MatCats open wrestling season at Owens Invitational in Pablo

The MatCats wrestlers were in Pablo over the weekend as they opened the season at the Owens Invitational on the campus of Salish Kootenai College.

Freshman Justin Windauer and junior Jaxon Heinz led the Cats as Windauer finished fourth in the 113 pound division while Heinz was fourth in the 138 pound weight class.

“Justin Windauer had a great weekend, stepping into his first high school tournament. Even the ones he lost were winnable for him. He just made a couple of small mistakes,” head coach Jessie Schaeffer said. “Heinz had a good showing, too. He came back from being down three with 20 seconds to go in the fourth-place match to get the win.”

The Cats had three other top-six finishers as Josiah Kilman was fifth in the 113 pound class, Josh Bertram was fifth at 170 and Tommy Phelps took home sixth in the 285 pound class.

Despite the success from his young squad, Shaeffer said there is still a lot of work to do.

“We are young and we definitely have a lot of little things that we need to work on. They are small things, but they make big differences in the outcomes of matches. We have to get some weight management under control as well,” he said. “We just had some kids stepping onto the mat that had to face some opponents that were already down to their weights for the season and they had also seen a lot more mat time this year.”

The MatCats collected 90 points as a team to finish 10th at the tournament as Frenchtown earned the championship with 186 points.

The MatCat season continues at Dillon Thursday and at the Mining City Duals in Butte Friday and Saturday.

Owen Invitational

SKC, Pablo

1 Frenchtown High School 186.0

2 Lake City High School 179.0

3 Belgrade High School 176.0

4 Missoula Sentinel 165.0

5 Mission/Charlo High School 143.0

6 Superior High School 128.0

7 Thompson Falls High School 124.0

8 Corvallis High School 115.5

9 Eureka High School 106.0

10 Columbia Falls High School 90.0

103

Round 2 - Jerry Maldonado (Columbia Falls) won by fall over Kiera Davis (Corvallis) (Fall 3:14); Isaac Stewart (Frenchtown) def Dale Blickham (Columbia Falls) (Dec 10-4). Quarterfinal - Landen Stewart (Frenchtown) won by fall over Jerry Maldonado (Fall 0:11). Cons. Round 4 - Jerry Maldonado won in sudden victory over Dale Blickhan (SV-1 7-5). Cons. Round 5 - Braedon Illif (Polson) won by fall over Jerry Maldonado) (Fall 1:21)

113

Round 2 - Justin Windauer (Columbia Falls) won by fall over Trevor Bartel (Ronan) (Fall 3:11); Josiah Kilman (Columbia Falls) won by fall over Kyler Bates (Florence) (Fall 1:30). Quarterfinal - Justin Windauer won by fall over Cael Schwindt (Libby High) (Fall 1:24); Quarterfinal - Josiah Kilman won by major decision over Jonathan Williams (Corvallis) (MD 15-6). Semifinal - Eli Warner (Frenchtown) won by decision over Justin Windauer (Dec 7-5); Semifinal - Caden Hess (Lake City) won by fall over Josiah Kilman (Fall 1:51). Cons. Semi - Justin Windauer won by major decision over Jesse Anson (Hamilton) (MD 17-4); Cons. Semi - Carter Schmit (Belgrade) won by fall over Josiah Kilman (Fall 0:48). 3rd Place Match - Carter Schmit (Belgrade) won by fall over Justin Windauer (Fall 1:05). 5th Place Match - Josiah Kilman won by decision over Jesse Anson (Hamilton) (Dec 3-2)

126

Champ. Round 1 - Carter Moran (Whitefish) won by fall over Zack Gray (Columbia Falls) (Fall 5:45); Orion Barta (Columbia Falls) won by fall over Dalton Weidow (Corvallis) (Fall 0:49). Champ. Round 2 - Orion Barta won by fall over Nate Garner (Lake City) (Fall 3:01). Cons. Round 2 - Ashton Flamand (Browning) won by fall over Zack Gray (Fall 1:33). Champ. Quarterfinal - Kedrick Baker (Polson) won by fall over Orion Barta (Fall 1:18). Cons. Round 4 - Jason Davis (Corvallis) won by fall over Orion Barta (Fall 1:55)

132

Champ. Round 2 - Kellen Norman (Polson) won by fall over Ty Allen (Columbia Falls) (Fall 1:22). Cons. Round 3 - Jameson George (Frenchtown) won by fall over Ty Allen (Fall 3:24)

