Malta looking for third consecutive Northern trophy

The Malta-Whitewater Mustangs hosted the last regular season action for many schools present at the 2019 Malta Athletic Club Wrestling Invitational last Saturday, January 26. The team also held their annual Malta Mixer on Friday, January 25.

"The atmosphere here is awesome," senior Kolter Schipman said during the event. "It's really enjoyable and gets you jacked up and energized when everybody is cheering. It's really motivational as well."

The 2019 Northern B-C wrestling divisional will be held on Saturday, February 2, in Cut Bank. Malta has won the event two years in a row, winning last year's event hosted in Malta, with a total of 195.5 points. The team also won the event hosted by Shelby in 2017 with 162 points.

This year's Northern B-C will consist of 13 teams; Chester-Joplin-Inverness (CJI), Chinook, Choteau, Conrad, Cut Bank, Fairfield, Fort Benton-Big Sandy, Harlem, Hays-Lodge Pole, Malta-Whitewater, Shelby, Simms, and Valier.

Wrestlers will be wrestling for the chance to make an appearance at the 2019 State B-C Wrestling Tournament in Billings, on Friday-Saturday, February 8-9.

Malta took third place at the Malta Invitational on Saturday, January 26. The team had a total of 87 points and ten wrestlers present.

The Havre Blue Ponies took first at the event, scoring 229.5 points. Glasgow was second with 182. Circle was fourth with 79.5, Cut Bank was fifth with 78, Shepherd was sixth with 74 points, Poplar was seventh with 68, Conrad was eighth with 67.5, Choteau was ninth with 61, Chinook was tenth with 49, Wolf Point was eleventh with 33, CJI was twelfth with 17 and Harlem was thirteenth with four.

Over 100 wrestlers attended the event, which led to many wrestlers going over four wrestling matches, which meant that some trophy winners won by default.

"The MHSA limit for a wrestling tournament is five a day," Mustangs Head Coach Ryan LaBrie said. "The only time they waive that is at divisionals."

The fact that Malta had several match limit forfeits means that Malta had a lot of wrestlers in number and in skill.

"When they lose like that it kind of stinks but it also means they wrestled their butts off," Coach LaBrie said. "So, it's a good thing."

Malta's Andres Lopez scored 20 points and won the 182 weight class title despite suffering a nose injury on a takedown early in the match. Lopez burned up over four minutes of his allotted blood time, over the span of several stops. Lopez won the match in overtime with a 9-7 decision, after taking down Shepherd's Kameron Powell.

"When he hit my nose, it just slowed me down," Lopez said right after his win. "My nose just hurts really bad right now. It slowed me down and then I got a little angry."

Lopez went on to say that he does not wrestle as well when he is angry, but he eventually calmed himself down. He also said that he was not frustrated with his opponent, just that his nose was hurting and bleeding.

"It was not his (Powell) fault," Lopez said. "He didn't mean (to do) it."

Lopez reached the championship after he received a bye in the quarterfinals, and then defeating Poplar's Jacob Berger by pinfall at 1:52. The win means he leaves his home gymnasium with something that not all wrestlers experience; a win.

"It's pretty good, especially because I am the one that got hurt and I still won," Lopez said.

Lopez went on to say that he does get one nosebleed during every tournament, but last Saturday's was by far his worst.

Prior to him winning his first home meet title, Lopez shared his favorite memory of wrestling at the Malta High School Gymnasium. The team's 2018 Northern B-C title win.

"We won it back-to-back, so that made it better," Lopez said. "We had a really good team last year and I don't think that a lot of teams wanted to wrestle us. It was pretty good and a lot of us were in the championship."

Like Lopez, fellow senior Kolter Schipman, who scored 18 points and took second in the 132 class recalled his favorite memory during events in Malta; when Chinook's Jake Norby upset Havre's Parker Filius during their senior season in Schipman's freshman year.

"The match was really exciting and sometimes it's really cool to see someone so good get beat," Schipman said.

Filius was a four-time state champ for the Blue Ponies. Filius currently wrestles for the Purdue Boilermakers.

Schipman lost his Championship match against Glasgow's top-ranked Oden Hallock last Saturday. Hallock was able to win by pinfall at 3:02.

Schipman reached the championship round after received a first-round bye, then defeating Cut Bank's Mariah Wahl by pinfall at 1:29 in the quarterfinals, and then defeating Circle's Cole Baker by a 3-2 decision.

"In my semi-finals match, I had a battle," Schipman said. "I got gassed and eased my way out towards the end. I probably should not have done that and went for it all."

Callan Mears scored 18 points and placed third in the 145 class. Mears received a first-round bye, then defeated Cut Banks' Andrew Anderson by pinfall at 1:08. Mears would then be defeated by three-time Class A Champion Martin Wilke of Havre, who is committed to wrestle for the University of Minnesota. Wilke, a senior, went on to defeat Circle's Trey Taylor in the Championship match by pinfall in 59 seconds.

Mears would then defeat Chinook's Ross Reed by pinfall at 1:40 and then Cut Bank's Anderson by defeat.

Luke Lawless took third place in the 285 class and scored 14 points, despite being one of the lightest heavyweights in the class. Lawless defeated Shepherd's Kyler Powell by a 3-2 decision.

"I gambled there and it wasn't my best match," Lawless said. "I was a little tired, so when I got ahead by a point, I gambled and figured he wasn't going to shoot in and if he did, I thought I could stop him."

Lawless and Powell spent the majority of the match pushing each other for a takedown and Lawless' takedown in the first period ended up being the difference, along with an escape later in the match.

CJI's Reubin Swenson would defeat Lawless in an 11-2 major decision in the Semi-finals. Lawless would then defeat Lane McCally of Shepherd in the Consolation Semi-Finals by pinfall at :43. Lawless would again face Powell in the third-place match, in which Lawless was able to defeat Powell by pinfall at :43.

RC Skiff picked up Malta's first win of the day and scored a total of 14 points, going 2-2 in the 138-class. Skiff defeated Kaide Kindler of Choteau for his first win.

"He took me down but I cross-faced him, then he fell backwards and I stuck him there," Skiff said.