Logger wrestlers pin Badgers, 61-24 in first home match
<p>Austin Bailey pins Travis Beck at 189 in 32 seconds. His win was the first match of the day. </p>
<p>Austin Bailey won his match over Travis Beck in 189 after pinning him in 32 seconds.</p>
<p>Josh Bowers, junior, tops his Bonners Ferry opponent, Quinn Cummings. Bowers won a marathon, pinning Cummings half-way through the third period.</p>
<p>Garret Chapel by pin over Mark Grow at 152.</p>
<p>Josh Bowers over Quinn Cummings at 160.</p>
<p>Ricky Roach over Parker Davis by pin at 145</p>
<p>Michael Ayala pins Bonners Ferry’s Jared Coogan at 125. Ayala pinned Coogan in a minute, 20 seconds for six points. The Loggers cruised to a 61-24 victory over the Badgers. </p>
With an impressive run in the middleweight classes, Libby Greenchain beat the Bonners Ferry Badgers by a resounding 61-24 on Thursday, improving on the tournament in Havre.
Eight of the Loggers 11 wins came on pins, including a quick 32-second pin by sophomore Garret Chapel at 152.
Libby competed well at almost every weight class, but a special notice goes to freshman Josh McGough, who wrestled up from his usual 215 to face Bonners’ big heavyweight Cody Lucky.
McGough didn’t win, but he hung around with the bigger athlete for a minute and a half before succumbing to the pin.
Head Coach Kelly Morford was impressed with how his wrestlers had come out swinging.
“I was pleasantly surprised,” he said. “We came out with a lot of energy and had good technique tonight.”
Going forward, Morford wanted to see his grapplers better on their feet, but admitted it was nice to get a win.
Zach Dolezal, a junior wrestling at 215, continues to impress. Dolezal was pleased with his team, considering the circumstances.
“We have a young team,” he said. “We lost a lot of good guys. Even so, we did pretty good.”
But the veteran wrestler did see plenty of room for improvement, if Libby wants to make waves this season.
“Going over the top is something we need to work on,” he said. “We have to run our stuff. A little more conditioning would be good.”
The Loggers pinned quickly, but also got winded relatively quickly, and some of the scrappier Badgers hung around for longer than they might have otherwise.
An annoyance for Greenchain right now is not having anyone small enough to wrestle at 98, giving Bonners one of its four wins, this one by forfeit.
Libby countered by leaving Ty Height alone at 105, for a forfeit to match.
One of the biggest surprises from the match was Libby’s Michael Ayala coming in almost as a stop-gap measure and pinning his opponent in just 1:20.
With a big win over a nearby rival, Greenchain headed down to the Superior Tournament on Friday and Saturday and ran into a Frenchtown wall.
The conference rival Broncs won the tournament handily with 196.5 points. Libby followed with 140. twelve teams participated, most of them B-C teams.
“We did have four champions,” Morford said. “That’s a good sign that some of us are wrestling at a top level.”
Zach Crace won a 12-4 decision over Cut Bank’s Travis Vermulm at 130.
Mitch Haugen won a 10-8 decision over another Cut Bank athlete at 135. Chapel beat a Kalispell-Glacier JV athlete in a 6-2 decision at 160. Josh Bowers pinned Arlee’s Alex Bertollt in 3:19 at 160.
In the consolation bracket the Loggers didn’t fair as well. Height was pinned by a Mission wrestler in the first period. Ricky Roach lost a 3-2 decision to Arlee’s Austin Rubel at 145.
Austin Bailey bested Eureka’s David Wilson 5-2 at 171.
Greenchain will send some of its more competitive athletes to the Tri-State tournament this Friday, while the rest head to Eureka.