Four Chiefs go undefeated at Western Montana Duals
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RONAN — The Chiefs capped a busy weekend of wrestling with a 42-39 dual victory over Libby Saturday evening to claim fifth place in the Western Montana Duals. Ronan hosted the two-day tournament in the Ronan Event Center, which kept six mats full of wrestling duals, including a fair amount of exhibition matches.
Corvallis won the tournament with a 51-25 championship dual win over Frenchtown. Columbia Falls was third, beating Glacier JV 39-36.
Ronan opened the tournament with a pair of dual wins over Darby (72-12) and Arlee (59-20). Ronan won all of eight of the contested matches against Darby, giving up just 12 points on forfeits.
"Against Darby we went started out on fire ... with six pins and two decisions," Ronan head coach Dustyn Azure said.
Ronan also had seven pins and a technical fall in the dual with Arlee.
"We wrestled well against Arlee, also. The guys went out and kept wrestling tough from start to finish and ended the first day with a 2-0 record," Azure said. "Colby Roberts wrestled well in his (215-pound) match and was winning up until his one mistake cost him the match."
The Chiefs then went 3-1 on Saturday with a 57-24 win over Hamilton, a narrow 41-40 loss to Glacier JV, a 41-37 win over Polson, and a 42-39 win over Libby to claim fifth place.
The Chiefs got six pins and a technical fall against Hamilton.
"We started out the morning with some solid wrestling. We kept our momentum going from Friday and won seven matches to Hamilton’s one," Azure explained. "We were very happy with the way Cole McArthur wrestled in his match (a 14-1 major decision at 160 pounds). He was wrestling to dominate and that is (what) we need him to do for the rest of the season."
Ronan's momentum came up short against the Glacier JV squad. Though the Chiefs won seven matches — six pins and one major decision — to Glacier's five, Ronan's forfeits cost them. The Chiefs forfeited at 105, 119 and 125.
Ronan bounced back with a shuffled lineup to edge Polson 41-37. Azure bounced Tyler Wheeler and Toby Cheff up a weight to 189 and 215, respectively, to earn a pin by Wheeler and a technical fall by Cheff.
"We did a little shuffling against Polson, and it turned out in our favor. We were happy with the whole team during this dual; they all went out and scrapped for every point. We earned bonus points in all but one match," Azure commented.
Ronan finished the tournament with the victory over Libby and secured fifth place.
Finishing the tournament undefeated were Cameron Neiss, Micky Cheff, Cole McArthur and Toby Cheff.
"Over all this weekend went well. We went 5-1 on the weekend, losing to Glacier JV 41-40," coach Azure concluded. "We saw a lot of things starting to come together this weekend. We are attacking a lot more, which is great, but now we need to start moving from one move to the next. Once we start chain wrestling we will start to get a lot more points on the board."
Azure credits last week's practices that emphasized fighting off their back and not giving up pins for the Chiefs success at the tournament.
"It seemed to help. We tallied 32 pins against our opponents and gave up 13 pins," Azure noted.
After a busy weekend, it's not going to slow down for the Chiefs, who hosted Columbia Falls Tuesday, Libby on Thursday and heads to the Rocky Mountain Classic in Missoula on Friday and Saturday.
Summary
Western Montana Duals
Ronan
Jan. 8-9, 2010
Friday
Ronan 72, Darby 12
98 - Lukas Conklin, Ron, pinned T. Weidegar, Dar, 3:59
105 - J. Hamblen, Dar, won by forfeit
112 - Andrew Teigen, Ron, won by forfeit
119 - C. Caicedo, Dar, won by forfeit
125 - Kyle Lawson, Ron, forfeit
130 - Shelby Grant, Ron, dec. T. Evers, Dar, 7-2
135 - Cameron Neiss, Ron, pinned M. Majors, Dar, 3:46
140 - Dilan Starkel, Ron, pinned M. Smith, Dar, 1:41
145 - Dustin Goldsby, Ron, dec. H. Gandy, Dar, 6-5
152 - Micky Cheff, Ron, pinned C. Hammersmith, Dar, 3:38
160 - Cole McArthur, Ron, won by forfeit
171 - Tyler Wheeler, Ron, won by forfeit
189 - Toby Cheff, Ron, pinned M. Converse, Dar, 0:57
215 - Colby Roberts, Ron, pinned B. Kormanik, Dar, 3:27
285 - Aaron Yazzie-Whitworth, Ron, won by forfeit
