Northern Champions REPEAT!

The Malta Mustangs are once again Northern B-C Champions, after outscoring the nearest team by 97.5 points.

Malta High School hosted the 2018 Northern B-C Divisional Wrestling Tournament last Saturday, February 3, an event that hosted 12 teams, each with athletes vying to punch their tickets to state.

Malta won the event with a total of 195.5 points, crowning four champions and sending ten to the 2018 State B Wrestling Tournament hosted at the Rimrock Auto Arena in Billings from Friday, February 9 through Saturday, February 10.

Choteau was the closest team to Malta in Points, taking second place with 98 points. Valier placed third with 96 points, Fairfield took fourth with 87 points, Chinook took fifth with 86 points, Cut Bank was sixth with 63.5, Fort Benton and Big Sandy tied for seventh with 61 points, Harlem took ninth with 50 points, Shelby was tenth with 33 points, Conrad was eleventh with 12, and Hays-Lodgepole was twelfth with three points.

Malta was led by Trey Simanton (38-2), a senior, 138-pounder, who completed a major milestone by winning his fourth Divisional Title by pinning Fairfield's Malaki Hvamstad (17-8) at 1:10.

"I just kind of went out there and did what I had to do to take him down," Simanton said. "The first move I had him in was a tilt to get some back points and then I went for the finish."

Simanton was encouraged by the amount of Malta-Whitewater wrestlers that qualified for state.

"We should be able to put on a really good show at state and have several kids place and hopefully have some place at the top," he said.

In his freshman year Simanton won the 113-pound Northern B-C title, in the sophomore year he won the 126-pound title and in his junior year he won the 138-pound title.

"It feels good, really good," Simanton said. "I just gotta take it to the next level now."

Malta's first title was won by sophomore Callan Mears, who defeated Choteau's Pete Henderson by 11-9 decision, avoiding late take down attempts by Henderson.

"It feels really good," Mears said after his match. "I just tried to keep moving and not let him get any advantages."

Later in the event, Mears' older brother, senior Ceaton Mears (40-8), won the 152 title pinning Landon Taylor (23-11) of Fort Benton-Big Sandy at 2:45.

Ceaton took second in last year's Northern B-C Tourney.

"It feels really good," Ceaton said. "There are a lot of people here and I think it gets the intensity going, going up in front of our hometown."

Also winning his first title, the older Mears was happy to see his younger brother win his first Divisional title in the same hour.

"I thought it was pretty cool," Ceaton said. "The match could've gone either way and it was really close but he got a win, so it was pretty good (to see)."

Senior 182-pouner Travis Epperson (35-12) would be Malta's final champion crowned after defeating Valier's Brett Monroe (35-15) by pin fall at 3:48.

145-pound senior Kaden Moore (37-11) took second, losing the championship match to Shelby's Wyatt Brusven (30-7).

Junior 170-pounder Andres Lopez (24-16) took second losing the championship match to Valier's Dylan Monroe (24-7) by pin fall at 5:49.

205-pound sophomore Luke Lawless (25-17) took second after losing the championship round to Choteau's James Slaughter (24-8) by pin fall at (0:48).

Heavyweight Frankie Werk took third place in the consolation finals, pinning Lane Hinderager (18-19) of Simms at 3:38.

Miles Bunk took third place in the 205 class, pinning Chinook's Reubin Swenson (31-18) by pinfall at 2:44.

At 120 pounds, Jay Nicholson (23-24) took fourth place after losing the consolation final match to Fairfield's Jack Knight (9-20) by pin fall at 3:21.

Nicholson was the final Mustang to qualify for state, but 120- pounder Colt French and 132-pounder RC Skiff both won their fifth-sixth place match, which set them up as alternates at the State Tournament on Friday.

Magnus Franzen (16-33) took sixth, which did not qualify him for state, however Franzen defeated two wrestlers in the 138-pound class, Simms' Peter Johnson by a 16-3 Major Decision in the opening round and Conrad's Bridger Gouchenour by Technical Fall in the third round of consolation.