Malta Junior High Wrestlers Compete at First Meet of Season

The Malta Junior High Wrestling team competed at the Wolf Point Invitational on Saturday, November 2. The wrestlers were grouped together by age and ability in groups of thee or four and wrestled everyone in their group. Eight teams were there to compete and teams scores were as follows: Glasgow 201, Malta 192, Sidney 171, Wolf Point 108, Poplar 95, Plentywood 55, Baker 45 and Circle 24. Twenty-five boys and one girl competed for Malta.

Four eight graders competed in the Wolf Point Tourney. Hayden Hicks and Corby Mears went 2-1 on the day. Hayden was 3rd in his weight and Corby was 2nd. Colby Wright was 3-0 and received 1st place. Kallie LaBrie was the only girl competing for Malta. Kallie had a record of 1-2 and was 3rd place.

The seventh graders hit some tough competition but wrestle well. Beckett Squires was 0-3 and 4th place. Karsten Davis, Braun Sims, Cameron Spencer and Blake Tharp were 1-2 and received 3rd place. Beau Merriman was second place with a 2-1 record. Cameron Spencer received the Most Exciting Match Award for his effort against a Sidney opponent where he came from behind to tie the score and go into overtime. Cameron lost the match but showed a lot of grit.

Five wrestlers were moved up to the 7th and 8th grade level because their skill level was high or there wasn’t anyone in their weight for their age group. Beau Nelson, Trax Simanton (6th Graders) and Taije Stiles (5th grader) were 0-3 in their group and were 4th place. Rio Oxarart and Calvin Squires (5th graders) both had a 1-2 record for the day and got 3rd place.

The sixth graders did well in their division. Kaiden Tharp was 3rd place with a 0-2 record. Trenton Blunt and Cord Newman were 2-1 and received 2nd place. Gunner Stenberg, Kasen Jones and Julian Hilliard were all 3-0 in their weight class and 1st place. Julian Hilliard receives the Quick Pin Award for the week with a pin of 13 seconds. He wrestled a total of one minute and 37 seconds with 3 pins.

The fifth graders competed in the 6th grade division as well. Tryan Anderson was 4th place with an 0-3 record. Nathan Domire was 0-2 and 3rd place. Clyde Langford had a 2-1 record for the day and was 2nd place. Cooper Pankratz and Titus Carnahan were 1st place with 2-0 records. The Wrestler of the Week Award is given to the wrestler who competed well for that tourney and the level of competition in their weight is also a factor. Titus Carnahan is our Wrestler of the Week for the Wolf Point Tourney. He competed in the 55-70lb weight class. Titus is 55 lbs and won 5-3 over the Baker opponent that weighed 70 lbs. Titus won by major decision (16-8) over a Circle opponent that was a lot closer to his weight.

We have three new managers this year and they are all 5th graders. Lettie Davis, Haidyn Hould and Brooklyn Moog are doing a great job and making things go smoothly. Coaches for Junior High Wrestling are Steve French, Nick Oxarart, Oden Hallock, Dustin Squires and Trey Simanton. Nick will join the staff when the high school football season is over, hopefully really late November. A big thank you to Westside Self-Service for donating the gift certificates for Personal Pan Pizzas for our Wrestler of the Week and Quick Pin Award.