Libby wrestlers feeling ready for state contest

With their divisional this weekend and state beyond, the Libby High School wrestling team is ready to make a showing worth remembering in their post season.

Though he has gone up a weight class from 103 to 113 — and the team has gone up a class to Class A as well — junior Buddy Doolin has still had a winning season.

He said he is ready to attempt a repeat of last year, when he won State Champion, and does not feel going up a weight class is going to hold him back. He is also looking forward to facing off against the best wrestlers in the state.

“State should be pretty good,” Dillon said.

Dillon looks to his team as well, and said they play a big part in his success on the mat.

“They’re always really supportive and they all help each other, not just me,” he said.

Having wrestled since second grade, Dillon said having teammates who have been wrestling alongside him over the years is a help.

“They know how to push me and what I need to work on,” he said.

Asked if he felt other wrestlers could place at state, Head Coach Kelly Morford rattled off most of the names on the team.

“You just keep going on up the line, and we have a lot of guys that — we’ve got to wrestle well to do it — but we have a lot of guys that have the potential to earn those All-State honors, so that’ll be exciting to watch,” he said.

Asked if they have expectations for the State Championship, three of the team’s four seniors — Tanner Wood, Tim Carvey and Mason Sams — all responded with positive comments about teammates they feel could place.

But do they have expectations for themselves?

“I’m expecting to go to state, and I’m going to try my hardest to place,” Carvey said.

“I’m pretty much betting on making it to state, but placing at state will be a challenge I’m looking forward to,” Wood said.

There are some positives to going up a class as well, the seniors agreed. With the top eight moving on to state instead of the top four, they feel that more of the team has a chance to make their way past divisionals.

The team shares a bond that gives them an advantage to them, Sams said. It comes from years of wrestling together, but also from the expectations set by the upperclassmen and coaches.

“As a freshman, I learned from my seniors that we need to accept everyone on the team, be friends with everyone, make sure that there’s no one left out, because if everyone’s together, it helps us wrestle better,” he said.

The team knows each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and they not only cheer one another on, but in practice and in competition are ready to throw out advice and correction as they watch each other wrestle, he said.

Carvey, who came from Eureka his sophomore year, has noticed the contrast between the Libby team and other teams.

“Every kid is wanting their teammate to win,” he said. “Some of the other teams I’ve seen, there’s a couple kids that don’t really care if their wrestling team wins, as long as they win.”

Though they only have one active wrestler from Troy going into this postseason — sophomore Dillon Yeadon — Morford said he has never seen issues arise with there even being a split based on the team combining wrestlers from both schools.

“When they’re in here and working as hard as these guys do together — put the sweat out and the effort out that they do — they don’t remember whether they’re from Libby or Troy,” he said. “They just know they’re on the same wrestling team when they battle together.”