2019 Malta Middle School Mixer

The Malta Middle School Wrestling team hosted their home meet last Thursday, February 7, at the Malta School's Old Gym. The event featured hundreds in attendance from all over Eastern Montana.

The mixer gave Malta Middle School Wrestlers as well as wrestlers from around the area a chance to get a few matches in before many of them headed to the AAU Folkstyle State event in Great Falls on Saturday, March 9.

Malta Middle School's eighth-grade class started strong winning four of six matches. Spencer Gibbs was one of those first-round winners.

"He was way bigger than me," Gibbs said. "For most kids, if I am better than them, I just cut them, but he was way bigger, so I just pinned him as fast as I could. I shot an ankle pick, picked him up, we rolled around for a second and I stuck him."

Gibbs was feeling pretty "pumped" about his last home meet as a middle school wrestler. He was asked what he thought high school wrestling would be like.

"This is pretty big and there are a lot more people here than I expected to be here," Gibbs said. "I know (high school wrestling) is going to be way, way harder. So I will have to keep working at it and going at it."

Gibbs and several other wrestlers plan on attending JROB Intensive Wrestling Camps in Oregon this summer as well as a trip to Florida.

Fellow eighth-grader Wyatt Judd picked up a win, but he found himself in trouble early.

"He shot right off the whistle and I wasn't ready for it," Judd said. "But, I got around it."

Judd, who has been wrestling with Malta for the past five seasons, explained how he was able to eventually pin his opponent. He also explained how he felt about the crowd size.

"Usually you are not supposed to reach behind, well I did and I pinned him," Judd said. "Honestly, I am glad they are here but when you are wrestling it doesn't matter. When you're wrestling, you just focus on your wrestling."

Judd mentioned that he would do his best at his final middle school home mixer, he also made a prediction to how high school wrestling would be in his freshman season.

"I'm just going to try to do my best and try to win as much as I can," Judd said. "I am 87 pounds right now, so I will probably be wrestling at 103 in high school, so I think I have a pretty good chance to win a few matches."

Seventh-grader Taylin Johannesen picked up a win in the event. He has wrestled in Malta for three years.

"I just got to my knees, and rolled him over and got half-nelson," Johannesen said.

Johannesen's favorite thing about wrestling is winning, which he was able to do a couple of more times that day. In an earlier match, he caught another wrestler in a half-nelson. He would go on to say that his favorite move was the cradle.

Eighth-grader Dre Oshio was able to pin an opponent that weighed in at 230-pounds, Oshio only weighed in at 170.

"I was trying to go for the headlock under the arm and trying to get the throw in because I really can't take a shot on these bigger guys because I can't risk them sprawling on me," Oshio said.

Oshio was happy with the way things were going at the meet. He also shared what he needs to work on as high school approaches.

"I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out," Oshio said. "Me being 170 and not as strong as the rest of them, I definitely need to hit the gym this summer."