Colts Finish 2009 Season Strong!
by: Suzanne Brown

The Colstrip Colts traveled to the All Class State Tournament in Billings, placing 6^th out of the 40 Class B/C teams.  The Colts took ten wrestlers to the tournament and came away with five of the ten placing. One first place, a second place, two fourth places and a sixth place.

The Colts top finisher and now state champion is 140# senior, Samuel Brown.  Samuel won his first match by pin (1.32) to get him into the quarter finals.  With a record of 44-1, he met George Streit (Malta), Samuel’s only loss of the season.  He overcame him this time, winning (9-4).  This put him into the semi-finals winning it (5-1), sending him to the finals where he wrestled a great match against Jeremiah Hayes (Shelby), winning the match (6-1) earning Samuel his first state title.  This added to Samuel’s 5^th place finish as a freshman (119#) and 2^nd place finish as a junior (135#).  Congratulations Samuel!

Senior, Taylor Charette started his trip to the finals with a first round pin (.22) and a second round win by major decision (13-0).  This sent him to the semi-finals where he met Jimmy Miller (Chinook) and quickly pinned him (.49).  Taylor easily landed in the finals for the second year in a row.  Taylor’s opponent was Glasgow’s Aaron Hartsock.  After defeating him twice earlier in the season, including divisionals last week, Taylor came up short this time around (0-2), placing him 2^nd in the 171# weight group. This makes Taylor a 4 time state placer; 6^th place as a freshman (152#), 3rd place as a sophomore (171#) and 1^st place finish as a junior (171#).  Good job, Taylor!

One of the two finishing fourth for the team was 135# senior, Dane Aberle.  Dane had a tough start to this tournament in the first round losing to Jordan Lefter of Arlee (2-4 OT), whom he later defeated in the semi-consolation finals (9-6). He got to the semi-consolations easily with three pins (4.26, 2.40 and 2.05).  Dane wrestled Michael Beebe of St. Ignatius for 3^rd and 4^th losing to him in a close decision of 1-3, giving him 4rth place in the tournament.  This adds to his 5^th place finish as a freshman (112#) and 4rth place finish as a junior (130#).    Nice job, Dane!

Another teammate placing fourth for the team was 98# Taylor Ramsey.  He started the tournament with a quick pin (.38) and followed it up by winning soundly with a tech-fall (17-1).  His semi-final match was against relatively unknown, Kyle Judisch (Conrad), where he fell to a pin (5:47).  He wrestled back with a quick pin (.33) placing him in the round for 3^rd and 4^th .  There he wrestled division rival Jacob Bethea of Glasgow and lost to him by a pin (2:11), placing him 4th for the tournament. Taylor is a freshman this year; we look forward to watching him the next three years. Well done, Taylor!

Justin Kester, placing 6^th, wrestled a great tournament starting out with a win in the first round (6-4).  He then had a close loss (1-3) against Collin Jendro (Chinook) which put him in the consolation quarter finals where he met Ryan Smith (Malta) and defeated him (5-3).  He then lost his next match in the consolation semi-finals by pin (3.52). He wrestled for 5^th and 6^th, meeting up with Jendro again, losing this time only (0-1). Justin is a junior and has a bright future next year.  Great job, Justin!

Rounding out the state team for the Colts were four seniors, 98# Shandel Buckalew (0-2), 145# Quade Olsen (1-2), 152# Marty Fay (2-2), 160# Andrew Torgerson (1-2) and one sophomore HWT Ryan Hensleigh (1-2). They wrestled hard, but came up short of placing.  Shandel, has been an asset to our team, having only wrestled for two years. She has come a long way and helped out the team by contributing points when we needed them.  Quade has had a great wrestling career, being a consistent contributor to the team.  He holds the honor of being a three time high school state placer (3^rd, 5^th and 6^th).  Marty came short of placing at this tournament by one match, losing to the 3^rd   and 4^th place finishers. Marty has been a solid wrestler for the team for the last 4 years.  He is a onetime state placer (4^th).  Andrew won his first round match, and then had the misfortune of drawing the state champion (Stroh, Chinook).  Andrew has always been a great wrestler for the team, adding a lot of quality. He is a onetime state placer (4^th).  Ryan was in a very tough group this year.  He met the state champ (Tweet, Fort Benton) in the first round. Ryan, being a sophomore, has a couple great years ahead of him.    

