Mustangs place three at State

The Malta-Whitewater Mustangs Wrestling Team took eighth place at the 2019 State B-C Wrestling Tournament in Billings last Saturday, February 9.

The two-day event started on the morning of Friday, February 8, as over 70 teams graced the floor of the Rimrock Auto Arena at MetraPark.

The Class B-C championship team trophy was won by Colstrip who scored 233 points. Glasgow took second with a total of 130. Columbus Absarokee-Park City was third with 128. Huntley Project was fourth with 109. Eureka was fifth with a total of 104.5. Townsend was sixth with 70. Cut Bank was seventh with 65. Malta was eighth with 64.5. Forsyth was ninth with 63 and Whitehall was tenth with 61.

Out of the five wrestlers that Malta took to the event, three of those athletes placed in the top five, with senior Kolter Schipman taking third place in the 132-pound bracket, senior Andres Lopez taking third in the 182-pound bracket, and junior Callan Mears taking fifth in the 145-pound bracket.

"I am really pleased with the way it turned out," Mustangs Head Coach Ryan LaBrie told the PCN. "Placing those three out of five guys, it was really nice that they all won their last match. That's the nice thing about winning those consolation finals matches. Even though you are not winning the championship, you are still going out on a solid note by winning that last match. For me, that was a good thing for all of them to get done."

Schipman defeated Circle's Cole Becker for third place in the 132 class, allowing Schipman to end his high school wrestling career with a win.

"It feels good to come out third, with it probably being the last time I ever step out on a mat competing," Schipman said. "I wish I had one more match in me for the finals but it was really exciting. I controlled the whole match. I went out there and had fun. I did it with a smile on my face and it felt good."

Schipman defeated Becker by 19-2 tech fall thirteen seconds into the third round. The win gave Schipman a rare but beautiful moment as Schipman shared hugs and tears with his father and Malta assistant coach Jessie Schipman.

Schipman started the tournament against Lars Madson who was the fourth seed out of the south. Schipman pinned Madson at 2:29.

Schipman continued his run winning his quarterfinal match over Colstrip's Dawson Buckalew by pinfall in 57 seconds. Schipman's championship hopes were dashed in the semi-finals on Saturday morning as he was pinned by Whitefish's Connor Johnson, who came into the tournament as the Southern Divisional champ and eventual State Champion.

Schipman was able to bounce back in the consolation semi-finals as he pinned Whitefish's Mike Wilkinson in 3:42, qualifying for the third-place match.

Lopez won his third-place match over Trey Green of Superior-Alberton by pinfall at 2:14. Green was the Western B-C champion. Lopez also ended his high school wrestling career with a win.

"It went by quick," Lopez said. "Just don't blink. I am pretty happy that I came out with a win. All of my family was telling me to believe in myself. I believed in myself and I was telling myself that I was going to win and I won. That's all you have to do is believe in yourself."

Lopez started off his weekend with a pin at 34 seconds over Florence-Carlton's Jared Pallo.

Lopez would fall in the quarter-finals to Shepherd's Nate Gorham in an overtime period by a score of 5-1 as Gorham took down Lopez right into a near fall. Both wrestlers had previously only scored one point by way of escape. Gorham went on to place second in the class.

Lopez seemed to adjust his approach in future rounds with take-downs and releases, which if done correctly would give him a 2-1 advantage.

Lopez was able to pick up pins on three of his final four matches. He pinned Huntley's Tanner Geiss at 3:42 in the second round of consolation matches. He would then pin Choteau's Carter Morgan at 2:20 in the consolation quarterfinals.

Lopez would then defeat Justin Denton of Broadwater by a 7-1 decision, which qualified him for the consolation finals.

Lopez has always had the support of his family and his most outspoken family member Travis Rhoads could be heard in the crowd throughout the state tournament and at every tournament prior.

"Yeah, I always hear him," Lopez said.

Lopez then explained his nickname, which Rhoads emphatically yells during his matches; "Sug" pronounced like bug.

"I grew up in Zortman, so it was my community name," Lopez said. "People used to call me Sugar when I was a baby and toddler, so now they have shortened it."

He went on to say that he ate a lot of candy when he was young and his favorite candy was Nerds, a candy made of sugar.

Junior Callan Mears' run ended as explosive as it began, as he was able to place fifth in the 145 class and get called to the podium for the first time in his career.

Mears defeated Darwin Adams of Saint Ignatius-Charlo by pinfall at 58 seconds. He was asked about his aggressiveness in his final match and what it meant to reach the podium.

"My loss (earlier match) just upset me and I didn't want to lose again," Mears said. "It feels really good. It's really cool and it fuels me for next year."

Mears pinned Broadwater's Ty Owens in the opening round of the tournament at 1:50, but would fall to Circle's Trey Taylor in the quarterfinals by pinfall at 5:31. Taylor would go on to finish second.

Mears went on to pin Poplar's Kaelen Smith in 37 seconds in the second consolation round, and then Colton Getz of Columbus-Absarokee in 1:47 during the consolation quarterfinals.

Mears would fall to Western BC champion Hank Dunn in the consolation semi-finals by 15-7 major decision, which sent Mears to the fifth-place match.

"I didn't wrestle and he took care of me," Mears said. "I didn't take care of business on my feet."

Malta freshman Oren Mackey picked up an opening round win over Powell County's Teegan Schafer by pinfall in 37 seconds.

"The kid was pretty tough," Mackey said of his opponent.

Mackey would lose his next two matches of the event. His first loss was to Huntley's Sam Schmidt by pinfall at 5:10. Schmidt eventually became the runner up for the 160 class. Mackey then lost to Glasgow's Ty Kittleson by a 9-2 decision.

RC Skiff was pitted against Manhattan's Forest Fairbanks in the opening round and though started strong against the Southern Division champ, Fairbanks pinned Skiff with three seconds remaining in the first round.

"I was going to wrestle hard because Fairbanks was ranked first in the state," Skiff said. "I just wanted to wrestle hard. I could've done a couple more things right but the things I did wrong caught up with me."

Skiff would lose his next match to Arlee's Colt Crawford by pinfall at 2:22. Though Skiff fell to some tough competition, he appreciated the event and explained what it was like.

"It felt good going down for the Parade of Champions but I was kind of nervous for my first match," Skiff said.

Whitewater junior Luke Lawless was unable to compete due to injury.