Watford City Grapplers Get Ready for State Tournament

Feb 12, 20140

Last week the Watford City wrestlers ensured that they would be going to the State Tournament. They defeated Killdeer in a dual that clinched second place in the region dual standings and a trip to the Class “B” Dual Tournament this upcoming week in Bismarck. This past weekend, the Wolves put aside their team goals and got a little bit more selfish as they tried to qualify for the individual portion of the Class “B” State Tournament. Mission Accomplished- In all, nine wrestlers competed at the Region IV tournament in New Salem and all nine of them finished in the top four which qualified them for State. Wolves’ coach Mitch Greenwood was very happy with his team’s performance. “We talked about it Friday night at practice, that we thought all nine could qualify if we wrestled well. We told the kids that this was a business trip that we were going on, not a vacation. They stepped up to the plate and took care of business.”

Liam Shannon kicked off the action at 106 pounds on Saturday. He won a hotly contested match against New Salem’s Tayt Wolding. Shannon then dropped a semi-final match-up which set him up to take on Killdeer’s Dylan Tabor with a trip to the state tournament on the line. Shannon controlled the match throughout, but Tabor brought everything he had and made it a close contest. Shannon went on to finish in fourth place and went 2-2 on the day after dropping his last match to Bowman County’s Alex Madrigal.

At 113 pounds, Dakota Garmann received a first round bye and then faced off with a familiar opponent in Tyler Longland from Bowman County. The two had wrestled four times previously this season with Longland coming out on top in three of those encounters. Longland proved to have Garmann’s number when he was able to pin him in the second period. Garmann bounced back strong as he shut out New Salem’s Seth Johnson in the third place match.

The Wolves had their strongest performances of the day at 120 and 126 pounds from Jade Hepper and Logan Gumke. Each of them were the number one ranked wrestlers at their respective weight classes in the tournament and both of them lived up to their billing. Hepper picked up a pin in the Semifinals against Killdeer’s Zach Binstock. In the finals he squared off with Matt Carlson from Bowman County. Carlson beat Hepper early in the season, but Hepper avenged that loss later on. Carlson then went ahead in the series two to one in the third place match at the East/West Tournament. Going into the third period, Hepper trailed 1-0 before securing a takedown and two nearfall points. The four-point move was all he needed to become a two-time region champ with a 4-1 victory. Gumke scored a five-point spladle against Killdeer’s Cole Dukart in the semi-final round which proved to be the difference in a 10-5 decision. The win set up a finals match-up with Beulah’s Tyrell Mellmer. Gumke owned a 2-0 head to head record against Mellmer during the season and improved to 3-0 against the 2013 state place-winner by pinning him 53 seconds into the second period. “Jade wrestled very smart today. He beat a very good wrestler in Matt Carlson. I would fully expect to see both of them standing somewhere on the podium at the state tournament next week. Logan kept the momentum going in the finals. He wrestled like a champion today. He kept his poise and took advantage of the openings that were given to him. If he wrestles this way next week he will have a great opportunity to become a state place-winner too.”

Clay Jorgenson went 2-2 on the day, finishing in fourth place. He kicked off the tournament with a dominating win over Beulah’s Damien Eslinger. He then dropped a 13-2 major decision to Hettinger’s Trevor Abrahamson. The loss set up a loser-out situation against Bowman’s Tel Lardy. Lardy and Jorgenson have wrestled 3 times previously this year with Jorgenson winning the first two and Lardy winning the most recent match-up. Jorgenson got his offense going early in the regional match-up and cruised to a 10-1 major decision and advanced to the third place match against Killdeer’s David Arthur. Arthur was able to control the pace of the match and secured a 6-3 win. “Clay wrestled very well today. He is in a very tough weight class and this was easily the toughest bracket in the whole tournament. There were two very good wrestlers who did not make it out of this region and I’m proud of Clay for being one of the kids who did advance to state. He has worked so hard this year and deserved the opportunity to showcase what he can do next week at the state tournament.”

Kyle Cook competed at 145 pounds for the Wolves. Cook was the fifth ranked wrestler in the region, but came out on fire in the first round against the fourth ranked Lane Jeffers from Bowman. Cook built up a big lead through the first two periods, then stamped his ticket to the state tournament by pinning Jeffers in the third. Cook ended the day in fourth place after being defeated by Hettinger’s Christian Hughes and Beulah’s Mason Faut.

Coleton Jore wrestled to his ranking on Saturday as he came in the number two seed. He received a bye into the semi-final round where he squared off with Hettinger’s Dalton Shaffer. Jore initially struggled to get any offense going, but scored backpoints right at the end of regulation to tie the score and send it to overtime. Jore used the momentum to push forward and score two points from a single leg takedown in the sudden death period. The win propelled him to the Region Finals against Bowman’s Sterling Lee. The two battled back and forth, but Lee came out on top at the end of the match with a 10-7 decision.

At 195 pounds, Hunter Olson found himself in a meat-grinder of a weight class. There were only four competitors at this weight, however all three of them are ranked in the top eight in the state and all will compete for a spot on the podium. “Hunter wrestled very hard. He put forth a lot of effort and that’s all we ask of any of our kids,” stated Greenwood. “There is no shame in taking fourth when the top three are as good as these three are.”

Jake Belland rounded out the tournament for the Wolves. Belland opened with Bowman’s Mac Stuber in the first round in a battle of the fourth and fifth seeds. This was the fifth meeting between the two this season and Belland had won three of the previous four. Stuber, however, brought his best match for Belland at the Regional. The two were dead-locked 4-4 late in the third period when Stuber was penalized for applying a full-Nelson hold. Stuber had no choice but to let Belland go and attempt a take-down to tie the match, but time was on Belland’s side as he only had to defend the takedown for nine seconds and was able to hold on for a 6-4 win. The victory set up a semi-final match-up with Hettinger’s Brandon Ehlers. Ehlers was able to pin Belland in the first period on his way to a second straight Region IV Heavyweight title. Belland advanced to the third and fourth place match against Standing Rock’s Jade Standing Bear. After a very competitive first period, Belland slipped up a little in the second period and ended up getting pinned.

Hettinger was named the team champions with 223 points. Watford City wound up in fifth place with 120 points. Christian Hughes from Hettinger and Evan Mellmer from Beulah were named the Region IV Senior Athletes of the Year. Randy Burwick from Hettinger was awarded the Coach of the Year for Region IV.

State Tournament Info:

Thursday- Round 1 Individuals: 10:00AM

1st Round of Dual Tournament following immediately after individual round.

First Round Match-ups:

106- Liam Shannon, WC vs. #5 Spencer Sweeny, Larimore

113- Dakota Garmann, WC vs. #4 Wyatt Ledoux, Bishop Ryan

120- #5 Jade Hepper, WC vs. Justin Thomas, Velva

126- Logan Gumke, WC vs. #7 Lane Berg, Central Cass

138- #8 Clay Jorgenson, WC vs. Jorge Rico, MonDak (Grenora)

145- Kyle Cook, WC vs. #5 Joel Weber, South Border

160- Coleton Jore, WC vs. #2 Brayden Kuntz, South Border

195- Hunter Olson, WC vs. #1 Nicholas Becker, Napoleon