It has been a great season for the Colts, our congratulations go to them for all their successes throughout the season.  We want to thank our managers; Stephanie McKamey, Mariah Walkslast, Elizabeth Brown and Lynn Shaw for covering all the details and doing a great job throughout the year.  We also thank the Booster club for providing snacks and supporting the team.  We thank the seniors for the hours of entertainment they’ve given us throughout the years.  As iron sharpens iron, they have helped sharpen one another, bringing home much hardware, individually and for the team.  This group of seniors will be greatly missed for their stability and leadership. We wish the best for the remaining Colts.  We look forward to you continuing the legacy of great Colt wrestling!      

The Colstrip Colts traveled to Glasgow for the Eastern Divisional Class B/C Tournament, taking home the second place trophy, yielding first place to the number one ranked Glasgow Scotties.  The Colts took 12 wrestlers to divisionals, 10 of them placing in the top four, qualifying them for the state tournament.  Four Colts wrestled in the championships with two of them becoming divisional champs: 140# Samuel Brown and 171# Taylor Charette.  Pinning his way to the championship (2:59, 1:47) Samuel who is ranked number one in the state, wrestled 6^th ranked Zane Seader, from Shepherd, pinning him in 3:08.  Winning by tech fall (17-2) to get into the championship, Taylor, also ranked number one in the state, met up with number 2 ranked Aaron Hartsock, from Glasgow, defeating him in a close but decisive match 4-2.

Placing second for the team were 98# Taylor Ramsey and 135# Dane Aberle.  Taylor, ranked #2 in the state,  took on #3 ranked Jacob Bethea, from Glasgow, making it a very exciting match.  The score went back and forth, with Taylor leading going into the third period, 13-12, but in the end Bethea won this very close match, pinning Taylor at the end of the third period (5:50).  Dane, third ranked, quickly found himself in the championship after a 59 sec. pin and 9-0 win.   There he found himself facing the very tough number one ranked and two time state champion, Hunter Azure from Poplar.  This match proved to be as tough as expected with Azure winning 23-8. 

We had four Colts placing third: 98# Shadel Buckalew, 145# Quade Olsen, 152# Marty Fay and 160# Andrew Torgerson.  The 98# weight group only had 3 wrestlers, two of them ranked in the top three of the state, made for tough competition for Shandel.  Her only opportunity to wrestle was against teammate, Taylor Ramsey, who won the match 15-0.  Quade, ranked number three in the state, met up against number four ranked Kyle Fulton, from Forsyth, in the semi-finals.  He wrestled a very good match, but came up short losing 4-6. He went on to win his next match with a pin (4:07) which put him in the round to wrestle for third and fourth place where he defeated Tucker Holstein from Glasgow, 4-3.  Marty, ranked fourth in the state, met up against third ranked Lucas Knight, from Huntley, in the semi-finals and lost to him by a pin (2:53).  He pinned his next opponent in 2:36 and then had to wrestle teammate Justin Kester for third and fourth place. Marty won the match 2-1.  Fourth ranked Andrew, met third ranked Chaz Hopstad from Glasgow, in the semi-finals. This proved to be an exciting match, as going into the third period the score was 7-7, but came out in Hopstad’s favor 12-8. Andrew pinned his next opponent  in 2:11 putting him in the third and fourth place match against Visser, from Shepherd, winning with a decision of 5-3. 

The final two Colts qualifying for state were 4rth placers 152# Justin Kester and HWT Ryan Hensleigh.  Justin found himself facing number two ranked Dustin Eder, from Poplar, in the semi-finals and was defeated 4-15. He then came back with a pin in 2:10 against a Shepherd opponent to put him in the third and fourth place round against teammate Marty Fay.  As mentioned above it was a close match ending 1-2.  Ryan started out the tournament with a pin (2:30) against his Baker opponent.  He then met number one state ranked Colton Hill, in the semi-finals where he was defeated by a pin (:41).  He received a WBF to put him in the third and fourth placing round. There he met up against 6^th ranked Ryan Leonhardt from Forsyth, where he wrestled a close match but came up short 0-4.

