Greenchain takes down Polson

With Polson not able to put a 215-pounder on the mat Tuesday night at Libby, it appeared as though Greenchain fans may again miss out on the chance to see Justin Graham wrestle.

Graham won by forfeit in last Saturday’s dual loss to Ronan and Tuesday’s action would be the last on the home mat until late January. But for the first time during his high school wrestling career, Graham moved up to heavyweight.

The match took just 44 seconds as Graham pinned Polson’s Josiah Clairmont. Libby went on to a 36-33 victory.

“He’s always been at 89 (189) and you do that when you’ve got older kids,” Coach Jay Graham said. “That’s part of wrestling – moving people around to try to compensate for different things.”

The lineup changes were set in motion by an illness to heavyweight Brandin Mills. Although he tested negative for strep, Mills is still suffering from a severe sore throat. As a result, the coach moved Evan O’Brien into the 215 slot – which was a forfeit victory – and put his son at heavyweight.

Levi Edwards-Myslicki, Kyle Sweedman, Josiah Coker and Lucas Puckett were other winners on the night. The Greenchain also got points with forfeit victories going to O’Brien and Michael Roby.

The team win helped Libby erase the memory of a rough outing on opening weekend against Ronan.

“We talked about it and went through each match and said, ‘hey, we were actually in three-fourths of those matches the first two periods,” Graham said about Ronan. “Their ‘physical-ness’ was the difference … that wasn’t indicative of what we can do.”

Against the Pirates, Libby’s wrestlers turned the corner and finished.

“We worked on being hard-nosed and that’s all we did in practice,” Graham said. “The JVs really looked good and the varsity, our conditioning, I think, was the difference because they got dinged a lot more for stalling than we did. We’ve got some tough individuals … it was a hard, team win.”

At 125, Edwards-Myslicki dominated Polson’s Jacob Browne and led 12-0 when the match was called with 31 seconds remaining in the third period. The official disqualified Browne because of a flagrant violation.

The flagrant foul was responsible for a three-point deduction from Polson’s team score.

Sweedman’s win at 152 came over Trae Fouty, 8-2. Sweedman trailed the match, 2-0, after the first period but took over from there. He nearly pulled off a pin on two separate occasions in the second and third periods.

Coker stuck Logan Clay in just 57 seconds at 160 pounds. Puckett trailed early in his match at 189 but rebounded nicely for a 9-4 decision.

Among the losses, Cody Elliot lost a tough one at 135 in a match that went through several overtimes. Seth Wright nearly pulled off a dramatic comeback in his match at 171 but fell short, 7-5. Wright trailed 7-0 heading into the third period but got two stalling points and then a three-point nearfall at the final buzzer.

The coach expects tough meetings when Polson is on the other side of the mat.

“It’ll be a donnybrook each time,” Graham said. “They’ll be in a little bit better shape next time. It was good for the kids to realize when we were pushing them and working hard, they could see we were in better shape than they were.”

Libby (1-1) was scheduled to compete in a double dual on Thursday with Sandpoint at Bonners Ferry, Idaho. On Saturday, the Greenchain heads to Superior for its first tournament this season.