Four Hawk Wrestlers Are State Bound

A large crowd was on hand at the Colstrip High School Gym last Friday and Saturday to watch grapplers from across Eastern Montana compete at the Eastern B/C Wrestling Divisional Tournament.

Twenty seven teams were listed on the tournament roster, from as far away as Chester on the Hi-Line.

With this year's conversion to a two-division system in Montana, as opposed to the four division system of the past, eight wrestlers from each weight class will now advance to state instead of the four from each division of past years.

This change meant that for weight classes with eight or fewer wrestlers, all who competed at Colstrip would find themselves automatically moving on to State, this coming weekend in Billings. It just so happened that Raiden Aurand, Alex Edwards, and Dakota Holbrook found themselves in that exact situation, and were automatically granted berths at State. These wrestlers continued to compete throughout the weekend, but were at least assured another weekend of wrestling this season due to the number of wrestlers in their weight classes. Raiden Aurand moved on to State placing 7th at 120 lbs, Alex Edwards placed 8th at 170 lbs, and Dakota Holbrook won his way to 5th at 182 lbs.

For the rest of the Broadus team, they'd have to win their way to State the hard way, and only Kail Irish was able to battle through the competition to win his first two matches and into the 5th – 6th place match, where he lost in a very close decision by a score of 11-9 against Teagan Reimer of Fort Benton.

Though the season ended for the remainder of the Broadus team at Colstrip, a large percentage of the team will be back to fight again next year. Seth McDowell and Josiah Middle Rider finished off their high school wrestling careers at Colstrip, and their leadership on the team will be missed.

For the remaining Broadus wrestlers, their first matches in Billings look like this: Raiden Aurand with his 10-22 record will face the Western Division's #2 Steven Schurbarth of Simms in first round action. Kail Irish, with a record of 15-14 will take on the Western Division's #3 Chase Kirkland of Three Forks/Ennis, who holds a 35-11 record. Alex Edwards, with his 6-19 record will face the #1 seeded wrestler from the West at 170, Brady Armstrong from Jefferson/Boulder, who holds a 34-7 record. Dakota Holbrook, the sole Hawk with State wrestling experience, will take on the West's #4, Braden Jones of Jefferson/Boulder, who comes into the tournament with a 29-14 record to Holbrook's 16-13 record. The tournament will take place at Metrapark, with the team leaving Thursday and the tournament running through Saturday.

Broadus scored 30.5 team points, coming in 14th out of 27 listed teams. Huntley Project won the tournament as a team with 288 points.

Raiden Aurand (10-22) placed 7th in the 120 lb. weight class and scored 2.0 team points. Raiden lost by fall in 1:13 to Guy Williams (15-7) of Columbus/Absarokee/Park City. Next, Aiden Black (7-26) of Circle, defeated Raiden with a 12-10 decision. In the 7th place match, Raiden received a bye.

Kail Irish (15-14) placed 6th in the 126 lb. weight class and scored 8.5 team points. Kail received a bye to begin the tournament. He then won by tech fall over Teagan Reimer (27-10) of Fort Benton. In the semifinal match, Langdon Smith (16-4) of Shepherd defeated Kail by fall in 1:31. Wyatt Hood (35-13) of Columbus/Absarokee/Park City, pinned Kail in 2:15. In the 5th place match, Teagan Reimer (27-10) of Fort Benton won by a 11-9 decision.

Archer Edwards (3-16) in the 132 lb. weight class scored 0.0 team points. Archer lost his first match to Tugg Taylor (45-3) of Circle by fall in 3:01. Archer then received a bye. Trent Petersen (4-16) of Red Lodge pinned Archer in 2:08.

Seth McDowell's (15-24) place is unknown in the 138 lb. weight class, and he scored 4.0 team points. He first received a bye. Next, Kameron Reum (26-9) of Poplar won by fall over Seth in 1:13. Seth then received another bye. Seth pinned Nevaeh Miller (14-20) of Baker in 4:08. In his last match, Sheldon Serrano (18-15) of Roundup won by a 10-3 decision over McDowell.

Riggin Schaffer (17-24) scored 3.0 team points in the 152 lb. weight class. In the first round, Alex Nelson (17-7) of Huntley Project (Worden) won by a 6-4 decision. Riggin then pinned Colton Honey (11-29) of Malta/Whitewater in 1:47. Dalton Duncan (23-9) of Custer/ Hysham then won by a 9-3 decision over Riggin.

Alex Edwards (6-19) placed 8th in the 170 lb. weight class and scored 1.0 team point. In the quarterfinal round, Tyler Schoen (30-8) of Chinook won by fall in 0:19. Tanner Stott (12-33) of Huntley Project (Worden) won by fall over Alex in 3:00. In the 7th place match, Sam Mycke (18-17) of Red Lodge pinned Alex in 0:35.

Dakota Holbrook (16-13) placed 5th in the 182 lb. weight class and scored 9.0 team points. Colter Ball (23-17) of Fort Benton won by fall over Dakota in 2:52. Dakota then won by major decision 12-3 over Austin Hughes (16-25) of Glasgow. Garrett Buckalew (22-11) of Colstrip won by fall over Dakota in 2:51. In the 5th place match, Dakota pinned Mike King (1-12) of Harlem in 2:03.

Josiah Middle Rider (17-13) scored 3.0 team points in the Heavyweight class. Josiah was pinned by Ethan Short (23-17) of Columbus/Absarokee/Park City in 3:16. Josiah then pinned Boston Ewing (5-32) of Red Lodge in 0:54. Gunnar Oblander (23-11) of Huntley Project (Worden) won by fall over Josiah in 0:54 in Josiah's final match.