Placing 5^th, one place short of qualifying for state was sophomore 189# Freeman Kluver. Freeman started the tournament against fourth ranked Chris Henrichs, from Huntley, and almost pulled off an upset losing only 7-9.  He then met Billy Henrichs, losing another close one 8-12.  This put him in the fifth and sixth place round where he pinned his Circle opponent in 2:21.  140# freshman, Jacob Gilespie lost by pin (2:56) in the first round against Buster Picket , from Baker who ended up placing fourth in the tournament. He then pinned (2:31) his Broadus opponent, and then lost his next match against Gorder, from Poplar, by decision 2-11.

The Colts will now be heading on to state, on Friday and Saturday, February 13^th and 14^th.  The All Class State Tournament will be held at the Metra in Billings.  Come out and support your Colts one last time this year. Good luck Colts we are looking forward to a good tournament. 

Home Dual and Mixer in Hardin

January 29th and 30th) 

The Colt wrestling team concluded its regular season strong this last week with a dual against Hardin on Thursday and a round robin mixer in Hardin on Saturday.

The dual was easily won with a score of 60-24. The home town fans were not disappointed when eight matches were wrestled with every Colt winning their match. Three Colts won by forfeit: 98# Shandel Buckalew, 105# Taylor Ramsey and 160# Justin Kester.  The other Colts wrestling the dual and how they won were 135# Dane Aberle (Fall 3:06), 140# Sam Brown (Fall 1:25), 145# Quade Olsen (Decision 3-0), 152# Marty Fay (Fall 2:21), 171# Andrew Torgerson (Decision 8-5), 189# Taylor Charette (Fall 3:05), Freeman Kluver (Fall :28) and Ryan Hensleigh (Fall 1:52). Forsyth and Columbus/Absarokee also came for a mixer before and after the dual. The Colts picking up matches in the mixer were Taylor Ramsey (0-1), Tanner Yates (2-0), Saber Baxley (0-1), Jacob Gilespie (0-2) and Justin Kester (1-0). The dual was well attended.  Thanks Colt fans for coming out and cheering on your Colts!

The Hardin mixer was set up in a round robin style, giving the wrestlers 2-4 matches, with an overall record of 31-13.  This proved to be hard for some of our wrestlers given that the Winter Formal was the night before and several had attended, resulting in a very short night.  The Colts wrestling and their records were 98# Taylor Ramsey (2-1), 98# Shandel Buckalew (1-2), 135# Dane Aberle (1-1), 140# Samuel Brown (5-0), 140# Jacob Gillespie (2-2), 145# Quade Olsen

(3-1), 152# Marty Fay (3-0), 152# Justin Kester (2-0), 152# Tanner Yates (1-2), 160# Andrew Torgerson (3-0), 171# Taylor Charette (3-0), 171# Collin Reid (1-0), 189# Freeman Kluver      (1-1) and HWT Ryan Hensleigh (3-0).

Senior Night was at the Thursday night dual.  The eight Colt Seniors that were honored were Dane Aberle, Samuel Brown, Shandel Buckalew, Taylor Charette, Marty Fay, Quade Olsen, Collin Reid and Andrew Torgerson.  The Colt fans have enjoyed watching these seniors for several years.  Thank you seniors for your leadership, commitment, hard work and the many exciting matches you’ve wrestled.  You have made watching wrestling fun and we will miss you.

The season is rapidly approaching the end. This Saturday, February 7^th, the Colts can be found in Glasgow for the divisional tournament, which begins at 11am. Good Luck Colts, we wish you the best and hope to see many of you at state! 

HOME DUAL vs. SIDNEY and BAKER TOURNAMENT

(January 22 and 24)

Colstrip had their first home dual this past week versus the Class A Sidney Eagles.  Though we wrestled tough we came up short 31-36.  The Colts went 5-4 in the matches wrestled, but unfortunately they gave up 12 points due to having 2 more open weights than the Eagles had.  The dual started with the 140# weight group with Sam Brown wrestling Clint Dunn  and pinning him in 3:14, followed by 145# Quade Olsen pinning Trevor Tracy in 1:11. 152# Marty Fay won by forfeit, 160# Andrew Torgerson defeated Mac Collins 9-6, 171# Taylor Charette pinned Randy Green in 3:04, 189# was open for the Colts, 215# Freeman Kluver was pinned by Chad Dunn in 3:04, HWT Ryan Hensleigh fell to Allen Neulib 0-3, 98# Taylor Ramsey defeated Leith Johnson 18-5, 105# Shandel Buckalew was pinned by Brennen Gorder in 2:25, 112# was a double forfeit, 119# open, 125# was also a double forfeit, 130# open, and the final match was 135# Dane Aberle vs. Jayme Kelly, 2-3. After the dual was over several Colts had exhibition matches.  Thanks to all the Colt fans who came out to cheer our team on.

