Mustangs qualify seven for State Meet

The Malta Mustangs went into the 2022 Eastern B-C Divisionals in Colstrip on February 4-5, with the hopes of getting at least half of their eight wrestlers to the state meet. They ended up with seven out of eight.

"I am pleasantly surprised that we have seven going down to state," said Head Coach Jake French. "We had talked to the school beforehand about taking a couple of the school cars down to state. Now we need to take a bus. It's a great problem to have."

Huntley Project took home the team title with a total of 288 points. Glasgow finished second with 153.5 points, and Columbus/Absarokee/Park City got third with 142.5 points. Malta finished in eighth place out of the 22 teams that scored, with 73 points.

The Mustangs were led by junior Camryn Mears who took the top spot in the 182-pound class with wins by major decision (14-2) over Austin Hughes of Glasgow, and by pinfall over Colter Ball of Fort Benton in the first two rounds. He then won by decision (3-1) over William Loveridge of Huntley Project in the championship match.

Senior Shawn Gilkerson took fourth place in the 145-pound class. Gilkerson got the quick pin of the tourney in his first-round match against Tayven Rodell of Shepherd in 40 seconds. He lost in the second round to Zaden Heck of Colstrip by pinfall. Fighting back in the consolation rounds, Gilkerson had three wins in a row. The first by decision (3-0) over McKray Freeze of White Sulphur Springs, then by major decision (13-2) over his teammate Taylin Johannesen, and another by decision (8-5) over Lane Snider of Chinook, putting him in the third-place match, losing that by pinfall to Grady Schmidt of Huntley Project, and giving him the fourth-place finish.

Also claiming fourth place was Spencer Gibbs in the 170-pound weight class. Gibbs came out of the gate strong with a win by pinfall over Sam Mycke of Red Lodge in 1:38. He lost by pinfall in the second round to the eventual second-place finisher Wylee Lindeen of Huntley Project. He won his next match by pinfall over Tanner Stott of Huntley Project in 1:15 before losing in the third-place match by pinfall to Damien Nesbitt of Glasgow, giving him fourth place. In the 170-pound weight class, 11 of the 14 matches were decided by pinfall.

Junior Tye Jones took fifth place in the 285-pound weight class. With a bye in the first round, Jones won his second-round match over Spencer Higareda of Huntley Project by major decision (11-2). He lost in the third round by pinfall to the eventual champion Brock Hanford of Fort Benton. Jones lost his next match by pinfall to Gunnar Oblander of Huntley Project putting him in the fifth-place match where he won by decision (5-0) over Higareda again.

"Tye wrestled a solid tournament," said Coach French. "It's tough wrestling the same guy twice. He did great not letting that kid get back in."

Colton "Scuba" Mears ended up in seventh place in the 160-pound class. "Scuba" had a bye in the first round and then lost his next two matches. The first by pinfall to Devon Nesbitt of Glasgow and the second by decision (8-3) to Remington DeSarro of Red Lodge putting him in the seventh-place match where he won by major forfeit over Jessie Brawley of Baker who was injured in his previous match.

The last two Mustangs to qualify for the state meet were Kohner "Chaka" Schipman in the 126-pound class and Taylin Johannesen in the 145-pound class with both getting eighth place.

Schipman had a bye in the first round then lost by pinfall to the eventual second-place finisher, Langdon Smith of Shepherd. He won his next match by decision (9-2) over Abe Potts of Forsyth. Chaka lost his next match to Teagan Reimer of Fort Benton by pinfall putting him in the seventh-place match where he lost by decision (13-6) to Stran Lytton of Red Lodge.

Sophomore Taylin Johannesen lost his first match by pinfall to Lane Snider of Chinook. He then had a two-match run where he took on two wrestlers from Circle in back-to-back matches and won both of them in dramatic fashion. So much so, that the two matches together were voted the most exciting match of the tournament for Malta. The first of the two matches was against Grady Richardson. It was 5-5 after three periods and went into sudden victory where he won 7-5. In the second match, he took on Bryce Black. Johannesen won this match with a pinfall right at the end of the match.

"The second match against the Circle kid was huge," said Coach French. "If he won that, he had qualified for state."

In Johannesen's next match he went up against his teammate Shawn Gilkerson.

"That was kind of bittersweet," said French. "We knew they had both qualified for the state meet, but it's tough when you have to wrestle your own."

The wrestlers of the week are both Shawn and Taylin.

Commenting on the state meet, Coach French said, "We have some guys that are positioned well in their brackets. Some are going to have a tough time. If they believe that upsets can happen, we could have a great tournament. It's easy to get a little star-struck in a place like the Metra. If we can control the moment and not let the moment control us, we can have plenty of success. We just need to do what we do."

The Montana State Wrestling Meet will be this Friday and Saturday, February 11 and 12 in Billings.