Broadus wrestlers strutted their stuff in front of a home crowd last week as Broadus hosted Colstrip, Baker, and Circle for a mixer on Thursday evening. Pictured above is Raiden Aurand throwing a Circle opponent to the mat, while below right Seth McDowell competes with a different Circle wrestler. (Photos courtesy Mia Mader and Oliveah Schaffer)
A crowd of local wrestling fans descended on the "Hawk Dome" last Thursday to see the Broadus High wrestlers take on opponents from across Southeastern Montana, at the Broadus Wrestling Mixer.
Teams from Class B powerhouse Colstrip and Baker were on hand, as are the multi-year defending state Class C champion Circle Wildcat wrestling teams. Additionally, several lady wrestlers from the visiting schools demonstrated their skills on the mat during the mixer, following the formation of girls wrestling in Montana in the 2020-21 season.
Broadus Head Coach Frankie Schoonover told us that though the Broadus team didn't win many matches against the tough opponents featured at the mixer, the team was excited to be able to wrestle at home in front of their friends and family.
"A lot of those matches you saw last week were matches we're going to see again at Divisionals next week in Colstrip, so this was a great way to see where we're at going into the end of the season," Schoonover commented.
The visiting teams stayed in Broadus on Thursday night and braved the ice storm on Friday morning to head south for Moorcroft, Wyoming for a meet.
Frankie told us that at Moorcroft the Broadus wrestlers had trouble the first day, perhaps the new competition from Wyoming had them a bit on edge. Regardless, only one of seven wrestlers – Josiah Middle Rider, won his way into the top competition the next day. For the other wrestlers, a second chance tourney on Saturday produced much better results. Frankie said Seth McDowell and Alex Edwards wrestled the best matches he's seen them perform on Saturday, and the team did well overall.
Josiah Middle Rider won his first match on Saturday before going up against Lane Catlin of Thunder Basin High School, who is 23-0 on the season. Catlin beat Middle Rider in a pin, and Josiah would go on to place 5th in the heavyweight division, placing for the first time this year.
Broadus traveled to Colstrip on Tuesday, and will now host the Sidney JV team in Broadus this Friday, with action beginning at 5 pm at the high school gym. The team will then travel to Hardin on Saturday for the last match of the regular season.
Next week the team will see where they stand against wrestlers from the eastern end of the state at the Divisional Tournament in Colstrip, held February 4th and 5th. In a change from previous years, the divisional realignment means the top eight wrestlers from each weight class will go on to state. Previously only four from each division would go on, and as Frankie told us the southeast division tended to hold a large number of State ranked wrestlers, so some of our past wrestlers missed out on a state bout that may have gone on with the current structure.
In the meantime, Frankie told us he has been cranking up the intensity in the gym to simulate tournaments, with more difficult but shorter practices in order to prepare the wrestlers for the rigors of what lies ahead.
Frankie wanted to thank a few folks for all their help at the Mixer, including the Schaffers for hosting the Baker wrestlers, an unidentified local with a tractor who helped pull out the Baker bus from the ice on Friday, the town of Broadus for sanding the streets to allow the other buses to make it out of town, Mike Richards for coordinating the Mixer, Amanda Zimmer for running the clock, Mike Williams for announcing, and all the fans who came out to root for their team.
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