Kolodejchuk, Houle earn second at State Wrestling Tournament

By JOE SOVA / Hungry Horse News

Four of 10 Columbia Falls Mat Mats came home from the All-Class State Wrestling Tournament held Friday and Saturday at MetraPark in Billings with medals and top-four finishes.

Senior Cody Kolodejchuk and sophomore Kelly Houle, both Divisional champions, earned second place at state. Michael Hader, a senior who won a state title last year, was third, and senior Clayton Patterson was fourth.

The Mats Cats finished 12th in the final Class A team standings, scoring 82.5 points. A highlight was finishing ahead of Divisional runner-up Polson by one-half point. Havre ran away with the team title with 282.5 points. Ronan, the Northwestern A Divisional champ, was second with 167.5. Sidney was third (164), and Frenchtown was fourth (131.5).

Five Mat Cats won Divisional titles, and four of them were state place-winners.

Anybody who makes it in the finals wrestles well, Mat Cats head coach Jessie Schaeffer said of Kolodejchuk and Houle.

Kolodejchuk placed second at state for the second straight year. He opened the 2008 state tourney by pinning Caleb Bentley of Lewistown in 5:47. In the quarterfinals, Kolodejchuk earned a 5-4 decision over Brett Burman of Glendive. To get to the championship match, the Mat Cat won another close one, a 6-4 decision over Belgrades Tucker Taylor in the semifinals.

Bill Olson worked his was to a 12-3 major decision over Kolodejchuk in the title match.

He had three solid matches up to that, Schaeffer said of Kolodejchuk. He got down in that [championship] match.

Houle won his first two state matches in the 189-pound class by fall, pinning Spencer OBrien of Anaconda in 56 seconds before a win in 1:44 over Mike Holds The Enemy of Hardin in the quarterfinals. Houle then pulled off a big upset, squeaking out a 5-3 decision over Hamiltons Brady Anderson, the No. 1 ranked wrestler at 189 pounds. That avenged a pair of two-point losses to Hamilton earlier in the season.

We stayed on our offense, Schaeffer said of the semifinal match. That shows you his potential. He had a lot of energy in that match.

Beau Melby of Sidney took the state title with an 11-4 decision over Houle in the finals.

Hader who won the 140-pound state title in 2007 went into state with a 152-pound Divisional crown, but lost in the semifinals to Ethan Hinebauch of Havre by fall in 5:46. That was after a 15-0 technical fall over Jordan Mlarchick of Belgrade and a win by fall in 1:14 over Tyler Frolich of Billings Central.

Finishing the tourney with two wins, Hader won two major decisions 11-2 over Chad Dunn of Sidney and 13-4 over Seth Wright of Libby in the third-place match.

He wrestled really, really well, Schaeffer said of Hader. There was one kid [Hinebauch] we couldnt beat. But it was not for a lack of effort. He kept his head up after that.

Divisional champ Patterson, at 119 pounds, reached the semifinals before a loss by a 14-2 major decision to Derick Singleton of Miles City. Patterson pinned his first two opponents beating John Joyce of Hardin in 5:08 and Layne Waid of Havre in 59 seconds.

In the consolation bracket, Patterson earned a 9-1 major decision over Troy Haake of Hamilton, but lost to Tate Lucas of Belgrade in a 7-2 decision to finish fourth.

Thats one of the best tournaments hes ever had, Schaeffer said of Patterson. He did everything right. He was at the top of his game.

Six other Mat Cats were unable to reach the medal round.

Junior Kodie Kenfield had a tough draw. He won his first match at 215 pounds, pinning Dan Sanderson of Corvallis, but lost to eventual state champion Mitch Ritchey of Lewistown by fall in 5:15 in the quarterfinals. Kenfield was eliminated by Cody Rustad of Anaconda by fall in 1:34.

Schaeffer said it was a disappointing state tourney for Kenfield.

Sal Baccaro (98), Cody Edstrom (105), Shawn Whitman (130), Joe Gross (145) and Cody Bartos (285) each went 0-2 at the state tournament.

All in all the kids competed for us, said Schaeffer, who was assisted this season by Dave Caron, Kelly Houle and Ben Schaeffer. You know who works hard and puts in their time [on the mat].

Schaeffer offered a thank you to the Mat Cat parents and other supporters of the wrestling team this season.