Wrestling: Leir, Sweedman take 2nd at state

Kyle Leir and Kyle Sweedman each advanced into the championship matches in their respective weight classes at the Class A State Wrestling Tournament on Saturday in Billings. Both Leir and Sweedman came up short in their finales, however, and had to settle for runner-up.

Sweedman, who finished 31-5 on the season, lost to three-time state champion Brock Picard of Polson, 9-4, in the 171-pound finale.

“He had a great tournament and wrestled tough,” LHS coach Todd Schatz said. “Picard capitalized on a couple of mistakes he made but he was being offensive and trying to win. I was happy with where he finished up. He went from not placing last year to second this year.”

Leir had a nice run through the bracket to face top-seeded Garrett Tennant of Dawson County in the finals at 135 pounds. Tennant, who had beaten Leir earlier this season at the Western A Duals, took a 10-2 win.

“I knew he was set up pretty well in the bracket and just had to wrestle well to get there,” Schatz said. “We saw the Glendive kids earlier … he just couldn’t get anything going on him.”

One of Leir’s highlights of the tournament occurred in the second round when he defeated Steven Jessop of Corvallis, 8-7. Jessop had beaten Leir in the past.

Kody Berget dropped his tournament opener but then reeled off five straight victories to place third at 189 pounds. Berget’s journey was not easy with all of his matches coming by decision – three of those one-point victories. In the third-place match, Berget defeated Frenchtown’s Russel Dorsman, 9-2.

“He only weighs about 168 but he’s wrestling 189 so he’s the only guy on the team consistently giving up about 20 pounds, which is huge,” Schatz said. “He’s in better shape and lighter than the guys he wrestles so he wins a lot in the third period. He wears them down.”

Mike Roby placed sixth at 125 pounds. Roby reached the fifth-place match where he lost to Havre’s Brett Normandy, 6-4.

“He provided a lot of the team leadership and we’ll miss that next year,” Schatz said of Roby, a senior. “He hurt his knee at state and gimped up but he came back and got sixth.”

Other Greenchain wrestlers that did not place but won matches included Mitch Haugen at 130 pounds (2-2 record), Cody Elliott at 140 (1-2) and Dylan Berget at 145 (2-2).

Havre won the team title by 18.5 points over Belgrade. Polson placed fifth, Ronan was seventh and Libby ended up 13th.

“I think our inexperience showed some,” Schatz said. “I was thinking our younger kids could win a match or two and we could pick up some points but we got some really tough draws.”

The Greenchain qualified 14 wrestlers for state – one more than the 13 that had been reported out of the divisional tournament. Logan Neubauer placed fourth at divisionals to qualify but was not listed as such in results. A mistake occurred that placed a Columbia Falls wrestler fourth.

When Schatz arrived in Billings, he was surprised to see that Neubauer was not included in the brackets at 189. Both Schatz and the Columbia Falls coach met with officials to clear up the confusion and Neubauer wrestled two matches.

Ian Edwards-Myslicki (98), Isaac King (105), Aaron Seefeldt (119), Austin Bailey (160), Rigo Ibarra (215) and Lucas Puckett (Hwt) also participated in the tournament.