Malta Middle School Grapplers do well at Malta Invitational

Last Thursday the Malta Middle School Colts hosted the Malta Wrestling invitational at the Old Gym.

The stats weren't provided but the PCN caught up to a few of the wrestlers during the event.

Rex Williamson, had just pinned his first opponent and shared his thoughts after putting his foe in a cradle move.

"He was just laying on his belly," Rex Williamson told the PCN. "I couldn't get a half nelson on him so I just got him in a cradle."

About four years ago Williamson was introduced into the sport by his father Shey.

"I like it," Rex said. "It's a good sport."

Kolter Schipman was also introduced to the sport by his father, Jessie Schipman.

"He helps quite a bit," Kolter Schipman told the PCN. "He's always in my corner. He makes sure his boys train hard and do what we can do to win."

Having his father, Jessie, in his corner bodes well for Schipman in his middle school career and will come in handy next season as well.

"I'm an eighth grader and I've been wrestling seven or eight years," Kolter Schipman said.

Schipman won a couple of matches during the invitational. One of which, Schipman looked to have his opponent in a wheel-barrow like move on the mat.

"He kind of started to stand up and I stuck my leg between his leg and started to do an overside tilt to see if I could get back points on him," Schipman said.

Schipman later would win a match against Colton Bishop from Harlem, which was one of the best matches of the day.

"My favorite part of wrestling is getting out there to interact with and meet other people who wrestle," Schipman said.

Being an eighth grader Schipman will go from big boy on campus to a freshman in high school next year, but he is excited to be a Mustang Grappler.

"I looked ahead to high school wrestling before I even started wrestling this season," Schipman said. "I look forward to high school."

Schipman has won first at an invitational prior to the Malta Invitational and he looks forward to adding more accolades to his name not only this season as a Colt but as a Mustang.

Jay Nicholson, a sixth grader, was another wrestler who won a match last Thursday.

"I got him in a head and arm,"said Nicholson who had only been wrestling for two years.

He joined the sport to try something different.

He also admitted that watching the WWE, was another reason he joined.

"That's part of the reason I joined and all of my friends joined, so I thought I would try it and I really enjoy it," Nicholson said.

Though he is newer to the sport than many of the other Colt wrestlers, he definitely enjoys the sport.

"I like the meets and hanging out with all my friends," he said.

He seemed to enjoy wrestling in front of the home crowd in Malta that day.

"They (the home crowd) give me confidence," Nicholson said.

Co-Head Coach Ryan LaBrie seemed to think the meet was going well at the half-way point.

"It's going pretty well," Coach LaBrie said. "We're getting some matches in anyway. It all happens so fast that I won't get to see all of the matches but they wrestle pretty tough and they're learning lots."

Shawn Gilkerson is in his first year with the team.

"It's my first year so I haven't done very many tournaments," Gilkerson said. "My mom said I should join a sport because I'm not doing basketball this year, so I did wrestling."

Gilkerson is amongst the newest Colts to the sport, but he has been listening to advice from Coaches LaBrie and Nick Oxarart.

"They tell me I need to keep working on my shots and that's all I've really heard so far," Gilkerson said.