Five Pirate grapplers place at State
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BILLINGS – After winning their division and sending 14 grapplers to the Class A State Wrestling Meet, the Polson Pirates ended up placing five grapplers and finished in seventh place overall with a final score of 111. Head coach Bob Owen said he was pleased with finishing seventh, as he expected his team to finish somewhere in that range.
In the 125-pound category, Craig Feistner took third place overall after defeating familiar foe Cody Lemons of Frenchtown via fall in 2:58. Feistner was on track to earn a bid to the championship round, but was derailed by an 8-4 decision loss to Tyler Kinn of Glendive.
Polson’s senior heavyweight Josiah Clairmont was also granted a third-place finish at State, defeating Austin Atkins of Corvallis by fall in only 45 seconds. Clairmont’s shot at advancing to the championship round was taken away after being beaten in the semifinals by Ilen Neulib of Sidney by fall in 5:47.
Senior Alex Nystrom, 140 pounds, was handed a fourth place finish at the meet after falling to Dillon Beeler of Glendive by fall in 1:40. Nystrom moved to the third-fourth place match after losing to Ethan Sterling of Belgrade by technical fall, 15-0.
In the 112-pound class, Carlos Quinones defeated Tate Stortz of Glendive in a 5-3 decision, securing a fifth place victory. Quinones beat Stortz one day earlier in the first round, but lost to Tylor Olsen of Corvallis in the quarterfinals by fall in 2:16.
Mike Devlin (152) also took fifth at State, beating Jacob Sanford of Lewistown in a 10-4 decision. Devlin’s championship run was cut short after he was beat in the quarterfinal round by Glendive grappler Cole Bilbrey in a 3-2 decision.
Alex Helgeson, 98 pounds, started the tournament off strong, defeating Eddy Day of Laurel via fall in 2:26, but lost in the quarterfinals to Grayson Brenna of Havre by technical fall, 15-0.
In the 105-pound category, Taylor Martin got his first win in the opening round by beating Jayden Covers Up of Hardin by fall in 1:00. Martin fell in the quarterfinals to Derrick Sisneros of Hamilton-Victor by fall in 2:31.
Skylar Anderson won his opening round bout via forfeit, but fell to Kenny Thomas of Corvallis in the quarterfinals by fall in 3:11.
Owen says he’s pleased with the improvement his team made throughout the season, and winning the Divisional title showed him how much his team progressed from the beginning of the year.
The Pirates should be a big contender next season, as they return all but two of their wrestlers. Seniors Nystrom (140) and Clairmont (hwt) will be graduating and are valuable losses to the team, but upcoming talents like Feistner, Quinones, Helgeson, Moll, Anderson and Martin will all be top-notch performers for the Pirates.
“Nystrom will be greatly missed,” Owen said. “He was at every practice. I’m happy with the way he finished, it was well deserved.”
Owen says he expects to return an experienced group of seniors next season, but the team needs to fill more weight classes to be a top contender.
“We need to fill more weight classes,” he said. “That hurt us badly this year.”