Saturday the team headed to Baker for a tournament comprised of nine teams, where the team placed second to Sidney.  Twelve Colts wrestled with 10 of them placing, three of them winning the top honors of being a champion.  98# Taylor Ramsey (3-0), 145# Quade Olsen( 4-0) and 171# Taylor Charette (4-0) all brought home 1^st place for the Colts.  Placing second for the Colts was 135# Dane Aberle (3-1), 152# Marty Fay (3-1) and 160# Andrew Torgerson (2-1). All three of those Colts almost came out on top as they only lost their championship match with a close score of 2-4.  Placing third for the team were 98# Shandel Buckalew (1-2) and Ryan Hensleigh (1-2).  Fourth was 189# Freeman Kluver (2-2) and fifth was 152# Justin Kester (3-2).  152# Tanner Yates (0-4) also wrestled as did Jacob Gillespie (0-1).

The Colts will have their second and final dual this Thursday, January 29^th at 6:30 vs. Hardin and Forsyth.  Saturday they will be wrestling in Hardin, which will be our last regular tournament. Divisionals and State will be the following two weekends in Glasgow and Billings respectively.

COWBOY INVITATIONAL

(January 16th and 17th)

The Colts came home with another trophy at the 51^st Cowboy Invitational, at Miles City, placing 2^nd in the Class B Division and 6^th overall of the 30 teams attending.  We took 11 wrestlers, nine of them varsity, with five of them placing, in this tournament which is one of the most difficult tournaments of the year.  Three Colts wrestled in the championship.  Weekend champions were Taylor Ramsey and Samuel Brown.  98# Taylor Ramsey started out with 2 pins (.23 .54) and then found himself in the championship after pinning (5.18) Jacob Bethea, the number one seed and #2 ranked, from Glasgow in the semi-finals. Taylor then thrilled the Colt fans during the championship match when he had his 4rth pin of the tournament this time in just 19 seconds.  140# Samuel Brown won 2 matches by pin (.15, 1.00) and 3 by decision.  After defeating Zane Seader from Shepherd 7-0, he met up with Miles City’s Shane Cooley who is ranked #2 in the state for class A. The match went into overtime with Samuel winning 4-2.  He wrestled Tyler Olson from Gillette, Wyoming in the Championship, winning another close one 4-3.  171# Taylor Charette placed 2^nd in the tournament.  He started out with 2 pins (.34, 1.15), then earned his spot in the championship match after defeating 2^nd ranked Aaron Hartsock, from Glasgow, 15-9, in the semi-finals. Taylor wrestled a very good championship match against #1 seed and  two time Wyoming state champion Brady Burgess of Gillette, just coming up short with a final score of 6-7. 

Two other Colts that had the honors of standing on the award stand were Andrew Torgerson and Quade Olsen.  160# Andrew Torgerson had a pin (1:09), then had an exciting match against Class A ranked Jimmy Harding from Miles City, defeating him in overtime 3-1. That put him in the semi-finals where Andrew lost against a tough Gillette wrestler. He then went on to win his next match to put him in the placing for 3^rd and 4rth where Andrew finished in 4rth place.  145# Quade Olsen had 2 wins (15-0, 14-2) before he met up with Cole Kary from Powell.  Quade wrestled a great match that went back and forth with the score, with Quade ending up on top (9-7), to get him into the semi-finals where he lost to #1 Seed Tyler Juby, from Gillette.  Quade finished 6^th in the tournament.          

Other wrestlers wrestling for the Colts were 135# Dane Aberle (2-2) who found himself in a tough weight group that was loaded with multi-state champions, yet was only one match from placing, 152# Justin Kester (2-2) whose losses were very close, 189# Freeman Kluver (1-2) who had a nice pin and HWT Ryan Hensley (2-2) who was in a group with 2 state ranked wrestlers and yet also was only one match away from placing.  140# Jacob Gillespie (1-2)  and 145# Tanner Yates (2-1) also got in some wrestling with other JV wrestlers.      

