Home sweet home

The Mustangs are going into the Northern B/C tournament with momentum on their side as they have won both their home meet and the Wildcat Invitational.

Led by junior Trey Simanton, who won the 138 pound class, Malta was able to win the meet for the first time since the 2001 season with 123.5 points. The Malta Athletic Club invitational featured 92 wrestlers from 13 schools.

"It is a testament to the kids that we have on the team this year, willing to work and willing to wrestle," Malta Head Coach Ryan LaBrie said. "I don't want to say this is the best weekend of wrestling by far but they did wrestle hard. Scoring points is a big thing in these tournaments and for the most part our kids did well doing that."

Glasgow took second with a total of 120, Havre took third with 107, Valier took fourth with 90.5 and Cut Bank took fifth with 75.5.

"Putting four into the finals was huge for us," Coach LaBrie said.

Simanton won his first place match over Valier junior Wacey Running Crane by pin fall one minute and 33 seconds into the match. This was the first time that the two opponents faced off.

"I just knew I had to tie up with him at first to see how strong he was," Simanton said. "He kept giving into me on the firemen's, so I took it and that's what started it all."

Simanton was able to convert the takedown into the honeymoon position to win the match.

The win was Simanton's first at the Malta Invitational, having lost first place matches previously to Choteau 2016 graduate Trevor Moore in 2016 and 2015.

"It feels great," Simanton said about winning at his home meet. "Better than losing."

Junior Ceaton Mears, a 145 pounder, took second place after an impressive showing against two-time state champion Tate Niederegger of Chinook, going the distance but ultimately losing the match in a 11-7 decision.

"I got the first takedown on him, which is pretty good," Mears said. "Then I threw him to his back, which I don't think I have seen him thrown to his back before, so that was really nice."

He also scored on two reversal escapes and another takedown.

"Ceaton Mears wrestled his tail off," Coach LaBrie said, noting that his high placing was key to the team's win. "It was a huge mental victory for him, wrestling the way he did."

In order to advance to the 145 first place match, Mears defeated Circle's Trey Taylor in overtime by 14-9 decision.

"I haven't beat Trey Taylor since my sophomore year, so it's been (going) pretty good," Mears said.

Junior Kaden Moore also took second place in the 132 class, losing a 5-1 decision to Wolf Point's Quinn Whitmus.

"We kind of had a redemption match against a kid that we saw last week in the Wildcat finals and we left some on the table and fell short but it was another solid weekend for Kaden," Coach LaBrie said.

Junior Travis Epperson took second in the 182 pound class after losing the first place match to Glasgow's Tony Kaiser by pin fall at 5:46.

Though he weighed in at 170 pounds, Epperson was able to reach the championship match by defeating Valier's Brett Monroe by pin fall at 4:44.

"They are a lot heavier but I am still fairly strong enough to keep up with them," Epperson said.

"I just kept going for it," Epperson said. "When he landed, his arm fell into a weird spot and I got it in an arm bar, kept driving over, repositioned and waited until I finally got him pinned."

Sophomore Andres Lopez was able to stave off a nosebleed in the 170 third place match while defeating Chinook's JJ Colby by pin fall at 5:46.

"It's kind of tiring because you can't breathe out of your nose," Lopez said, when asked about wrestling with a nosebleed. "I don't like breathing out of my mouth."

Lopez' match was a close one that nearly didn't go his way. The last time he wrestled Colby was at the Hays-Lodge Pole meet, a match that Lopez lost. History did not repeat itself.

"He was putting me in a cradle, I slipped out of it and stuck him," he said.

Lopez showed off a strong pair of takedown slams, though one didn't count.

"One was a penalty because I picked him up and he hit the mat too hard," he said. "Some people said it shouldn't have been a penalty and some said that it should've been."

Lopez is hoping to make his first state appearance this season after just missing out last year.

"I'm going to wrestle my hardest and hopefully take first at divisionals." He said.

Sophomore Kolter Schipman took fourth place, losing the third place match to Choteau's Pete Henderson in a 7-2 decision.

Freshman Callan Mears took fourth place in the 126 class after losing to Glasgow's Kaden Zimmerman by pin fall at :59.

Senior Keenan Schipman saw his first action of the season, wrestling in the 152 class. Schipman would take fourth place in his class after losing the third place match to Valier's Trever VandenBos by pin fall at 3:24.

"Keenan scoring his first points today was a big deal," Coach LaBrie said. "We look forward to him to carry that (momentum) into divisionals."

Heavyweight Frankie Werk did not place, but was able to take out Harlem's Khey'Shawn Skidmore by pin fall in the third round of the opening round of consolation matches. Werk also defeated Skidmore during the Mixer on Friday.

Though Werk was up 6-3 in the third round, it seemed as though he was about to get pinned by Skidmore. Werk simply leaned back and found himself in a winning position.

"When I got on top of him, it felt like he gave up," Werk said. "So I just sucked him up and waited for the whistle to blow."

Luke Lawless also defeated an opponent in the first round of heavyweight consolation, defeating Frazier's Wesley Weston by pin fall in 28 seconds.

A win at the Wildcat Invitational and the Malta Invitational in consecutive weeks, gives Malta rare momentum going into the Northern B/C Tournament in Shelby this weekend. The divisional will qualify the top four placers in each class for the State B/C Tournament in Billings set for February 10-11.

"With this team being so solid and consistent in the way they wrestle and have been performing throughout the year, it gives us a huge confidence booster going into the divisional tournament," Coach LaBrie said. "I've never been arrogant or cocky enough to think that it's a gimme at the (divisional) level.

Coach LaBrie has confidence that the team will stay focused and will work hard to improve for a chance to wrestle at state this year.

"Our guys know they have to wrestle for it and know that we are going to have to clean some things up this week," he said.