Mears takes first, Gibbs second, at Malta Tourney

In their last meet prior to the upcoming Eastern B-C Divisional in Colstrip, this weekend, the Malta /Whitewater Wrestling Team hosted nine other teams at the Malta Invitational Wrestling Tournament last Saturday, January 29.

Malta's Head Coach Jake French had his hands tied monitoring and learning Track Wrestling, so his father and Assistant Coach Steve French subbed in to say how the event went for Malta.

"Not too bad," Coach French said. "We have seven wrestlers and we placed five, so we felt pretty good about it."

Amongst the nine teams, Malta placed fifth with a total of 124 points. Havre won the event with 247 points. Glasgow was second with 213. Cut Bank was third with 188, Billings Central was fourth with 165, sixth place went to Fort Benton who scored 112 points, Harlem was seventh with 48 points, Wolf Point was eighth with 45 points, and Chester-Joplin-Inverness (CJI) was ninth with 39 points.

The team also hosted the Malta Mixer, which served as a senior night for the team. Senior Shawn Gilkerson was honored, as well as senior Skylie Lefdahl, who has been a team manager for the past few seasons.

"It was fun," Gilkerson said. "I went 2-0 and won all of my matches. It felt a little weird because it is about to be over, but I had fun while it lasted."

He said that his MHS classmates have been really supportive by showing up for the two wrestling events, and that the team felt supported.

At the Tournament, the Mustangs were led by junior Camryn Mears, who won the 182-pound championship round by 4-3 decision over Cody Todd of Billings Central.

"It feels pretty good," Mears said. "It's nice that everyone came out to watch."

Mears earned his first two points by a reversal in the third round. He let Todd escape; the score was 2-1. Mears then scored a takedown with 42 seconds remaining. Blood time was called at 38 seconds remaining. Todd would later escape and in trying to take down Mears, was awarded another point due to a stalling by Mears, but Mears would hold on to win.

"He was a pretty tough match because he is pretty strong," Mears said. "He shot a lot of shots, and he is tough to hold down. The key was good sprawls, keeping my legs back, riding it out in the second, and staying strong through the match."

Mears said that he felt good about the season thus far, due to the quality of opponents he has seen so far.

The highest Mears had placed in the Malta Invite prior to Saturday, was third during his freshman season. The Malta Invitational was not held last season.

He reached the championship match by defeating Glasgow's Austin Hughes in the semifinals by 7-1 decision. Mears scored a total of 26 points for Malta.

170-pounder Spencer Gibbs took home second place, scoring a total of 26 points. He was pinned in the championship round by Glasgow's Damian Nesbitt with 28 seconds remaining in the first round. Gibbs pinned Cut Bank's Ethan Sullivan in the semifinals at 4:39, and Havre's Mason Wilting at 1:28 in the quarterfinals. His win over Wilting was Malta's first of the tourney.

"It felt pretty good," Gibbs said. "I never wrestled the kid before, so it was good to go out there and see someone new."

Gibbs has felt good about the quality of opponents that he has faced this season.

Colton "Scuba" Mears took second place and scored 20 points for Malta. He lost the championship match to Fort Benton's Cade Ball by a 13-6 decision. The younger Mears reached his championship match by pinning Wolf Point's Jordan Davis at 3:57 in the semifinals.

Wrestling as a heavyweight, Tye Jones scored 14 points, took home third place by pinning Billings Central's Graidy Ward at 2:28.

Weighing 220, Jones had a good approach to facing his larger opponents.

"Stay out of the tie," Jones said. "Don't get underneath them."

Jones had previously lost in the quarterfinals by pinfall at 1:38 to Ward's teammate Seth Benge, who went on to take second place.

"I got into a tie," Jones said.

Jones said that to have success, he has to shoot his shots.

The PCN caught up with 152-pounder Colton Honey, who was selected by Malta coaches as their Wrestler of the Week. Honey placed fourth in the tournament and scored 14 points for the Mustangs.

Honey went 2-2 at the tournament and reached the third-place match by earning a 16-0 tech fall over Gus Wetstein of Billings Central in the Consolation Semifinals.

In his matches prior, Honey leaned on defense and won his quarter-final match against Harlem's Marty Snow in sudden victory.

The tactic did not work in his semifinal loss to Billings Central's Daniel Mattingly (3-2 decision), so Honey switched gears, in his consolation semifinal win over Wetstein.

"I was ticked off that I lost my last match by one point," Honey said. "I was warmed up and ready to go."

He was upset because he wanted to reach the championship round.

Honey would lose his third-place match to Havre's Landon Caplette by pinfall at 1:34.

Gilkerson, who wrestled at 145, scored 10 points for Malta. He picked up a win in the quarterfinals by pinning Jonah Varilek of Billings Central at 5:32. The win came after Gilkerson racked up points due to several takedowns and releases.

I went into it knowing that I would have a pretty good chance at taking him down and that it would be harder to turn him for points," Gilkerson said. "So Coaches Steve and Steeler told me to keep taking him down and turning him loose for points. That's what I went to do and got it done."

Taylin Johannessen also wrestled but was unable to score during the tournament. The team was without Kohner Schipman, who they hope will be medically cleared to wrestle at divisionals.

The Quick Pin went to Colton Mears who pinned Braydon Peterman of Billings Central in 52 seconds at the Malta Mixer. The Most Exciting Match of the week was Spencer Gibbs' win over Colter Ball of Fort Benton. Both matches happened at the Malta Mixer on Friday.

Gibbs, Camryn Mears, Colton Mears, and Gilkerson were each 2-0 at the Malta Mixer. Johannesen, Honey, and Jones were 1-1.

With the team heading to the Eastern B-C, Coach Steve French knows that the East typically has the tougher opponents.

"We are going to have to wrestle pretty tough to get half of our team out of there," Coach French said. "The divisional tournament never ends up like the way it is seeded, so we are hoping that improvement prevails for us."

The Eastern B/C Divisional is set to start on Friday, February 4, and will conclude on Saturday, February 5.