The Colts have home duals the next two Thursdays, January 22^nd (5:00) and 29^th  (time TBA). They will also be traveling to the Baker Invitational on Saturday, January 24^th .  I hope you will take the opportunity to come out and support your Colt wrestlers in their home duals against Sidney (22^nd)  and Hardin/Forsyth (29^th).  

BROADUS INVITATIONAL

(January 9th and 10th)

The Colstrip Colts went to the 2009 Broadus Wrestling Invitational, last weekend, and brought home the first place trophy in a field of eleven teams.  This was a good tournament for the Colts as not only did they come home with a win, but Taylor Ramsey earned the Quick Pin Trophy and Taylor Charette was voted the Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament.  The team took 14 wrestlers and finished with 10 of them wrestling in the championship.  Weekend champs were 105# Taylor Ramsey, 140# Samuel Brown, 152# Marty Fay, 160# Andrew Torgerson and 171# Taylor Charette.  Those wrestlers finishing second were 135# Dane Aberle, 145# Quade Olsen, 152# Justin Kester, 189 # Freeman Kluver and HWT Ryan Hensleigh. Also placing for the team were 140#  Jacob Gillespie-5^th place, 152# Tanner Yates-5^th place and 105# Shandel Buckalew 6^th place. Also wrestling for the team was 145# Sabre Baxley coming away with a win.

Since Christmas the team has also wrestled in a dual and a mixer.  The dual was in Absarokee against the Absarokee/Columbus Tigers. Colstrip came away with a 51-9 victory, bringing our dual record to 9-2.  Miles City had a mixer including Glendive as well as Colstrip. The colts wrestled well having a 16-7 record.  The individual Colts wrestling for the team and their records were 98# Taylor Ramsey (1-1) and Shandel Buckalew (0-1), 135# Dane Aberle (2-0), 140# Jacob Gillespie (2-0), Quade Olsen (0-2) and Tanner Yates (0-1), 152# Marty Fay (2-0), Justin Kester (2-0) and Sabre Baxley (0-2), 160# Andrew Torgerson (2-0), 171# Taylor Charette (2-0), 189# Freeman Kluver (1-0) and Ryan Hensleigh (2-0). 

The Colts will return to Miles City this weekend, January16^th-17^th, to compete in the tough Cowboy tournament. It always provides lots of good competition and the Colts will be worth watching.      

Powell Invitational
by: Suzanne Brown

The Colstrip Colts started their wrestling season out great at an Invitational in Powell, Wyoming, receiving the small team trophy, after winning 37 of 53 matches.  Powell wrestles pool wrestling on Friday and Saturday morning.  To wrestle in the 8-man tournament on Saturday afternoon the wrestlers need to make it out of their pools by having enough wins and points from the pool wrestling.  We took 8 varsity wrestlers, with each one making it out of the pools and into the 8 man brackets.  The colts did a great job wrestling with seven of them placing in the top five.  Those  who wrestled for the team and their placing and records were 103# Taylor Ramsey(3-3) 5^th place; 135# Dane Aberle(6-1) 2^nd place; 145# Samuel Brown(6-0) 1^st place; 152# Quade Olsen(5-2) 5^th place; 152# Justin Kester(3-3); 160# Andrew Torgerson(5-2) 2^nd place; 160# Marty Fay(5-2) 3^rd  place and 189# Freeman Cluver(4-3) finished in 4^th place.  As you can see from their records the colts had a great showing and represented Colstrip well.  

We took one JV wrestler, 152# Sabre Baxley, who is relatively new to wrestling, he tried hard, but fell short of making the brackets on Saturday. 

This year’s team will be fun to watch as the team has a strong core of several seniors supported by solid underclassmen.  This week will be a busy week for the Colts as they head to Butte on the weekend after they slipped in a trip to Baker on Tuesday.  Head Coach once again this year is Ryan Reid with assistant coach Terry Olsen and volunteer coaches Dan Valdez, Bruce Brown, Wes Barrett and Cody Currier.  Managers are Stephenie McKamey, Mariah Walkslast, Elizabeth Brown and Lynn Shaw.