Bulldogs finish in 8th place in Darby
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DARBY — The Mission-Charlo Bulldogs will stumble into the Western B-C Divisional Tournament after stubbing their toes at the Darby Invitational Tournament Saturday.
The Bulldogs only had one wrestler in the championships and only placed five wrestlers to finish in eighth place in the 10-team tournament.
“It was a rough day for us, but we had some positives, with some of the wrestlers not placing last week, coming back to place this week,” Mission-Charlo coach Lyle Cronk said.
With their top wrestler Jame Petersen sitting out in an overly cautious decision, Scotty Gilleard was the only Bulldog in the championship match and he won it without a fight, winning by forfeit.
The 125-pounder pinned Drummond’s Kylie Charleton and Noxon’s Nick Kucuck to make it to the championship.
Cronk preaches to his wrestler to wrestle the full six minutes and that’s exactly what freshman Barret Sargent did against Thompson Falls’ Eric Milner. Trailing 2-1 with four seconds left in the match, Sargent threw Milner on his back to win 5-2.
Sargent went on to defeat Milner’s teammate Levi Dowell to finish in third in the 171-pound class, a week after being kept off the podium in Thompson Falls.
“I think the big part of that is learning to keep wrestling to the wire. You never know when the match is over,” Cronk said.
Travis Dumont and Nick Dinnell joined Sargent on the third-place podium.
Dumont was reversed in the final 30 seconds in the 152-pound semifinal match and lost 2-0 to Corvallis’ Morgan Williams, somebody he had beaten at the duals in Ronan. The senior recovered by defeating Bluehawk Zach Lyons in the consolation match. Dumont went 3-1 at the tournament defeating Florence’s Austin Kryer 8-1 and pinning Plains’ Joey Reyna in the first period.
Dinnell pinned Noxon’s Hunter Fricke in the first period to finish in third place.
Chad Anderson had his best tournament of the season to finish in fourth place. After only winning one match last season, Anderson exemplifies the fortitude Cronk wants from his wrestlers and Saturday Anderson’s toughness was rewarded.
After losing to Bluehawk Shawn Sacchi, who will be the second seed this weekend, Anderson defeated Sacchi’s teammate Tim Schramm 15-5, pinned Corvallis’ Dustin Stevens in the second period and won an 11-2 decision over Warrior Clayton Trimble to make it to the consolation match, where he lost a 12-3 decision to Warrior Damon Cordier.
“He wrestled three matches picture perfect. He was doing everything right ... he put together an outstanding tournament,” Cronk said.
Russell Schultz, Casey Nitschke and Dakota Matt didn’t place at the tournament a week after placing in Thompson Falls. This is disturbing for Cronk, especially a week before the divisional tournament.
“The bottom line is that it’s going to take a whole team effort. We all need to wrestle good next week,” Cronk said, adding that he isn’t sure if the Bulldogs have a legitimate shot at ending Florence’s reign as champions, “But I would like to give them a run for the money and we will all have to wrestle our best to do that.”
The Western B-C Divisional Tournament will start at 10:30 Saturday in Deer Lodge. Only the top four placers in each weight class will qualify for the state tournament in Billings Feb. 12-13.
