polson. "They really gave everything they had. Every match was close and we were never out of it," said Trevor Harris, the assistant coach for Thompson Falls.

Jayden Grounds, competing in the 205-pound class for Plains, defeated his first three opponents in pins. His first, against Tristin Whitcolm of Hamilton was over in 18 seconds. It took him 27 seconds to claim his second win when he put down Jacob Ottolini-Messouri of Eureka. His third was done in 1:37 against Dillion Snyder of Corvallis. However, in his final bout, against Eli Spross of Darby, Eli pinned Grounds to put him in second place.

Owen Jermyn of Plains, wrestling in the junior 120-pound class, had 11 wins and three losses during the regular season and nabbed second place at Polson. He won his first round 8-2 against Tegan Wandring Medicine of Polson. In his second bout, he defeated Zander Bennett of Ronan 5-1, but lost in the championship round against Colby Bowles of Corvallis.

Also taking home a second place for Plains was Clint Weedeman, competing in the middle 105 class. Weedeman first disposed of Ryder Lovett of Columbia Falls 9-2 and then went on to beat Trevyn Jackson of Ruis 3-1, but was pinned in the championship match by Cole Hanson of Kalispell.

Teammate Mason Goodwin, competing in the middle 85 class, also took second place at finals, first by winning 6-0 against Beau Palmer of Frenchtown, followed by taking Brody O'Neel of Superior 7-0 before being defeated 2-0 by Bennett Miller of Eureka in the championship match. Kage Tuma, also of Plains, took second place in the middle 90 class after first pinning James Peterson of Eureka in 38 seconds and then taking 53 seconds to pin Landon Ellenwood of Polson before losing to Billy Bowles of Corvallis 4-2 in the championship round.

Miles Mercer of Thompson Falls went home in second place in the novice 124 class, first defeating Zander Mattingley of Whitefish in a one-minute pin and then taking Cooper Jessup of Corvallis 9-2 before being defeated by Dawson Hoerner of Ruis.

Thompson Falls also had a fourth-place finisher with Caz Zeretzke in the 85-pound class. He had four matches and won one of them by pin, said Eubanks. "Our first season went better than I could have hoped. We were able to bring 17 wrestlers this weekend to state, which is quite a bit more than we have had in recent years," said Eubanks. He said that five of them were beginner kids wrestling in the novice age group.

"We are still a young team with many more years to come. The hard work and drive that a lot of our kids showed this year was incredible. I look forward to the future of Thompson Falls Little Guy wrestling program," said Eubanks, who plans to coach again next year.

Hot Springs, coached by Andrew Leichtnam and David Chapman, had two wrestlers at the meet, Leichtnam's 10-year-old son, Aaron, competing in the novice 158-pound class, and 9-year-old Uriah Lowther, wrestling in the novice 65 class. Lowther had two matches and didn't place. Leichtnam took fourth place.

Kiara Brown was the only junior girl on the Plains team, competing in the 126 junior class, but she was eliminated after losing her first two matches. Brown had nine wins and five losses during the regular season. Brown was one of 35 girls in the junior class on Friday, which went for more than four hours. There were 120 junior boys in the competition. Saturday's competition lasted throughout the day and included 215 novice boys and girls, 60 middle class girls, and 167 middle boys. Polson had the largest team with 65 wrestlers at the meet. Plains had 14 competitors Friday and Saturday coached by Jesse Jermyn, Kyle Brown, and Michael Chenoweth.

"They looked really good and wrestled very well. They fought to the end," said Brown, who wrestled all four of his high school years, going to state twice.