Malta Wrestlers take third in Harlem

The Malta-Whitewater Mustangs Wrestling team had a strong outing at the Harlem Wildcat Invitational last Saturday, taking third place out of 11 teams. Malta had 103 points. First place went to Glasgow, who had 140 points and second place Chinook having 117. Harlem was fourth with 81.

The team placed seven wrestlers in the tournament including Sophomore Trey Simanton who was the only Mustang to win his weight class after defeating Harlem's Kolton Bishop.

This season, Trey has been wrestling in the 126 pound weight class. In his freshman year, he wrestled in the 113 class.

"It's different," Simanton told the PCN after defeating Chinook's James Buffington in the first round. "I'm wrestling bigger people and having to be stronger."

He defeated Buffington by pin fall within the first 30 seconds of the match.

"I'm pretty good friends with him," Simanton said. "It's not very fun having to wrestle those people (friends)."

He then defeated Wolf Point's David Herrera, who he had defeated in Cut Bank earlier in the season.

"He's pretty scrappy," Simanton said.

Derek Peigneux, Kaden Moore and Kolter Schipman each took second place in the event.

Peigneux faced a little adversity in the first round, facing Josh Solf from Big Sandy. The match looked like it could have gone either way but Peigneux pinned his opponent in the third round.

"He was a tough wrestler," Peigneux said. "I just had to keep my head straight and keep calm while he was trying to put me on my back and work out of it."

Peigneux nearly had the opponent pinned at the end of the first round, but time ran out.

"He tried to cradle me and I rolled through it," Peigneux said.

Jordan Pierce and Ceaton Mears both took third. Travis Epperson took fourth in the event.

Pierce's third place finish was impressive due to the fact that he was seeing his first action in the 170 pound class that day. Pierce had previously been wrestling at 182. A drop of that magnitude could put a wrestler at a disadvantage.

"I feel good today," Pierce said. "I feel energized and ready to wrestle. It was tough during the week, but once I got there, I felt pretty good about myself."

Pierce's day started with a win against Havre's Thor Abassi, who he pinned with an arm bar.

"I knew one of my teammates wrestled him before and beat him, so I felt pretty confident going into it," Pierce said. "I know my teammates and they're pretty capable with what they do."

Abassi fought hard to avoid a pin, but eventually Pierce pinned Abassi before the match ran out of time.

"I was trying to do some hammerlocks and arm bars, but it wasn't working," Pierce said. "I just kept trying and trying until it worked. I knew eventually one hold would work."

He would then defeat Shelby's Austin Taylor by pin fall in 1:33.

He knew that in order to keep winning, he had to conserve his energy, stay healthy and not overeat.

Andres Lopez had an impressive win against Fort Benton's Logan Taylor. The match went to overtime, which ended when Lopez took down Taylor and earned two points.

"I just tried my hardest," Lopez said. "I wrestled him before and I beat him but it wasn't that close of a match last time."

Malta will host the Malta Mixer this Friday at 5 p.m. and the Malta Invitational at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday.

Individual recap:

Chinook Mixer 1/22

113 Mark Missildine 2-0

120 Kolter Schipman 1-1

126 Trey Simanton 2-0

132 Kaden Moore 2-0

132 Ceaton Mears 2-0

152 Andre Lopez 0-2

160 Derek Peigneux 1-1

160 Travis Epperson 0-2

170 Jordan Pierce 0-2

Harlem WildCat

Invitational 1/23

113 Mark Missildine 0-2

120 Kolter Schipman 2-1 2nd

126 Trey Simanton 3-0 1st

132 Kaden Moore 3-1 2nd

132 Ceaton Mears 3-1 2nd

152 Andre Lopez 1-2

160 Derek Peigneux 2-1 2nd

160 Travis Epperson 1-2 4th

170 Jordan Pierce 4-1 3rd