Arlee’s Rice takes 3rd at CMR Holiday Classic
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ARLEE – The Arlee Warriors competed this past weekend at the 40 Team CMR Holiday Classic Wrestling Tournament in Great Falls. Arlee’s Cole Rice finished the tournament in third place in the 145-pound weight class and was the only wrestler to place for the Warriors in the 32-man bracketed double elimination tournament.
Rice pinned his way into the semifinal match by defeating Chase Costello of Bozeman with a 1:05 pin. He then defeated Ethan Reich of Anaconda with a 35-second pin, and in the quarterfinal match pinned Ben Clark of Helena Capital in 1:47. Rice’s only loss in the tournament came in the semifinal where he matched up with Dylan Mendenhall of Great Falls High. In this match Cole was leading 1-0 until the last few seconds when Mendenhall got a takedown and two points near-fall to win the match 4–1.
Rice then rebounded from the loss to defeat Dilan Starkel of Dillon (previously of Ronan) in a 10–1 major decision. Then in the consolation final match he defeated Grant Tafoya of Glacier High School with a technical fall 15–0 decision.
Other wrestlers who almost made the medal round in the tournament were Clayton Trimble at 171 pounds. Trimble lost his first match, received a bye, then came back to defeat Sam Smith of Glasgow High School in an 8–6 decisions before losing his next match to Matt Merenz of Dillon in a 14-13 decision.
Cameron Dominick of the Warriors, wrestling at 130 pounds, also lost his first match to number four seed Tate Morgan of Billings Sky View, then in the consolation he defeated Tanner Erickson of Helena High School in a 10–8 decision before being eliminated from the tournament. Curt Seidel of Arlee, at 215 pounds, defeated Tyler Wanner of CMR in the first round with a 3:24 pin in the second round, then was defeated by Shea Schlosser of Helena High School by fall in the first round, and Bryce Watterud of Conrad.
The Warriors then sent everyone who had been eliminated from the CMR Holiday Classic tournament over to the Great Falls High School Field House to participate in the Junior Varsity Tournament. It sounds easy, but it was a 16-man double elimination tournament. There are past state champions and state placers in the Junior Varsity Tournament because they have been beaten in the Varsity Tournament. Wrestling well on the other side were Cameron Dominick, second; Zach Tameler, second; Carter Clinkenbeard, third; Albert Plant, second; Clayton Trimble, second; and Curt Seidel, third.
The Warriors will wrestle on Tuesday evening in Thompson Falls this week, then take a break until after Christmas.
