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Colstrip wins state B/C wrestling title; Greenchain's Doolin caps freshman season with second-place finish

<p>Freshman Buddy Doolin at state wrestling tournament Feb. 13.</p>

<p>Buddy Doolin, left, Laine Young, Colten Clemons, Reed Christensen and Clancy Gout.</p>

<p>Laine Young at the state wrestling tournament Feb. 12.</p>

<p>Coach Kelly Morford, Buddy Doolin and Coach John Love.</p>

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by Andy Viano Daily Inter Lake
| February 16, 2016 7:22 AM

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&lt;p&gt;Buddy Doolin, left, Laine Young, Colten Clemons, Reed Christensen and Clancy Gout.&lt;/p&gt;

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&lt;p&gt;Laine Young at the state wrestling tournament Feb. 12.&lt;/p&gt;

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&lt;p&gt;Coach Kelly Morford, Buddy Doolin and Coach John Love.&lt;/p&gt;

 

Eureka wrestlers came up short in their bids for individual titles, but five top-three finishes carried the Lions to their first state wrestling trophy in 25 years.

Eureka scored 127.5 points to finish second in Class B-C at the All-Class state wrestling tournament, which wrapped up Saturday at MetraPark.

Colstrip won the state championship by an astonishing 84-point margin in one of the most dominating team performances in recent state history.

But for Eureka, second was plenty to smile about for a still-youthful program that appears to have a bright future.

“I’m happy for the boys, they wrestled their butts off today,” Eureka coach Dan Lemer said. “We knew it was going to be a tight race for second place, but the consolation rounds really brought us a lot of points.”

Indeed, the Lions used key performances from a trio of third-place finishers to pull away from Choteau, which finished third in the team race with 118 points.

Jonathan Schmidt, the top seed at 126 pounds, was upended in the semifinals, but bounced back to win a pair of tight decisions and finish third. Josh Schmidt matched his finish, but took an even tougher route, winning three times on Saturday at 138. Garrett Graves (170) was the Lions’ other third-place finisher.

Eureka had two cracks at a state championship, but was on the wrong end of both decisions.

At 145 pounds, Cannan Smith appeared to injure his left shoulder in the first period and was never able to get back into the match, losing a 16-6 decision against Ronan’s Jared Neiss to finish as the runner up. Joe Fehr mounted a tough battle against Hunter Mycke of Conrad at 205, but he was out-pointed, 4-1.

Lemer praised Fehr, who won the divisional title but only after enduring 11 losses in the regular season.

“He had a great second half of the season,” Lemer said. “He improved, improved, improved every day.”

Eureka heavyweight Kaelan Yanak also earned a podium finish, coming in sixth.

Libby’s Buddy Doolin capped a terrific freshman year with a run to the state championship match, but he too came up short of a title. Doolin pinned Thompson Falls’ Garrett Jones in the semifinals, only to be pinned by Choteau’s Chance DeBoo in the finals. It was DeBoo’s second straight 103-pound crown.

The Greenchain finished the tournament with 32.5 points. Bigfork’s Matt Farrier wrestled Saturday, but lost in the quarterfinals of the consolation bracket.