One Nation, Under God

Seniors Finish Strong at State: Gibbs Wins 205 Title, Mears Third at 182

Last Saturday, February 11, the Malta (Malta/Whitewater) Wrestling team welcomed senior Spencer Gibbs as its first State Wrestling Champion since 2007 (that group included Tel Colborn at 130, Michael French at 171, and Chance Demarais at 215).

Gibbs (52-4) won the 2023 Class B 205 Weight Class Title by a 3-2 decision over Whitehall's Leo Scafani (37-6).

"He was fast and got in on a couple of leg attacks, one of them we went out of bounds," Gibbs said.

Gibbs scored on a takedown in the first two minute period, putting him up 2-0 with 48 seconds left. Spencer released Scafani with 30 seconds left and the period ended with a score of 2-1 in Gibbs' favor.

"That first round saved my bacon in the end," Gibbs said.

Gibbs won the initial coin toss after the first period but deferred to Scafani, who took the down position to start the second period. Scafani scored a point on an escape with 1:30 remaining in the second period, tying things up 2-2.

Gibbs' final point came in the third period after choosing the down position and escaping with 1:32 remaining in the third period.

"I had to stand up right away, and not let him get an arm to keep," Gibbs said.

Both wrestlers attempted takedowns, in the third, which included a few aggressive attempts by Gibbs with thirty seconds remaining, but neither wrestler scored, and Gibbs held on to win 3-2.

"And here's your state champion from Malta, Spencer Gibbs!" said the event's announcer.

Malta senior Camryn "Reggie" Mears also made history for Malta, becoming the sixth wrestler in Malta's history to be a four time state placer (that list includes, Wayne French, Michael French, Tyler French, Brad Walsh, and Trey Simanton.) Mears took third in the 182 class by defeating Fort Benton's Nathan Dunham by pin fall at 2:59.

Malta scored a total of 52 points and placed thirteenth as a team between their four wrestlers at state, who included sophomore Kohner (Chaka) Schipman wrestling at 132 and junior Colton Mears, who wrestled at 170.

Huntley Project won the B/C Tournament with 201 points. Three Forks was second with 154.5 points, Lincoln County was third with 122 points, Jefferson was fourth with 101 points, and Cut Bank was fifth with 95 points.

To reach the finals, Gibbs pinned Cut Bank's Jabob Hjartarson at 1:14 in the opening round, then had a 3-0 decision over Colyn Johnson of Lincoln County in the quarterfinals and a 9-2 decision over Lincoln County's Wes Banks in the semifinals. Gibbs scored a total of 24 points.

Gibbs is the first champion under Head Coach Jake French.

"It was stressful," Coach French said. "It was relieving. It was happy. It was all of the emotions wrapped into one. I was really happy that Spencer capped off his senior year with a championship.

"He was in the right mindset," Coach French continued. "The score was 3-2, a nail-biter finish, but I believe Spencer controlled that whole match, knew what he was doing, had ice in his veins. It was all Spencer's to take and he did it."

After consulting with his father, legendary Coach Steve French, the coaches came up with the plan to counter Scafani's single-leg takedown by circling him to the right, a move which paid off.

The PCN caught up with Gibbs after his championship win. He was asked how it felt to end his high school wrestling career with a title.

"It feels good," Gibbs said with a smile. "It feels really good actually."

Gibbs was asked to give his best advice to younger wrestlers in Malta that want to earn a state title one day.

"Stick with it," Gibbs said. "It will show out in the end. Stick with it."

He was asked what it meant to be a Malta Mustang.

"It means the world," Gibbs said. "I grew up there (in Malta), looked up to older kids all the time and now the younger ones are looking up to me."

Camryn Mears has wrestled every Saturday possible at the State B/C Tournament over his four years of high school wrestling. He had a sixth place finish during his freshman year, third place his sophomore year, second his junior year, and third his senior year.

He was asked how it felt to end his final year with a win.

"It feels pretty good to end the season on a win, even though I didn't get to where I wanted to be, in the finals, but it is alright," Mears said.

Mears reached the third place match by pinning Deer Lodge's Kaiden Dolan at 3:17 in the opening round and pinning Tegan Jones of Conrad at 1:19 in the quarterfinals on Friday.

Mears lost his semifinal match to Jefferson's Brady Armstrong by 7-5 decision. Armstrong went on to lose the State title to Chinook's Tyler Schoen by 3-2 decision.

Mears went on to bounce back and defeat Conrad's Trysten Robertson in the consolation semifinals by pin fall at 2:32. Mears scored a total of 22 points.

Coach French was proud of his senior, who fought through adversity.

"When you lose your semifinal match, the last thing that you want to do is wrestle again," Coach French said. "So it says a lot about his character to come back and wrestle as tough as he did, winning his next two matches and placing third. When you lose, we say third is your new first."

He was asked how he was able to dig deep and finish strong despite losing his semifinal match.

"I was pretty disappointed and I was kind of angry," Cam. Mears said. "I knew those kids that I had in the next matches weren't super good, so I was pretty determined to beat them because if I lost, I would kind of feel like a chump."

Mears was asked what Mustang wrestling has meant to him over the past four years.

"Its a really nice organization," Mear's said. "Really caring and we have nice stuff. It's really cool to see all of the little kids wrestling and all these kids coming up. I really hope that they end up wrestling."

Both Kohner Schipman and Colton Mears scored three points. Schipman pinned Three Fork's Wyatt Hart-Barker at 1:33, and Co. Mears won a consolation match over Florence-Carlton's Jett Murray by forfeit.

"These guys will have another chance at state, so hopefully it will motivate them to do a lot of work in the offseason, stay in the weight room, maybe hit some camps up this summer, so that we can be talking about them on the podium next year."

"I am just appreciative to all of the parents in the community, the community support, the Malta Wrestling Club, the parents who are providing food for the coolers, making sure our rooms are there, and picking up lunches," Coach French said.

He also said that he appreciates his assistant coaches Steeler French and Shawn Gilkerson, as well as managers Mady Bain, Samme and Syndey Gibbs.

 

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