Wrestling round-up

The Malta Middle School Colt Wrestlers had two middle school champions and two junior varsity first-place finishers in the 2018 Montana Middle School State Wrestling Championship (MMSC) in Fergus, last Saturday, March 3.

"Overall, it was a fantastic tournament," Malta Wrestling Coach Ryan LaBrie said.

MMSC 152-pounder Oren Mackey led the Colts with 33 points, winning the state title over Sudden Victory's Hunter Curtiss by way of pinfall at the 28-second mark in the first round.

MMSC 171- pounder Cash Salsbery won his state title match over Forsyth's Lander Potts by 11-1 major decision. Salsbery scored 27 points for Malta.

"It's only our second competition out, so for those two to go out and wrestle to a championship is a pretty big deal," Coach LaBrie said. "Oren had a great day. Cash probably wrestled up a class but he had a good day of wrestling. It was really a good day for all of our kids."

Camryn Mears scored nine points for Malta in the MMSC 125 class, going 2-2 along with a first-round bye.

Cameron Mikesell scored five points for Malta, going 1-2 in the MMSC 105 class along with a first-round bye.

"In a pool of 500 plus kids, the 17 kids we had wrestling down there did a fantastic job," Coach LaBrie said. "It was a long day of wrestling. We got on the bus at about 5:30 a.m. and got home at midnight but it was a huge tournament."

In the junior varsity matches, Wyatt Judd (76-79 class) won his three matches, and took first place, defeating Justa Curtiss of Sudden Victory by pin fall at 1:41, Billings Darkhorse's Ezekial Mann by pin fall at :32 and then Fairfield's Blair Smith by pin fall at :20.

Conner Tuss (JV 136-144) took first place by winning his three matches, defeating Great Falls East's Malachi Smith by pin fall at :17, then Fort Benton's Damien Ort by pin fall at :52, and pinning Shelby's Kyle Welker at 2:48.

Kaden LaBrie (JV 159-171) was 1-1 after a first-round bye, and took second place overall, defeating Sudden Valley's Taylor Martin in a 9-4 decision and then falling in the first place match to Sidney's Caleb Klienke pinfall at 1:46.

Taylin Johannesen (JV 107-110) took third place, going 1-2. He defeated Fort Benton's Nathan Dunham by a 4-2 decision.

Dylan Kinney (JV 70-75) took third place, going 1-2. He defeated Aydan Estes of Simms by pin fall at 1:42.

Braydon Rhoads took fourth in the JV 65-69 class and Henry Benge took fourth in the JV 98-99.

The younger Little Guy Wrestlers attended a meet last Friday, March 2, in Big Sandy and then the next day in Great Falls.

"We had a pretty big showing in Big Sandy," Coach LaBrie said. "A few went on to Great Falls on Saturday."