Hawk wrestlers strut their stuff at Circle, Sidney

The Broadus Hawk Wrestling Team traveled to Circle and Sidney over the weekend. Broadus faced tough competition on Friday, as they squared off against wrestlers from Circle, who won the team state title at state last season, as well as teams from Wolf Point, and Chinook. Broadus Head Coach Frankie Schoonover told us that seeing Chinook was especially good for the Broadus wrestlers, in order to see what the competition from outside of our division looked like in a match.

On Saturday, the team traveled to Sidney to face another tough round of competition.

Schoonover mentioned that as a team, Broadus seems to continue to be in better shape than the other wrestlers, yet the Hawks still need to work on developing their confidence and technique, as well as pushing the pace in order to rise to that next level.

Seth McDowell, weighing in at 132 lbs, wrestled the match his way at Circle, and has been steadily improving.

Riggin Schaffer, a freshman wrestling at 138 lbs, demonstrated his mental toughness and ability to take control over the weekend, according to Coach Schoonover.

Alex Edwards, at 160 lbs, has been improving greatly so far, according to Schoonover, as he had a reversal against a state ranked opponent over the weekend. Frankie said that when Alex performed the reversal, his opponent had “the deer in the headlights look”, as he had figured on beating Edwards easily, and was in for an unpleasant surprise.

Gavin Severeide, wrestling at 205, displayed some of the same mistakes on Friday as he had in the previous matches, but was able to take his coach’s comments to heart, and improved on Saturday.

Cale Emmons, at 171 lbs, wrestled more difficult matches this weekend compared to last, but Schoonover said that Cale’s work ethic will lead him towards victory, especially as he improves on his technique.

Coach Schoonover bumped Dakota Holbrook and Kyle Minow up from 171 to wrestle at 182 lbs, in order to face tougher competition. Both had been dominating their opponents this season, and Schoonover wisely calculated that going up against bigger opponents would force them to use more of their technique in order to win, instead of just relying on brute strength, which both wrestlers possess in great amounts.

Holbrook faced a State placing wrestler at Circle, and though Dakota marked the match as his first loss of the year, Schoonover said it was also his best match of the year from a competitive standpoint. Both Holbrook and Minow are displaying their leadership and experience on the mat and in practice, helping to mentor the less experienced wrestlers.

The Broadus team will continue to work on their mental toughness this week in practice, with an upcoming home mixer coming up this Saturday. PRCDHS will host wrestlers from Colstrip, Baker, and Forsyth for the event, which begins at 1 PM. Schoonover mentioned that a large number of tickets will be available for fans to come and watch the action, on a first come first serve basis.

We hope to have legitimate stats on wins and losses in the future - the data has not been available thus far in the season.