Local wrestlers qualify for state tournament
Feb. 8—Two Western Division B/C champs and eight total qualifiers give the Superior Bobcats a strong presence at this weekend's Montana Matt Classic state championships in Billings.
And two other wrestling teams from Sanders County will be joining them with two solid groups of qualifiers for the event, which gets underway this Friday and runs through Saturday.
Decker Milender, the outstanding 126-pound senior from Superior will be looking for his first state championship after winning a tough 8-6 championship match over Nate Blodnick of Anaconda this past Saturday evening at Salish-Kootenai College in Pablo.
Milender improved his season record, which includes several local, major event championships in his weight class, to 26-4.
Milender will square off against Chantz Connelly of Valier, a sophomore who placed ninth at the Divisional tournament according to brackets released by the Montana High School Association Sunday morning.
Joining Milender as a top seed in the state tournament for the Bobcats will be 285 pound/heavyweight Chandon Vulles, a senior who earned the top seed with a victory over another Anaconda wrestler, Aidan Miller. Vulles pinned Miller at the 2:27 mark of the match and in doing so ran his season reccord to 29-4. Vulles' opening match at state will be versus Kolbe Michaud of Jefferson High in Boulder.
A total of eight Bobcats qualified for the state championships.
The area's other two high school wrestling programs, Thompson Falls/Noxon and Plains/Hot Springs will each be sending a division champion as part of a total contingent of five wrestlers from each of the co-op teams.
Hot Springs student John Waterbury, wrestling at 132 pounds won his weight class in Pablo with a 7-4 decision over Three Forks' Chase Kirkland. The win pushed Waterbury's season mark to 39-4. Waterbury is a sophomore this year. He will match up with Conrad's Tommy King in the first round at the Matt Classic.
Fellow Savage Horsemen wrestler Drew Carey, a junior from Plains, will also be making the trip to Billings after finishing third at 132 pounds with his win over Ivar Radcliffe of Whitehall. Carey pinned Radcliffe 54 seconds into their match.
The Sanders/Mineral counties other champion crowned over the weekend is Eli Ratliff, a senior from Thompson Falls. Ratliff advanced to the state finals with a hard-fought 8-4 decision over Conrad's Chris Graham. The win improved Ratliff's season record to 38-2. In the first round of competition at the state meet, Ratliff will take on Jesse Eide from Three Forks.
The Blue Hawks will also have the number two seed at 170 pounds thanks to the second place showing by junior Max Hannum. Hannum lost in the championship match to Miles Hoerauf of Whitehall, a senior who now has a 36-3 season record.
Other area wrestlers who qualified the state finals included, from Superior: Micah Acker, who finished fourth at 120 pounds; Lucas Kovalsky, ninth in the 145 pound classification; Turner Milender, an eighth grader wrestling at 152 pounds; William Buchanan, eighth at 182 pounds; Jaxson Green, ninth in the 205 pound division, and: Kaleb Pearce, eighth in the 285/heavyweight classification.
From Plains/Hot Springs: Jacob Schulze, fifth at 126; Brady Schrenk, sixth in the 160 division; and levi Blood, ninth at 182 pounds.
In addition to Ratliff and Hannum, Thompson Falls/Noxon qualifiers include: Diego Long, eighth at 126 pounds; Brock Ryan, eighth in the 138 pound category; and, Noah Stevens, eighth at 152 pounds.
In the Divisional team competition, Three Forks piled up 335 points to finish first, followed by Eureka (236 points) and Whitehall (230 points).
Plains/Hot Springs took ninth with 145 points, Superior was tenth (139 points) and Thompson/Noxon came in 12th with 101.5 points.
photo
Thompson Falls 160-pounder Eli Ratliff is close to pinning his opponent in a match on his way to winning the 160 championship at this weekend's Western Division tournament in Pablo. Ratliff earned a trip to the state finals in Billings this weekend with his championship in Pablo. (Photo by Kami Milender)
Recent Headlines