138

Champ. Round 2 - Jaxon Heinz (Columbia Falls) won by fall over Charlie Adams (Mission/Charlo) (Fall 2:37); Robert Dempsey (Mission/Charlo) won by fall over Colton Hogan (Columbia Falls) (Fall 0:55). Quarterfinal - Nathan Schmidt (Eureka) won by fall over Jaxon Heinz (Fall 2:26). Cons. Round 4 - Jaxon Heinz won by fall over Colton Hogan (Fall 2:40). Cons. Round 5 - Jaxon Heinz won by major decision over Trevor Tucker (Missoula Sentinel) (MD 10-0). Cons. Semi - Jaxon Heinz won by decision over Zane Nordwick (Libby) (Dec 11-9). 3rd Place Match - Elijah Ratliff (Thompson Falls) won by decision over Jaxon Heinz (Dec 8-2)

145

Champ. Round 2 - Jesse Horner (Sentinel) won by fall over Trey Torpen (Columbia Falls) (Fall 2:48). Cons. Round 2 - Hudson Traver (Sentinel) won by decision over Trey Torpen (Dec 7-6)

152

Champ. Round 1 - Cassius Christianson (Columbia Falls) won by decision over Ryder Nollan (Bigfork) (Dec 9-7). Champ. Round 2 - Jace Mannix (Sentinel) won by fall over Cassius Christianson (Fall 0:44). Cons. Round 2 - Aaron wells (Browning) won by fall over Cassius Christianson (Fall 1:24)

160

Champ. Round 1 – Avery Meinzen (Flathead) won by fall over Lucas Thacker (Columbia Falls) (Fall 0:58). Cons. Round 2 – Thacker won by fall over Archie Brevik (Bigfork) (Fall 1:55). Cons. Round 3 – Thacker won by fall over Josh Baldwin (Thompson Falls) (Fall 1:41). Cons. Round 4 – Logan Adler (Polson) won by forfeit over Thacker.

170

Champ. Round 1 – Josh Bertram (Columbia Falls) won by fall over Rylan McDaniel (Whitefish) (Fall 0:13). Round 2 - Camren Ross (Whitefish) won by fall over Easton Sempf (Columbia Falls) (Fall 3:13); Noah Hurst (Hamilton) won in sudden victory over Bertram (SV-1, 18-2) . Cons. Round 3 - Easton Sempf won by major decision over Joseph Farrier (Bigfork) (MD 16-8); Bertram won by fall over Tayden Vitt (Belgrade) (Fall 0:27). Cons. Round 4 - Easton Sempf won by fall over Bryce Weidow (Corvallis) (Fall 0:31); Bertram won by fall over Garrett Croft (Polson) (Fall 2:36). Cons. Round 5 - Dane Chownacky (Thompson Falls) won by decision over Easton Sempf (Dec 6-2); Bertram won in sudden victory over Canyon Shope (Frenchtown) (SV-1 11-9). Cons. Semi – Seth Nutting (Lake City) won by fall over Bertram (Fall 1:55).

182

Champ. Round 1 – DJ Laycock (Columbia Falls) won by fall over Sean Larson (Flathead) (Fall 0:51). Champ. Round 2 – Laycock won by fall over Derrick Saltzman (Hamilton) (Fall 1:35). Champ. Round 3 – Trey Green (Superior) won by fall over Laycock (Fall 2:37). Cons. Round 4 – Laycock won by decision over Brenan Running Crane (Browning) (Dec 10-3). Cons. Quarterfinals – Sahkaia Wehr (Stevensville) won by fall over Laycock (Fall 1:52).

205

Champ Round 1 - Mahlon Clark (Lake City) won by fall over Josh Nishiyama (Columbia Falls) (Fall 0:53). Champ. Round 2 – Layne Jones (Hellgate) won by fall over Cole Karlin (Columbia Falls) (Fall 0:31). Cons. Round 2 – Karlin won by fall over Nishiyama (Fall 3:24). Cons. Round 3 – Josh Gunter (Sentinel) won by fall over Karlin (Fall 0:54).

285

Champ. Round 1 – Tommy Phelps (Columbia Falls) won by Fall over Reece Buchanen (Hamilton) (Fall 2:44). Champ. Round 2 – Owen Hughes (Lake City) won by Fall over Josh Price (Columbia Falls) (Fall 0:57); Phelps won by fall over Brian Sweeney (Whitefish) (Fall 4:51). Champ. Round 3 – Logan Parson (Lake City) won by fall over Phelps (Fall 2:13). Cons. Round 2 – Aydan Williamson (Libby) won by fall over Josh Price (Fall 0:25). Cons. Round 4 – Phelps won by fall over Williamson (Fall 1:19). Cons. Quarterfinal – Phelps won by fall over Buchanen (Fall 2:00). Cons. Semis – Zayne Konkol (Belgrade) won by fall over Phelps (Fall 0:53). 5th Place – Jacob Lapinksi (Superior) won by fall over Phelps (Fall 2:32).